The girls’ great grandparents – my Mom’s parents – bravely emigrated to the U.S. from Holland after World War II. Their four surviving children gave them 13 grandkids. If they were still here today, they would surely be enjoying the 24 great grandchildren those grandkids have given them so far. In just the next six months, their 11th grandchild is getting married and two more great grandchildren are due, so the number will undoubtedly grow and continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
A family of 56 people from one humble, resilient, and amazing couple…my grandparents would definitely be proud and probably a little astonished at how the family has grown if they were still here. The entire group gets together every single year, without fail, for a Christmas party. We’re the only ones in the whole group who don’t live in California, so we usually miss out. We last made the party in 2004, when Erika was just a baby and before our other two were born. But we made it today and so did every other single member of the extended family save one. I think the girls were a little surprised and delighted to find they have 2nd cousins – 21 of them, to be exact – in this branch of the family!
