Thursday, December 30, 2004
Having a reunion party for my cousins on my mother's side of the family's quite refreshing, if not a tad awkward. I say it's awkward because we don't know each other that well only seeing each other around twice a year in Malolos, Bulacan. Not like before when we would spend a lot of time as kids everytime we troop to my grandmother's house every first Sunday of every month. While the grownups would spend time talking about grownup stuff, me, my brothers and our cousins would be found outside catching dragonflies and toads in the sprawling yard. There wasn't any awkward moments, of not knowing what to say to each other and trying to start a conversation everytime the usual questions about our occupations. We don't have those awkward moments with my cousins and other relatives on my dad's side of the family. There's an immediate sense of affinity as laughter and jokes are quickly exchanged. Well, that's because we get to spend more time with them as every gathering in our house or every occasion initiated by members of that side of the family numbers around a dozen each year. I love all my cousins from both sides of the family but I wish I could spend more time with those from my mom's. After all, there's a special kinship with them that the others wouldn't be able to understand much. Because, you see I got my gift of illustration from my mom's side of the family. Hopefully we'd be able to spend more time with them this year to balance things out.
@ 11:20 PM ---> 
