Family matters
If there's a key difference between Bonnie and me, it's probably best illustrated by our extended families. Bonnie's mom and dad both had brothers and sisters who had multiple kids, so she has a wealth of first cousins (more than a dozen, at my rough count), and everyone is close enough that they see each other a few times a year. It's gotten to be a struggle as the families have grown larger, but somehow they still manage.
By comparison, I only have two first cousins -- my mother had one sister who had two kids of her own, my cousins Jen and Mike. My father's family I've just recently gotten to know a bit, though like me, he's an only child, so he didn't have any siblings to extend the family outward in that direction. Jen and Mike and I see each other maybe three times a year on average; I've met my father's cousins once, but hope to get to know them more as time goes on.
For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, my mother's side of the family -- the Cohens (my grandfather's family) and the Valzania/Barduzzis (my grandmother's side of the family) haven't really done a great job of staying in touch with everyone. The Cohens are largely separated by geography; the Valzies really aren't, at least not that much. But this disparity recently caused one of my mother's cousins on the Valzie side of the family to call for a reunion. Fortunately for us, they had it in Plymouth, home of the family mqtriarch and patriach (my grand-aunt and grand-uncle Evelyn and Frank), so it was close enough by that we could get there in about half an hour.
It was fun -- a lot of the people I saw I haven't seen in 20 years or more. (One relative remarked that he hadn't seen me since I was this tall, holding his hand to his waist. I told him that it all worked out, because I hadn't seen him since he was this tall, and held my hand far over my head.)
I'm hoping that we'll do it again before too long. Robert remarked that he felt really out of place because he didn't know anyone there. I'd like my kids to get to know my family a bit better.