This mid-century church didn’t originally live in a mid-century house. It was a shabby 1930s (?) bungalow with a a few nods to mid-century modern furniture, thanks to what my parents could afford and/or my mother built.

I loved this church as a kid. It uses lucky-shuckial light but it also has a wind-up music box, which is probably why it still plays Silent Night after all these years. I am not sure where this came from but I have a vague memory that maybe my great-aunt Elizabeth gave it to us. I wish I could remember her personality better (she died when I was about seven). I think I was a bit afraid of her (she could sometimes be a bit “cross” with wayward children) but she also comforted a bunch of us young cousins once when we were sleeping on the front porch of the Old Cabin and a thunderstorm woke us up. “It’s just the gods bowling.” And she gave me my beloved sea shell collection from a trip to Florida. And the angel that resides at the top of my xmas tree to this day. And I think the church that plays Silent Night.

I am a great-aunt many times over thanks to the huge and beloved Catholic family I married into. My kids are 12 and 13 of 19 cousins in their generation and many of those cousins have produced another generation. 19 (?) so far with two more on the way! The older kids of that generation are now driving and applying to colleges and life goes on and on and on…

As I always do with children and pets, I let my great-nieces/nephews come to me. I don’t try to smother them with hugs and kisses. I don’t even give them gifts. My great-aunt Elizabeth lived in my grandparents’ house 8-10 blocks away from me, so I saw her regularly. These children see me occasionally and have many people in their lives who dote on them (which is GOOD and they are LUCKY). But I don’t want to be remembered as some baggy old woman who tried to force them to hug her, etc.

What I loved tonight while the great-nieces/nephews variously rampaged through the party or hid from the party or engaged with their baggy old great-aunts (as a couple of them very eloquently did), was talking to their parents. I think I spent more time talking to those in my children’s generation tonight than I did with my own generation. It was soooo much fun, even for an introvert!

I am still processing this wonderful party. A good thing is that for once, we had DRY ROADS all the way up and down.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2018 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.