Today I am thankful for my ginormous family! With all the hoopla about the Duggars having their 20th child, it makes me treasure my extended family even more!
My dad's side of the family is the family I see most often. His immediate family of three sisters (one deceased), my two uncles, my grandparents, and my 8 cousins (plus my cousin's husband and another cousin's fiance') (also, my mom, dad, myself, my husband, and my two sisters) see each other on a fairly regular basis and did so throughout the years of growing up...give or take a few relatives.
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| Kahl Family (and a few extras) in December of '07 |
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| Grandma, Grandpa, and all the grandkids (+2) '07 |
Not many people grow up knowing their 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th cousins! On my dad's dad's side, I am one out of 118 great grandkids. If you have a moment, you can read about how many family members I have here in the
account of my great grandma's passing back in 2008. (Scroll to the very bottom to see how many grandkids, great grandkids, great great grandkids, etc. she had at the time of her passing. My grandfather is one out of 14 kids. My great grandma Kahl (Emily) was one out of 14 kids. You can imagine then how easily it was to have a large extended family!
My dad's mom's side is pretty big, but not nearly as big as my dad's dad's side. I didn't see these relatives as much as I saw the Kahl's due to the fact that they all live different places. My great grandma, Sweetie (Juanita), is my only living great grandparent currently. Her husband, Glenn, died in January of 2009.
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| Great Grandma Sweetie and I back in '06 (I think) |
My mom's side of the family is a whole other story. I have fewer first cousins (4) and fewer aunts (1) and uncles (2) on that side of the family. I never knew any of my great grandparents, even though my mom's dad's mom was alive when I was born. She died when I was about a year old. My grandfather has one brother. My grandmother has one brother. My grandma has no extended family for the most part. My grandpa has a huge Italian extended family, but I don't really know any of them. Grandpa isn't the most social person in the world and there were a few relatives that used to pick on him, so he didn't really take us around them much when we lived in NY or when we are there to visit. A couple of years ago, we went to the Chalone reunion. I never knew I had so many relatives...especially ones that looked like me. I kept getting told I looked like Mary. Don't ask me who she is because I have no idea. Aunt Mary. That's all I know. Oh and she's dead...I think. Or was it Elizabeth? I don't know. Two ladies who I'm not sure who they are got in a debate over who I looked like. It was hilarious...and semi-ridiculous. Italians... ;-)
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| Grandma C. when we took her to get a mani/pedi. |
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Grandpa C. doing what he does best...talking!
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| All the Chalone cousins! |
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| Cuzzies (that's we call ourselves) with attitude! |
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| Goober cuzzies... |
No matter how ridiculous or widespread or HUMUNGOUS, my family is, I am extremely grateful that they're mine!
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Wow! You really do have a humongous family! I never knew families could be so big. Mine is very, very small in comparison. I don't know my dad's side of the family, my mom's side is spread from Georgia to Virginia, and NC to Texas. Needless to say, sometimes I go months without seeing any of them. :-(
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for inviting me, I liked up!
ReplyDeleteYay! :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah...humongous is an understatement!
xo,
A