With Thanksgiving just around the corner and Christmas not too far away, the holiday season is upon us. For many people, the holiday season is when you gather with your family and everyone sits around one table to enjoy each other's company. Growing up in a big family, we take family parties to a whole different level.
We crowd each other in rooms as the little cousins race around our feet, playing tag or snapping pictures. I have a little cousin who took a pink marker one year and wrote an M on select family members' hands, allowing them to be in the "Maggie Club." On my other side of the family, the little cousins like to put on shows, but the only way they get the older cousins to watch them is by literally dragging us by our arms into the room. Half of the time, it turns into them tackling and jumping on the oldest boy cousins. There is never a dull moment at our family parties and I will always cherish the holiday memories I have had growing up in a big, fat, Irish Catholic family.
You have dozens of family members at every family party.
A small, family get-together doesn't exist when your dad has seven brothers and your mom has five siblings and dozens of cousins that she's close with. It's always a mad dash to the food because you want to make sure you get that slice of french silk pie you've been eyeing or the famous stuffing that only makes an appearance at Thanksgiving. There's always someone new at the party once your older cousins start getting into serious relationships — the big test is to see if they can last through a family party.
The cousins grab-bag ranges from the four-year-old to the twenty-six-year-old, and there's always a good chance they'll get each other.
No one ever leaves the cousin grab bag until they get married and have kids of their own. As you get older, you begin to buy the gifts yourself, but you always know what to get each other because your cousins are some of your best friends. If your mom still buys the gifts for you, you can bet that you and at least three of your cousins have the same shirt in different colors. There was one point where my brothers, two of my cousins, and my sister's boyfriend all had the exact same shirt and they all wore it to the same party.
You have unique family traditions.
On Christmas night, we go to my mom's cousins for desert and for the past ten years, we have played LCR using dollar bills. The jackpot always rings in around one hundred dollars and it's always hilarious to watch how excited the little cousins get when they win it all. My great uncle always used to joke that he would steal my singles when he sat next to me and it always turns into a big family rivalry by the end. However, before the LCR game started, we used to have a pinata for all the little cousins, which we're planning on bringing back this year. Yes, that's right, a Christmas pinata for an Irish family. We don't understand it either.
You have a million memories and inside jokes that no one else will ever find funny.
Throughout the years, I have had countless sleepovers with my cousins and hundreds of family parties. No one outside of our family will understand our "cliques," beanie baby wars, or that ONE sleepover while our parents were at a wedding. I have shared a million laughs with them and they bring out the best version of me.
I would be a completely different person if I had grown up with a different family dynamic and I couldn't be more thankful for my big, fat, Irish Catholic family, especially around the holidays.
