Family fun

This isn't the side of the family with which Edith spent Thanksgiving, but our film developing is a bit behind, so I'm posting this picture of Edith playing with her Bestemor a couple of weeks ago here. We feel very thankful for an abundance of loving family on both sides these days, reminded that it isn't a given and is ever a gift.

Thanksgiving weekend wore Edith out, judging by the double three-hour naps she was taking each day. Believe it or not, that left her plenty of waking hours to try to take in about 40 new faces--roughly half her dad's family. The easiest ones for her to focus on were those of her cousins. Edith is 6.5 months old, her cousin Matthew is 8.5 months, and her brand-new-to-the-family cousin Santiago, who made his debut at Thanksgiving, is 9.5 months. The three babies are roughly the same size and doing the same things these days. So we just put them on the living room floor with a bunch of their parents' old toys and let them go to town. It was great fun. What a cohort they're going to be. There were also toddler cousins and school-aged cousins and pre-teen cousins and teenaged cousins...and even a newborn cousin just barely cognizant of the wider world yet. It's quite a family.

After eating heartily on Thursday, the family traditionally plays golf on Friday. Ever since Tom's grandfather sold his farmland to become a golf course, the family has held the Annual Endangered Fox Squirrel Golf Tournament the day after Thanksgiving. This year the day after Thanksgiving proved to be 23 degrees with a stiff wind. But no one wanted to be the first one to chicken out. So nuts that we were, we all played. I wish I could blame my performance on the weather, but with a 53 handicap, I don't think I'd be fooling anyone. I'm grateful to have the world's most patient father-in-law and to have been on his team for the third time (maybe it's not a random draw...). Though neither Tom nor I came home with a trophy this year, Tom's dad started compiling some cumulative stats later that evening and discovered that Tom is tied for the best overall performance over the life of the tournament.

Edith meanwhile was thriving in the company of her lively, non-golfing Lank cousins, Kim, Keri, and Katie, and their mother, Aunt Sharon. Aunt Sharon evidently was able to do something we've never managed: put Edith in her crib awake and let her fall asleep. We wish they lived closer!

On Saturday it was a bit warmer for yet another family tradition, the hayride around Pop-pop Hopkins' farm. Pop-pop hitches the John Deere to a long flatbed truk piled with bales of hay from the hayloft, and everyone climbs on. The teenagers pretend not to notice the adults singing Christmas carols, while the smaller children stare at the cows. It's a big farm, and the whole tour takes about an hour. I feel so grateful that Edith has been born into families rich with tradition.

We'll try to continue to make space for those traditions as we hit the Christmas treadmill at full speed. Tomorrow Edith will be performing in her first school holiday concert. I know her class's role, but Tom is waiting to be surprised. I would have enjoyed being surprised, too, but Edith's teacher told me before I could stop her. Then again, considering that we're talking about four infants, we'll probably all be surprised...


Edith with her new cousin, Santiago


Edith and Dad climb aboard for the hayride


Edith and Mom on the hayride