I had 3 cousins on my mom's side (1 died in a motorcycle incident at 18) and I have 6 cousins on my dad's side. We weren't/aren't close with my mom's side, but about 5 of us on my dad's side grew up near each other and are still pretty close. My mom had 1 sister and my dad had 6 brothers and sisters. My cousins' kids are more like my nieces and nephews.

Problem is, no ice around.

Shoving ice-chips through the internet for ita. They're really tiny ice-chips, so they should get through, right?

My mom is an only child; however, my Granny was one of 9 (7 boys and 2 girls). My mom grew up with relatives staying with them. Plus Granny stayed close to where she was born (Macon, GA) so there were more cousins and relatives. When I was younger we went to family reunions for Granny's family. They were huge, southern experiences.

My dad is the youngest of 5. My younger brother and I are the the youngest of 11 cousins. For the most part we are all very close. At least 50% of the cousins have Thanksgiving together every year. We are fairly spread as far as ages, though. Howie is the oldest cousin and he is about 60, I guess, and my brother will be 30 in September. What gets really confusing is there are second cousins between me and my brother. We have a couple of family friends that are counted as aunts/uncles/cousins and there was a cousin who was an only child that was "adopted" my my dad and his siblings when they were younger. Aunt Dottie is still counted as a sibling. I guess it always seems like we are even more of us as we are a little loud and all tend to talk at the same time when we are together.

Poor Hub, he is an only child and both of his parents have passed away. He has an aunt who we have no contact with and an uncle that he talks to via e-mail. My family is a little overwhelming for him.

A friend of mine and her adopted sister have very different coloring (the sister's complexion is a bit darker than mine, my friend has light brown hair and green eyes), and even that difference is enough to makes introductions interesting (even though there are actual blood-related siblings I can think of who look at least as different).

I've got fairly dark coloring, and my sister has dark blonde/light brown hair, greenish eyes, and gets freckles in the summer. When we were younger and spending a lot of time outside in the summer, I'd tan pretty dark, and she'd stay pale or burned or maybe get a little bit tan, and the sun would bleach her hair pretty light. In pictures of the two of us together at the end of a summer, there's no way we look related, let alone sisters.

(My hair used to get these great red streaks from the sun in the summer. I wish it still did that -- I loved that red color.)

My hair used to get these great red streaks from the sun in the summer. I wish it still did that -- I loved that red color.

Mine too. I have no idea if it'd do it still. I guess not, but I hardly spend the same amount of time outside.

Okay, I got on top of a task that's been dragging and pretty much force-fed it to the next team down the stream, and still my big task is nowhere to be seen.

And y'all are slow as molasses.

y'all are slow as molasses.

Yeah, what's up with that? When I'm on the board's night shift, it makes sense. But what's the excuse now?

My excuse is I've been discussing dinner with my parents. I think we've settled on takeout from the pan-Asian place. I think I'm getting Thai curry.

My excuse is I've been discussing dinner

You had to have a good excuse? Oh, well.

Timelies all!

:waves to Nilly:

I have two first cousins, on my mom's side. (None on my dad's)

My mom's the only brown-eyed, freckly redhead in her family (she takes after her grandmother)--the rest are all Black Irish (dark hair, skin that tans, eyes of varying hues not brown). My niece got the red hair (from both Mom and my SIL's mother, who was northern Italian from the Alpine region, so she had red hair instead of the stereotypical black) as well.