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Nov. 24th, 2005 05:27 amWell, 'tis Thanksgiving proper.
We did our Thanksgiving, really, last Saturday (today is set aside for going to share the Thanksgiving of extended family members, which will undoubtedly be boring and I fear for my lately very active temper and its snarlishness. We generally have nice peaceful family gatherings, but I have been /cranky/ lately, and am tired (whee, less than five hours of sleep) and will be extremely bored.
Harle and I occupy a unique ageslot in the family. My mother was a very late child (all extended family referenced is from my mother's side, as I don't know my father's side at all; he's the best and brightest of the bunch, though, and that says everything I need to say to justify me not really wanting to meet them) and she then waited until 29 until I was born. So, my cousins are all but the youngest old enough to be my parents. (Well, /technically/...)
Only one of those cousins is married. Only one of those cousins has children. She originally didn't plan to have any, and so SHE waited quite a while. This means the eldest of the monsters was born... well, significantly after Harle and I. I think he's like 10 now. (To be fair, none of the kids are monsters. They are all pretty sweet. I wish they were closer geographically so I would know them better.) His siblings string out in age behind him (they got up to five total, I think, and the last one has Down Syndrome, so I think they're stopping there. As you can tell, significant reversal on the 'no kids' policy).
What this means is that family gatherings have three age groups: There's ye Olde Generation. This includes Grandpa, my aunts and uncle (though uncle Don is usually busy elsewhere during family gatherings; man is obsessed with golf), and sort of my mother. Mother is young enough compared to the others it's only by the wearing of time she's gotten any sort of equal stature with her elders.
Then there's the cousins. The oldest of these is only a few years younger than Mum. The youngest is about fifteen years older than I. They get treated more or less like adults, particularly Irving's kids (Irving was my mother's brother, and he was the firstborn).
Then there's the /kids/. Cousin Shawna's little ones are here. (My great-uncle also has a grandchild in this range.)
And somewhere off in "Ummwhat?" land are Harle and I. We are too old to be treated like kids (yes, /really/) but they don't really know how to interact with us as adults, because, well, they never SEE us except at family gatherings. We do not have a peer group.
And this results in Harle and I having very little to talk to anyone about.
At ANY rate, I am thankful that I have a family that can, with so very many differences, get together and enjoy a meal, with no fighting or anger. But I will still be bored. On the bright side, maybe I'll get some writing done.
Err. When I started the post, I meant to get to the point a lot faster. (I ramble when tired -- or pretty much any other time.) I hope you all have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving, and even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving (or celebrate it on a different day), I hope you have many things to be thankful for!
We did our Thanksgiving, really, last Saturday (today is set aside for going to share the Thanksgiving of extended family members, which will undoubtedly be boring and I fear for my lately very active temper and its snarlishness. We generally have nice peaceful family gatherings, but I have been /cranky/ lately, and am tired (whee, less than five hours of sleep) and will be extremely bored.
Harle and I occupy a unique ageslot in the family. My mother was a very late child (all extended family referenced is from my mother's side, as I don't know my father's side at all; he's the best and brightest of the bunch, though, and that says everything I need to say to justify me not really wanting to meet them) and she then waited until 29 until I was born. So, my cousins are all but the youngest old enough to be my parents. (Well, /technically/...)
Only one of those cousins is married. Only one of those cousins has children. She originally didn't plan to have any, and so SHE waited quite a while. This means the eldest of the monsters was born... well, significantly after Harle and I. I think he's like 10 now. (To be fair, none of the kids are monsters. They are all pretty sweet. I wish they were closer geographically so I would know them better.) His siblings string out in age behind him (they got up to five total, I think, and the last one has Down Syndrome, so I think they're stopping there. As you can tell, significant reversal on the 'no kids' policy).
What this means is that family gatherings have three age groups: There's ye Olde Generation. This includes Grandpa, my aunts and uncle (though uncle Don is usually busy elsewhere during family gatherings; man is obsessed with golf), and sort of my mother. Mother is young enough compared to the others it's only by the wearing of time she's gotten any sort of equal stature with her elders.
Then there's the cousins. The oldest of these is only a few years younger than Mum. The youngest is about fifteen years older than I. They get treated more or less like adults, particularly Irving's kids (Irving was my mother's brother, and he was the firstborn).
Then there's the /kids/. Cousin Shawna's little ones are here. (My great-uncle also has a grandchild in this range.)
And somewhere off in "Ummwhat?" land are Harle and I. We are too old to be treated like kids (yes, /really/) but they don't really know how to interact with us as adults, because, well, they never SEE us except at family gatherings. We do not have a peer group.
And this results in Harle and I having very little to talk to anyone about.
At ANY rate, I am thankful that I have a family that can, with so very many differences, get together and enjoy a meal, with no fighting or anger. But I will still be bored. On the bright side, maybe I'll get some writing done.
Err. When I started the post, I meant to get to the point a lot faster. (I ramble when tired -- or pretty much any other time.) I hope you all have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving, and even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving (or celebrate it on a different day), I hope you have many things to be thankful for!
