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Oct. 29th, 2007 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaNoticed as I passed that the Winter Wonderland is being constructed outside City Hall again. I swear, they only took that down the other week! Where did this entire year go?
Weekend was a bit on the busy side. On Saturday, my parents and Small brought their little puppy Ruby around for the afternoon again, in another of those puppy-kitten socialisation exercises. It went pretty much like the last one. Ruby had fun playing, while Poppy prickled and prowled.
Sunday, of course, the clocks went back onto good old GMT, which always throws the body clock a little. My cousin Rhian had a dedication service for her baby son Joshua, and that was followed by a party in the church hall, joint for Joshua's dedication and my uncle and aunt's ruby wedding anniversary. Bouncy castle for the kids and plenty of buffet food to pick at all afternoon. Great stuff. Except for the bit where the service didn't end till 12, and then we had to hang around for ages waiting for all the church people to clear off, and our bodies were telling us that it was an hour later and more than time for lunch already... *G*
On the scale of our family gatherings, this was on the small side - immediate family and friends rather than extended - but we still managed to fill the hall. Yeah, we're kind of a vast, sprawling clan, really. Always really nice to catch up and just hang out together, especially since we've got this whole clutch of little cousins who are still young enough to play together. We divide kinda neatly into two generations, really, the cousins - the adults, and the under-12s.
My cousin Alison showed me a scrapbook she made for her parents for their anniversary - loads of old photos to reminisce over, and laugh at our hair and clothes way back when. A page for each of their kids, a page for each branch of the family. It was nice being able to talk to Ali a bit about her brother Paul, who died in a road accident, when we got to his page. Hard to believe it's been eight years already. When I stop and let myself think about it, remember what it was like, the shock of it, it's like it was yesterday. Sometimes something happens and it's so awful, you remember every detail of what you were doing, like it's permanently imprinted on your brain. Alison and her dad, Uncle Colin, are the only ones who ever mention Paul. Rhian and Rachel, Aunty June, even now, eight years later, they can barely even say his name. He died the day before Rhian took her first A'level exam, a bright, sunny summer's day, and now she's married with a baby. So much time, so much he hasn't been here for. He was missed yesterday.
Damn, but I got all maudlin there. What I started out to say was that it was a really nice day, but very long and tiring, so many people to catch up with and kids to run around after. Rhian's husband Chris comes from a small family - they'd come for the day, and I think found our numbers kind of overwhelming! And that wasn't even everyone who could have been there. We'd taken little Ruby to my Nan, Mum's stepmother, to puppy-sit for the day, as she's still too young to be left alone for so long. Then after the party, once we'd collected the dog, Dad's youngest brother Chris and his family came back to our place for the evening. They live up in Warrington, only get down to Cardiff to see the family a couple of times a year, and so like to make the most of any opportunity to spend time with the family, especially while the children are so young: seven and three. Always lovely to see them, but it did make the day even longer still.
I'm rambling again. I'll have to cut this, I've waffled on so much! Hope everyone else had a good weekend. Happy new week, eh.
Weekend was a bit on the busy side. On Saturday, my parents and Small brought their little puppy Ruby around for the afternoon again, in another of those puppy-kitten socialisation exercises. It went pretty much like the last one. Ruby had fun playing, while Poppy prickled and prowled.
Sunday, of course, the clocks went back onto good old GMT, which always throws the body clock a little. My cousin Rhian had a dedication service for her baby son Joshua, and that was followed by a party in the church hall, joint for Joshua's dedication and my uncle and aunt's ruby wedding anniversary. Bouncy castle for the kids and plenty of buffet food to pick at all afternoon. Great stuff. Except for the bit where the service didn't end till 12, and then we had to hang around for ages waiting for all the church people to clear off, and our bodies were telling us that it was an hour later and more than time for lunch already... *G*
On the scale of our family gatherings, this was on the small side - immediate family and friends rather than extended - but we still managed to fill the hall. Yeah, we're kind of a vast, sprawling clan, really. Always really nice to catch up and just hang out together, especially since we've got this whole clutch of little cousins who are still young enough to play together. We divide kinda neatly into two generations, really, the cousins - the adults, and the under-12s.
My cousin Alison showed me a scrapbook she made for her parents for their anniversary - loads of old photos to reminisce over, and laugh at our hair and clothes way back when. A page for each of their kids, a page for each branch of the family. It was nice being able to talk to Ali a bit about her brother Paul, who died in a road accident, when we got to his page. Hard to believe it's been eight years already. When I stop and let myself think about it, remember what it was like, the shock of it, it's like it was yesterday. Sometimes something happens and it's so awful, you remember every detail of what you were doing, like it's permanently imprinted on your brain. Alison and her dad, Uncle Colin, are the only ones who ever mention Paul. Rhian and Rachel, Aunty June, even now, eight years later, they can barely even say his name. He died the day before Rhian took her first A'level exam, a bright, sunny summer's day, and now she's married with a baby. So much time, so much he hasn't been here for. He was missed yesterday.
Damn, but I got all maudlin there. What I started out to say was that it was a really nice day, but very long and tiring, so many people to catch up with and kids to run around after. Rhian's husband Chris comes from a small family - they'd come for the day, and I think found our numbers kind of overwhelming! And that wasn't even everyone who could have been there. We'd taken little Ruby to my Nan, Mum's stepmother, to puppy-sit for the day, as she's still too young to be left alone for so long. Then after the party, once we'd collected the dog, Dad's youngest brother Chris and his family came back to our place for the evening. They live up in Warrington, only get down to Cardiff to see the family a couple of times a year, and so like to make the most of any opportunity to spend time with the family, especially while the children are so young: seven and three. Always lovely to see them, but it did make the day even longer still.
I'm rambling again. I'll have to cut this, I've waffled on so much! Hope everyone else had a good weekend. Happy new week, eh.
