Got Family?

Thomas and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Illinois. We flew there on Friday and flew back today. Short and sweet means my family is happy to see us arrive and sad to see us go. The occasion was my grandmother's internment; we buried her ashes in the plot she bought many years ago at a cemetery in a suburb south of Chicago.

I come from a large family -- my grandmother was one of ten; my mother was one of five. Few of us have refrained from procreating. A large family is everything you think it would be: fun, chaotic, dramatic, loud, exasperating, maddening. Sometimes it's all of those things over the course of one meal.

And there are many, many meals.

Got family? Then you also should have:

A healthy sense of humor

Reservations for 25

Drinks

The ability to share your birthday and the knowledge that your family will always know you by your childhood nickname.
Who's this Mary Pat character?

Siblings
That's my twin sister Barb, me, and her boyfriend Jim.

Cousins
Thomas is pictured here with his cousins Henry and Jessica.

I'm wiped. Traveling with a kid during code orange is something of a nightmare. More later including lots of pictures, but right now I'm going to bed!

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