Cousins Converge and Celebrate

A Cousins Convergence occured in October.

Iris and Doug's nuclear family:
Douglas flew in from Los Angeles.
Marisa and husband Chris arrived with Zoe and Mia from Switzerland.
Our group:
Will and Cecilia had packed up Daniel and moved from Brazil less than two weeks before.
Steve Jr. (who refers to himself as 'the good son' because he stayed in Houston!) and Luey freed up their schedules.

How often can these 10 plus their parents be together under one roof?!  As all the stars began to align, plans were made for an October Thanksgiving/Birthday Celebration. Here's a taste of the day.


Flags of Represented Nations
(with renewed talk of secession, Texas and California may very well be nations!)




Iris with Douglas, Cecilia, Will, and Chris




Second cousins Douglas and Daniel
meet for the first time.




Cecilia and Iris like surprizes.




Warm reunion for cousins Marisa and Will.




Zoe and Daniel--
second cousins born in Belgium and Brazil.



Mia sizes up (second) cousin Will.



Cousins Cecilia and Marisa finally meet in person!




Doug (aka Dodo) sees how much Daniel has grown
since they met in Brazil in April.




Cecilia and Will watch crowd control expert Marisa
as she braces Daniel for Mia's hug.




Uncle Doug welcomes Cecilia back to Texas.




One of the only non-blurry shots of the three smallest cousins.




Douglas (aka Uncle Jr.) and Mia
with Daniel in the middle




Cecilia, Marisa, and Doug snack and visit.




Tipper tries to become invisible--at least to those little people.




Daniel has never seen a Zoe before . . .




Sisters check out Daniel's portable high chair seat.




Papi (aka Chris) puts the finishing touches on Rapunzel's hair.




Zoe with her Rapunzel 'hair' and cowgirl boots.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Thanksgiving dinner was being prepped.


The table looks pretty, and is all ready . . .




. . . for coloring with crayons.  Zoe picked the flowers.




Sister and Brother carve the turkey.




Zoe pauses for Uncle Jr. to take a picture.




Mia poses with her unwilling hug partner.




Luey and Steve (right) joined the group after work.
They were the only ones who weren't retired or on vacation.




Luey tells Daniel how much he's grown since she saw him in Brazil.




After dinner, Steve wishes he were napping on the floor with Tipper?

Zoe and Mia had 'pretend birthdays' so that everyone here could celebrate their late November birthdays together.  Each girl had a special request for her cake.



Zoe wanted strawberries.




Mia wanted chocolate with a dinosaur in a pink tutu!




October birthdays Steve Jr. and Douglas had ice cream pops
with candles.  It reminded both the guys of days past
when they were acolytes at Westbury UMC.



Delighted!




Fascinated!
and very tired from the 7 hour time difference
between Switzerland and Texas.




Steve and Douglas had fun, too.




Although Zoe acknowledged this was a 'pretend fifth birthday'
she soaked it all in.




Mia enjoyed it too.



Let the tutus begin!
Chris is just relieved they're red, and not pink or purple . . . 




 A new Rapunzel dress for Zoe.
Mia got a Tinkerbell outfit complete with wings,
and she flew so fast that the camera couldn't catch her.



Daniel had a great October Thanksgiving.