whitewriter | Cousins secret santa

Everyone gravitates towards whichever "side" puts more effort in, and as we have traditionally done the least (go to church: that's it - and I don't go to church anymore so even that's lost).

At my parents house, when Dad was still around, we'd have a tree up. In lackadaisical fashion it was often 3 days before Christmas when we'd gone nuts from his whining about when it would be going up.

in previous years, my mother would cook a special dish, something traditional from her home country.

Lately youtube has brainwashed her into keto and all sorts of madness so that puts a damper on traditional dishes (that were born out of love rather than science).

For the last 3 or so years however; the cousins have reunited. Which is great.

Last year, Ria dragged her new bf Evan to the do.

This year, I dragged Pete to the do. He was mostly quiet throughout, seemed a little awkward (he sees them much less than I do) and left after the food. I'm pleased he came, though.

We've started making time for each other. We passed our 20s in relative isolation despite all living no more than 25km away from each other (S and T are sisters so they will forever not be isolated) and now myself, Shirley and Ria hae hit our 30s i think we are starting to value that we are still childless (read: unencumbered) and that making time for our blood relations is handy when significant life events (say: illness and other crisis) come up.

It started with the cousins whatsapp chat.

We play secret santa to go along with our annual gathering too. It gives it a nice touch. You only have to prepare one gift, everyone leaves happy but not filled with too many unnecessary items and the value is $30 (which is a challenge Ria seems to struggle to fulfil in the early years, giving me elaborate gifts that were well beyond $30).

I try to add the home made element to my gift.

Unceremoniously last year, the sock monkey I gifted Ria ended up in the bin I later hear.

Apparently it was creepy (I thought it was cute).

That pissed me off to some end. I could have reused the stuffing!

This year I had Lun. I got her a Friends T shirt and embroider a towel with her name on it (theres the home made element) - it gave me a chance to learn how to embroider. I also chucked in a half crappy calendar that I wish I didn't get for her.

Shirley had me and she got me a vase in the shape of a woman's body.

I immediately liked it and inquired if this was due to the midwifery thing.

She said no, just thought I liked weird things.

Well. I do. And the vase goes well with the house (and the midwifery) so I'm stoked.

Last year Tania gave me a large ceramic pot. That sits in the living room when it's not Christmas.

We all went for a walk after lunch and then sat around for about an hour laughing, and massaging each others shoulders (sounds weird when I put it like that but we were comparing techniques) and long after I thought the event would end, we went home.

PS. the vase I got looked like this one