I thought I'd talk about each of the topics from this post separately, with the "surprise" baby shower first.
So, even though this was a sad week, my family was excited to see me because this is the first baby among all of my 17 cousins (10 of whom are above 20). One of my mom's (four) sisters told me it was the perfect anecdote to the sadness - celebrating a new life while mourning one that passed. This of course made everything a little more emotional, but there were surprisingly few tears the rest of the week after the funeral.
On Thursday morning my suspicions that something was up were stirred by my uncle talking about, "you know, the get-together tomorrow afternoon", with my mom. Apparently other people talked about "the shower" in front of me, but I missed all of that. However, my suspicions were confirmed when, on Friday morning, people kept disappearing on "errands" and going to the other room to talk. All of the aunts (both sisters and sisters-in-law of my mom) plus a couple of cousins and my sister and I went out to lunch for, as my aunt called it, "girl time".
After we ordered my mom's younger sister announced that there were ulterior motives for the lunch, that we were all there to celebrate the baby since it was unlikely we'd all be in the same place together again for quite some time (it usually happens once per year, max). And then they pulled out all the gifts, and there were A LOT of gifts. There were sleepers, blankets, onesies, hats, a towel with a duck hood and matching duckie slippers, and my favorite: books! They gave me six books in all - 4 board books and 2 hard cover ones.
Last, but definitely not least, they gave me a toddler-sized hand-me-down sweater knit by my grandma. That started some tears, but they were happy ones. One of my aunts said she'd mail me a few more that grandma had also knit. This was definitely a spectacular gift to top off a wonderful gathering.
I'm writing thank you notes tonight, but I can't seem to express how very thankful I am. The baby shower seemed to be what everybody needed, and I can't think of other people from who I'd rather get my first baby gear.
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5 comments:
Sounds like you've got a great family there. Your shower sounds like it was a lot of fun for everyone.
What a wonderful idea to celebrate the next generation of the family! I can't think of a better way to accompany a funeral weekend. I bet your grandmother was so happy watching you all!
Sounds like you have an amazing (and rather large) family there. Glad you found happiness in the time of sadness :)
Oh wow - that sounds like a fantastic day. Yay! :) Definitely a good counterpoint to the sadness of your week.
That sounds so amazing! What a wonderful family you have.
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