I'm from a pretty small family, I have no cousins at all on my dad's side and only 4 cousins on my mom's side. Growing up, my cousins lived an hour away from us but we still only saw them a handful of times a year: Christmas, Thanksgiving, and a family BBQ or two. They're my family and I love them, but we've never been very close. I remember growing up when other kids would go on big family vacations with their cousins and family friends, I'd always get so jealous that I was stuck on vacation hanging out with just my little sister...and my big brother if I was lucky.
Joe's family is huge, he's the youngest of 6 and his mom is one of 9. He's got more than 20 cousins and we have 11 nieces and nephews on his side of the family (2 so far on mine). There's always a helping hand when you need it and someone's always having a party. We get together with his immediate family pretty regularly; but with 6 adults and their spouses and kids all hanging out together it can be hectic and we don't necessarily get a lot of quality time with each person.
This weekend we were lucky enough to spend 2 days and nights with just Joe's mom, his brother and his wife and their three sons down on the cape. Like I said, we see the boys a lot but rarely (never?) spend one-on-one time with them. The energy level of a 7 year old, 4 year old, and 1 year old boy was more than I anticipated, and at times overwhelming, but we had so much fun with them. With 5 adults and 3 kids, we had to take 2 cars everywhere but by Saturday afternoon the boys wanted to ride in our car instead of with their parents and it made me feel like we achieved "fun Aunt and Uncle" status which I loved. We went go-karting and I figured they'd all be fighting over who got to go with Uncle Joe and who got stuck with Aunt Nicole but when the oldest said, "I want to go with Aunt Nicole!" I can't lie I was PUMPED.
As a kid I definitely had my favorite aunts and uncles, the "cool" ones...I realize now that what all my cool aunts and uncles had in common was no children of their own. They had no idea what to do with us. They didn't enforce any rules because they just didn't know what they were and they talked to us like we were adults because they didn't know any other way. They snuck us ice cream for breakfast and took us out for fun adventures because they didn't have to deal with us all the time so they could set the bar high and maintain it one or two weekends a year.
So in 6 months we'll have to do a winter weekend adventure with the boys, and hopefully try to get in some more quality time with all the rest of our nieces and nephews as well! I'm already planning fun winter activities: sledding, snowman making, cookie baking (eating really), the CT science center, the sky's the limit! Being the cool Aunt and Uncle is the best...gotta make sure we maintain our status :)
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