Tuesday

My cousin and his wife are the classic grandparents. They love their children and they love their grandkids. And what is more they both possess unlimited patience.

I have a family of three. That is my wife and Abigail who is fourteen years old. On Holidays and other occasions her brother who is 25 and his girlfriend come over to our house. And that is when my patience is beginning to wear thin.

I love my family but what the two siblings do to one another is just very difficult to bear. The constant teasing and ribbing that goes on between them is many times just too much. But they do love each other they just have a funny way to express it.

Lately,  I decided to stay out of it and stopped playing referee. My poor wife does not have the luxury do what I do and because of it her nerves are really wearing thin.

My cousin has a son and a daughter, both married and each have three children. Three boys and three girls. Now, as I understand these sibling, the grandkids get along well. And to me that is a miracle by itself.

At holidays like Christmas there are twelve people in my cousin's house.

Questions: how do you feed all these people, how do you buy Christmas presents to all these people without any one getting hurt, how do you keep all these people entertained?

I know this is a lovely family but just the sheer number is staggering at least to me. I know there are families with much larger numbers but I don't know any so I just stick to the one I do know and care about.

This justifies the saying be glad for small tidings.