Nieces and Nephews –-

I talk a lot about my family. I have a lot of great stories about being a son, brother, cousin, husband and father – but more people call me uncle than any of the others. Well let me rephrase that – more could call me uncle, most of them call me Paul. Let me explain how many people this includes. On my side of the family my brothers and sisters have fifty-one children. Twenty-seven boys and twenty-four girls, when you add my four girls and one boy the numbers even out at twenty-eight a piece. One of my older sisters has been married twice and he new husband has three children from his first marriage – so when you add up all the columns then minus my kids (because they don’t call me uncle) there are fifty-four from my side of the family.

Now for the other side – Lori’s parent have twenty-one grandchildren, sixteen girls and five boys. When you add the sixteen kids that aren’t mine to the fifty-four on my side of the family – Lori and I have SEVENTY nieces and nephews. Now I’m not going to get into the ones that are already married and how their spouses can call us that too, or the fact that many of them have children of their own and what are their kids suppose to call me?

The part that is important is the roll that I have played in each of their lives. That roll has been drastically different on each side of the family. Being one of the youngest in my family I have nieces and nephews that are in the mid to last thirties – when they were littler I was the rowdy one, the one that would get them all wound up then let their parent try to settle them down after I was gone. We also have lived closer to my family over the years so they have seen me far more than those in Lori’s family.

In her family I’m an old man and there are uncles far younger than I am and who have taken the rowdy or awesome status that I once held on my side. That side still has babies being born and we have to go to Chucky Cheese and Disney Movies, the majority of them are still in elementary and middle school. Get together are more subdued and far less competitive than the Champlin reunions or get togethers.

The one that has the hardest time at my wife’s family function is our son because of the lack of testosterone – the closest male cousin is four years younger and there is a huge difference on four years as a teenage. At the Champlin functions there’s tons of male competitive energy – and we never see hide or hair of him. All of these kid's – teens - adults have special events and milestones in their lives. They have become old hat in my family, so if you can’t attend one of these events it really that that big of a deal. It may be that you can’t attend because you have such an event yourselves. But in my wife’s family it is still new and so it’s a big deal and if you can’t go you better have a note from your doctor or lose one of your appendages.

These kids are the same as most kids, some of them think the world revolves around them and others you wouldn’t hear a peep from them. Some are ugly and look just like me including the loss of hair – when it comes down to it looks don’t matter neither does what they do for a living or what they are studying in school. What matters the most is that they are family and we love each one of them despite their strengths and weaknesses.