GourmetAmigurumi

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to a family reunion/holiday party with my dad’s side.  Well, the pics are finally up online, so here’s a glimpse of us all.

That’s me with all of my first cousins.  Yep, I said first cousins.  My dad is one of 12 children.  So including my four brothers and one sister, my my grandparents had almost 50 grandchildren.  We used name tags because there were about 200 hundred people including aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin’s spouses and second cousins.  I think the name tags were a good idea.  It gets tough, especially for the younger ones to remember who everybody is.

And here I am with my immediate family.  We are in order according to age.  From left to right there’s me (29), Claire (27), John (24), Mike (22), Gerry (20) and Pat (17).  I guess I am making a kind of funny face.  We all look so much alike.  The Doherty genes almost always dominate.  Only Claire and Gerry look a little bit like my mom’s side.

There was SO much beer and pizza.

(that’s my uncle Joe.  everyone loves Joe.  he’s a great guy, really sweet.  he was over at my house all summer painting and fixing stuff.  he is a bit OCD, so he does beautiful work)

We like our beer, as I guess you can tell from our bellies.  It was kind of funny.  Even with all of the little kids, there were about three coolers of soda and eight coolers of beer.  There were about 10 large tables for people to sit and hang out at.  There was a DJ who played all of the necessary cheesy party music.  And in the big room across the hall they had bags set up.  I guess some people call the game cornhole but here in Chicago it is always “bags”.  A few of my uncles have workshops, so we have a sorts of boards with different pictures on them, sports team logos especially.  But I think someone has a board with a simple version of our family crest.

It was great to see everybody and also to see how much the family has grown.  Bunches of my cousins are married with children of their own.  The party itself was sort of overwhelming.  I don’t do crowds very well, so I was a little put off by all of the noise.  And I am sort of shy, so it can be a bit hard for me to talk to people I don’t see very often.  But I took the time to talk to a few of my favorite cousins. 

Here’s Kevin.  He’s one of the favorite cousins.  He practically lives at my parents’ house when he isn’t away at college.  He is hilarious.  Extremely sarcastic in a dry way.  Just my type of humor.  Believe it or not, that skinny, dorky guy is a security guard at a night club.  I guess if you wear the jacket most people will listen to you…

And just to round things off, here is a pic of my husband Terry looking goofy with my dad and I.

And finally, here is my mom with my brother John who is smiling like an idiot.