Some Happy

We had a nice weekend here at the Nelson home. We took advantage of the three-day weekend to use our Christmas Gift membership to OMSI (HUGE THANKS to Uncle Jared and Aunt Beth!) and we hosted my cousin Nathan and his girlfriend for part of the weekend.

I've written about my Grandmother before, so I'll skip a lot of the background information. Nathan is also her grandson. Until she started slipping away inside her mind, I really had no relationship at all with my Reese cousins. Not so now. I've had Nathan over twice for some overnight stays, his sister Megan has also been a houseguest of mine, and his sister Kayla and her husband and children have dropped by on the way to other places. I also now get Christmas cards and birth announcements from my cousin Phil. These are choice to me, and I'm glad to have this contact with my cousins.

As one of the oldest cousins in our little family, (I only have one cousin who is older than me...) it's always been important to me to work to keep those family relationships, well, there at least, if not friendly. And I think that if my Grandmother had just died, instead of slipping away into herself, I wouldn't have these friendships with my cousins. I'm grateful for them. I sort of think she'll hang on until more familial relationships are mended or made.

So go find someone you loved once, but haven't talked to in awhile. Reach out. If they rebuff you, at least you tried, and now THEY can own the problem. Find a long-lost cousin. Sometimes, in finding your family, you can find a little bit more of yourself.

And that's the other side