Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Thanks, but no thanks

It looks like this year we’ll be heading up to Logan to join my mom’s extended family for Thanksgiving.

When I say extended, do I ever mean extended. They have to reserve the church to have room for everyone. My mom has 6 brothers. With one exception, they all have at least 4 kids—I think. I quit keeping track of my cousins a decade or so ago. Now that the grandkids have started procreating, the numbers have reached fairly ridiculous proportions. I honestly have no idea how many 2nd cousins I have. Something like 10 or so.

I haven’t been to Logan since Sophie was 8 months old. Before that, I hadn’t been for, well, years and years. Do I dare blog about the karmic mush that is my mother’s family? Not so much. Here’s an abbreviated version.

So, my dad was in the Navy, and nearly every summer, whether we were living in Minnesota or California we would DRIVE OUR ASSES to northern Utah. Luckily, this was the pre-seat-belt days, so we would roll around in the back of the station wagon eating fruit roll-ups and gold fish crackers, playing travel games, starring in the Smith Family Way-Back-Band (did anyone else call the back of the station wagon the way-back?) and starting pinch-fights.

When I was little, I loved these trips. Cousins, cookouts, trampolines, and my grandma’s homemade strawberry jam. As the years went by, though, they became more, well, torturous. I grew boobs, lost my faith in the LDS church, and realized that just because people are related to you, it doesn't necessarily make them nice. I suddenly felt like the blackest of black sheep. Then I remembered the basement incident.

So, why am I going to Logan for Thanksgiving? Why am I going to haul my size 18 ass up to the mother land to be sized up, (I can just hear one aunt whispering to the other, “Becky used to be such a pretty girl. She sure has let herself go.) scrutinized and generally put on display? It ain’t for the turkey, I can tell you that.

Family is family I guess. None of my uncles, aunts or cousins have met Sophie, and I’d like (some) of them to. Plus, there are a handful of 2nd cousins just her age, and I’m sure she’ll have an absolute ball running through the halls of the church with them. My girl LOVES cousins. She misses the Krause kids like crazy, and absolutely adores the Jorgensen cousins. For Soph, playing with cousins is better than Disneyland. When I tell her that we’re going to meet new cousins—a whole building full, she’s going to flip.

Those little bastards better be nice to her, or I will loose my shit.

5 comments:

amandak said...

I thought it was a Jorgensen family Thanksgiving year. Was I wrong?

I'm getting arrangements together for us to be out there for Christmas. :) Yay!

BTW, that last story had me laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes. Precious.

Love you, Miss you.

Katy said...

OMG! Can I just tell you how glad I am you're coming to Logan? No, I cannot put it into words. All I know is that I am THRILLED that I will not be the sole smith girl there. We'll have to come up with a very fun game to play, like every time someone asks me if I'm "seeing anyone" I get a point and every time someone mentions how loooooong its been since they saw you you get a point. We'll think of something.

JJisafool said...

Holy crap, the last sentence made me laugh out loud. Livvie loves her some cousins too, but after I have to put up with hanging out with family to get her cousin-time, they best not mess.

Jen said...

Cousins are the best. Getting to spend the summers with my cousins when i was a kid was one of the best parts of growing up.

hazel said...

what was the basement incident?

I hate extended family thingies. I can never keep everyone straight. I wind up forgetting people's names and then feeling horrible. plus, they always say it's been too long, like I did something wrong or willfully stopped seeing them or something, when it's just as easy for them to call me as it is for me to call them.

I didn't have a station wagon when I was very little but my best friend did, and yes, it had a way-back.