Meet the Folks...and their brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, dogs, cats...

The Silly Season approaches rapidly, and with it a host of birthdays, weddings, christenings and bridal showers. In the spirit of my favorite time of year, I thought it would be a good moment to introduce you to my family.

For those of you who know me, you will have realised that I have a large, 'Partridge Family' type deal. MY family is fabulous - a huge heap of love, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, turkey and birthday cards. My family set-up is a little daunting for Darius 'cause his Christmas Card List reads : Mother, Father, Psychomuffin. That's it. Not even a token uncle. Nothing. It makes me a bit sad for him. Anyway, Darius has been attending family get-togethers with me for about 7 years now and he STILL doesn't remember how my family fits together. Chances are that I will be talking about my relatives a lot in the coming weeks so I thought I'd give everyone a head start on getting to know them.



I have confined this discussion to family that I regularly have contact with - there are others: stepsiblings, my stepmum's family etc. but I thought I'd make this as easy on you as possible.

Doug and Olive (Gramps and Gran) had three children Meryl, Lyn (my mom) and Phil. Meryl married Ray and had 2 girls: Kate and Raewyn. Phil married Kathy and had 2 children: Gareth and Robyn.

Now it gets complicated.

Lyn married John (my dad) and had one child: Me. Lyn divorced John. Lyn married Rob and had one child: James (my brother). Rob died. Lyn married Basil. Basil was a nutjob. Lyn divorced Basil. John married Annaly.

Olive died many years ago, our family is lost without her and her delicious cookies.

Kate grew up and married Marc, they had two children: Joshua - 2 and a half and Elizabeth - 3 months. Raewyn is engaged to Brendan. Their wedding is on December 16. Darius and I have been together so long, as far and the family is concerned he's one of us.

I don't see my father very often, I love him dearly, but he lives far away and has his own life.

Summary

There are four generations,

Head of family: Doug

Parental units: Meryl and Ray, Phil and Kathy, Lyn.

The Cousins: Kate and Marc, Raewyn and Brendan, Darius and Me, Gareth, Robyn and James.

The Kids: Joshua and Elizabeth.

Hmmm, when I look at this lot I can't help but think...Christmas is gonna be expensive.

Stay tuned for a blockbuster edition : My Family Vol. 2