Family Focus

At Thanksgiving, I had the same issue as I had with Christmas: incredibly busy with family stuff, but still feeling the sadness of depression lurking through every bit of it…but not wanting to post about that, because so many are dealing with (a) happy feelings because of the holidays or (b) probably much worse feelings than mine…I do have my family around me, although they may drive me bonkers at any given moment. I don’t like posting depressoid shit over the holidays, so I preloaded some pictures for easy posts to get me through a couple of days of holiday stuff…and then I was too tired to write on those days (ironic).

But this one is easy enough for the 20 minutes before I have to drag two animals to the vet (fun stuff)…

A few weeks ago, we had our big family party…I’m never very good at these. Although I’ve known most of these people my entire life (or their entire lives, depending on how old they are), I don’t really fit in. The counselor says that’s by choice, but it’s not a conscious choice I ever made. I like them well enough, but their lives and mine are significantly different, even though there are other teachers, other moms, other quilters, even one other artist (although he didn’t come), and we’re all related…anyway, I’m sure the alien feeling is all mine.

This year, it was at my mom’s cousin’s house in San Clemente, which yes, overlooks the ocean. Girlchild had homework to do, so we put her in the gazebo overlooking the ocean, where she apparently got some work done.

Nice view, eh? I’m not sure I would have gotten anything done.

The men gather to talk about financials…my brother on the left, my dad on the right.

I can’t actually confirm what they were talking about…a later conversation I dropped into was about why it’s hard to cook brownies near the ocean.

The good part of the weekend is seeing my brother, his lovely wife, and the three cousins…here’s the middle one…only barely tolerating the camera.

Here’s the girlchild posing for her senior year photo (not really; we were joking around about props and locations for such photos)…

She’s not a senior…YET. Here’s the youngest of the crew…

And my two with the oldest of my brother’s kids, during the present-opening time.

I have no idea what happened here, but at least they are getting along.

I spent a lot of time outside (who wouldn’t, with a view like that and a day like that)…

The boychild actually tolerates his cousins well…I think my niece has been climbing into his lap since she was old enough to climb…

This may be the last year…she’s 11.

My SIL manhandled babies. There were lots of them…I found myself with one at one point, because it was crying and I didn’t walk away from it…but I wasn’t persuaded to hold on to it for long…I prefer it when they can talk. This is one of twins born in the summer to my second cousin.

Most of the second cousins are quite a bit younger than I am…I’m the oldest in that group…hence babies when mine are almost adults.

The boychild managed to be more sociable than I did, which wasn’t hard.

My niece is growing up…now in middle school…

Her parents are in some deep shit soon.

This is what it looks like when someone is Snapchatting (in case you don’t know how silly it looks when you’re doing it).

And here was the sky as we got ready to leave…

Yes, they got a jumpy house for the kids. No, I didn’t go in. I wasn’t in the mood. It’s OK for me to not be in the mood. Next year will be different…different house, different sky, different babies, different Kathy. Hopefully another jumpy house.