All Together Now

Small vacation from the bloggity.  Apologies.  We have family staying here for a week or two.  Not "here" as in our house but in the neighborhood.  Time consuming all the same.  Poor Kevin is feeling conflicted because he feels obligated to go hang out next door but he's not a hang-out kind of guy.

The visitors are my father-in-law's brother and sister.  Uncle Jonny is one of those fellows that when he begins to tell a joke in public, you immediately begin to cringe and look for an exit.  Did I mention that he's nearly deaf?  Yeah, good times.

I actually adore him.  He has no filter at all and those are always my kind of people. He constantly has a glimmer of mischief in his eye.  How do you not love a guy like that?  Watching him with my father-in-law is like watching two little boys play together, both giggling and telling stories.  They wear the same shoes for eff sakes.  (Uncle Jonny lives in Northern California so we can't blame togetherness on the matchy-matchy.)

His wife is soft-spoken, I don't know if that's a result of their relationship or just how she is.  She has an interesting accent that I can't place exactly.  Might be New England?  There's a tinge of British in there but she's not at all.  They have three dogs and they all seem to be stinkers.  Luckily, they're all small dogs. (a pomeranian, a chihuahua, and a shih tzu)

Kevin's aunt is also one of my favorite people.  She has the best laugh.  She's gorgeous too; tall, thin, big blue eyes, snowy white hair.  Even though she is in her seventies, you feel like a wallflower standing next to her. But she's the nicest person with a sweet little dog named Trixie. Because we needed more dogs around here.  (right now there are nine dogs here)

Now we're waiting for another set of uncle/aunt and cousins.  It's about to get loud up in here.  Voice modulation is not a skill that this family has ever acquired.  It makes me realize that Kevin is genetically wired to be the gregarious guy that he is.

I'm hoping that his cousin Ronnie is stopping by.  Kevin is not like most of his cousins, I can sometimes spot a similarity or mannerism but mostly he's different from them in a way that makes me wonder about adoption. (haha...I think the time he spent with his childhood best friend more molded who he became)  But when Ronnie arrives, I immediately feel like "Oh, there it is.  There's the connection."  They are physically and personally familiar.  They even do similar work and have similar hobbies. 

Today is the official family reunion so I'll be called next door soon.  The cousin that no one enjoys has, of course, arrived early with extra (not invited) people in tow.  Oh, family reunions: you are the stuff that sitcoms and dramedies are made of.