Cousins:

I had a great visit with my cousin, Martha last night.  I had invited her down for a steak dinner and for us to go over our plans for our upcoming vacation to Alaska.
Cousins,-they say are our first friends, they are also lifetime friends.  There is never any awkwardness even if you haven't seen them in quite some time.
Growing up, we were either at Aunt Ella Mae's (Martha's Mom) on Sunday or they were at our house.  We all have such fond memories of those gatherings.
My Mom isn't much of a housekeeper and didn't make us do chores.  Now at the Allen house, you did chores.  Every day, all day, over and over.  Such a shock to my poor little sheltered self.  lol  Most of my memories is staying with Martha and Jeannie when they lived in St. James.  We would get up early and day after day we would sweep, dust, do dishes and whatever else needed doing.  But the upside was:  we got to go to the St. James swimming pool for the whole afternoon.  The Allen kids always looked like little brown walnuts with being out in the sun everyday.  Me-I always burned!
I am a pretty picky housekeeper and I like to think it is from my days spent at Aunt Ella Mae's.
Ella Mae was Mom's baby sister, but it was more like Mom was the Grandma for Aunt Ella Mae and Uncle Junior.  Ella Mae was only I think eighteen months old when Grandma Williams died and Junior was just a few years old.  Mom was eleven.  Out of ten kids, Mom, Aunt Ella Mae and Uncle Junior were the closest and we spent much time with all of them.
Aunt Ella Mae was my closest aunt and died much too soon.  She passed away due to cancer when she was only sixty-one.  She is very much missed.
I was so excited when Martha invited me to go along to visit her daughter in Anchorage, Alaska.  Then Jeannie decided to go and we're thinking "a slumber party" just like the old days.  And then we had another addition, Martha's other daughter, Terri.  Now Martha will get to visit with both her daughters and still have "an old lady's vacation" too.  lol

I am so grateful for my extended family and the bond we share.