Is silence really golden?
My children love when they have cousins that come to town and they often speak fondly of these close kin. Unfortunately, all of the five sets cousins live in different major cities across the United States and there are only a small handful of visits from cousins each year that we either see at home or make a several hour trek to visit with. This Thanksgiving, we celebrated by eating turkey while pumpkin pie was not the only treat as my kids had some of their cousins visit for the holiday.
Of course, this Thanksgiving was anything, but quiet and calm. Two boys and three girls ranging from two to nine years old brought lots of noise and plenty of entertainment to my mother-in-law’s house. The young children first welcomed each other with hugs and then were quickly seated to enjoy their dinner. Roars of laughter and ideas of how to discard the food that the youngsters did not like were shared at the kids table. Multiple cups got knocked over while place settings became play toys. Marshmallow cream dessert was far more celebrated than the whipped cream with a little bit of pumpkin pie was. When the kids table became silent, then it was clear that action by the adults would be needed before the plates became frisbees. Dinner commenced with the wiping of faces and the mopping of the floor.
Then it was time for the meat and the potatoes of the evening, and not necessarily the turkey with mashed potatoes. Children ran up and down the stairs, trying to pack more fun than three hours would normally allow. They were playing with the indoor wooden jungle gym with the slide downstairs where the dads were busy watching football. Some children were painting while others were assembling puzzles. There was also some grabbing old toys that cousins played with that were originally belongings of the two football watching dads. There were board games that the cousins enjoyed that were decades old. They got nearly everything that they wanted to do together done except the decorating of Grammy’s Christmas tree.
As most things do, the evening came to end. There were hugs and tears while some cousins making promises for the next time that they meet. All had a good time and with the memories that they had tonight clear trumped whatever they had on their Thanksgiving plates!
