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Wednesday, January 03, 2018

NYE family mixer

We skipped out after sacrament meeting so that we could attend a family gathering at my Aunt Judy's house. I suppose that will be one nice thing about having church at 9:00 this year—it will be easier to get away to afternoon activities than it has been with church from 1–4:00. I'm kind of loathing the idea of having all seven of us—pressed and polished in our Sunday best—out the door by 9:00, though. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, my Aunt Judy held a little gathering at her house so that my cousin Elizabeth could have the chance to visit with everyone. I haven't seen Elizabeth since Zoë was Alexander's size, so it's been a few years. Her little girl Bridget loves babies. I could tell that about her the minute she let us into the house and her mouth kind of dropped open in awe and she breathed, "Baby."

"Would you like to hold him?" I asked her.

She nodded.

"Let's go find a couch to sit on and you can hold him there," I told her.

She led me down to the basement and I placed Alexander on her lap and she instantly let down her guard and started chatting to me. When I took her picture she said, "Can you send that picture to my mom's iPad? I just love babies!"



It was fun to get to see everybody! Our life has been so crazy since we've moved here, just with everything involved with settling into a new place, having a new baby, and hunting for a new job. I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I've seen these particular aunt and uncle and cousins!



We really ought to get together again because when we re-introduced all the second cousins to each other they just sat on their respective sides of the rooms and stared at each other. Perhaps we can come up with some good mixer games next time so that they'll actually interact with each other.

Rachel is owning this picture
Benjamin and Bridget were the two cousins most willing to play with each other, but they're both five and are pretty outgoing so they got along great.


Here's me with my cousin Ash and my aunt Judy, who is getting in some lovely baby snuggles:


I felt like we were all just starting to visit when my kids were entirely ready to go. Miriam ended up pulling me out of the room. "How long does it take to say goodbye?" she chided.

So I've officially become "that mom," but I don't even care, so there, Miriam!

I love this picture of Zoë and Bridget hugging goodbye. Bridget kept referring to Zoë as my "big baby." She's pretty tall (or Bridget is pretty short). They've also got Baby Carlie in their embrace (she's named after Bridget's aunt and my cousin, Carlie (obviously), who gifted the doll):


Poor Zoë knocked over a cup of water on the carpet while we were eating. Without a word she just hopped up off the floor, ran over to me in shame and buried her face in my shoulder (while holding onto my neck). Uncle Wally and Daddy mopped up her spill—and it was only water so it was just fine. Still, she was quite ashamed.

Later, Bridget came up to Aunt Judy with a cup—a disposable cup, mind you—and whispered with deep remorse, "I broke one of these beautiful cups, Grandma."

"That's alright," my aunt said. "Just make sure it gets into the trash."

"But did you hear me?" she asked and then repeated, "I broke one of these beautiful cups."

"As long as all the pieces get into the garbage, it's okay. They're meant to be thrown away."

"But, Grandma, I broke it."

Remorse—and penitence—runs deeply in our veins (as does worry).

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