What Would We Do Without Cousins?

Thanksgiving (2009) was coming with no Siblings, Saplings (married to the Sibs, of course), nor Spores (children of said siblings, of course) nearby to share it. What to do? However, could we celebrate this family-oriented celebration without Family?

Enter the phone call. “We’re having (wife) Marilyn’s family over for Thanksgiving. Can you both come . . . with a dish?” Cousin Neil saved the day for us, and with extended family that we had wanted to get to know better. Relief! We were no longer orphans.

Yea! We found a family to take us in! We’ll just cook our latest Epicurious.com recipe of Key Lime Cake, and add on top of that, Emeril’s famous Cranberry Sauce. This will be fun!

And then the phone rang again.

“Hi, Blackledges. We Blackledges are coming up from Grants Pass to share Thanksgiving with daughter Tomi and family and we would love to stop by the next day to enjoy being with you and seeing your new home in Washington.”

“Wow,” I heard myself say. “Are you kidding? We would LOVE to have you visit the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll just have a light dinner to celebrate family after Thanksgiving.”
And so it was.

Patti with Mary Anne and John Blackledge

What would we do without Cousins?

Dick with Tomi and son Nick

We’re the richer for our two Thanksgivings. Mind you, the word works: Thanks . . . giving. And we are thankful.