I’m in Madison today to celebrate Nana’s, 88th birthday! We celebrated both of my grandparents actually since Bumpa’s birthday (also 88) was two weeks ago. My brother hosted and it was a good group for our small family; more people than I’ve seen from my family in a while since Christmas got interrupted with the variant spiking.
My cousin, Gillian, brought her son Levi who’s about a year and half years old, but I haven’t seen him in ten months. Now he’s babbling and running around and learning how to go downstairs (scooting on his bottom) and gave me an exploding fist bump. Adorable.
We had ham and turkey sandwiches followed by birthday cake and then chatted in the kitchen about family names, our middle names, and where they all came from.
There were some tears. Admittedly not from me this time but it is nice to be together in celebration and love after a hard couple of years. It’s a good reinforcement of one of the many reasons I moved back to Wisconsin: to be closer to extended family, to be able to show up to impromptu birthday parties, to see life unfold in person.
The party is over now and my immediate family is all resting and recharging in different corners of my brother’s house. It’s nice and domestic. Tonight, I’m taking myself to see the new Batman movie and tomorrow I’ll drive back home. A bit of a whirlwind but I’m getting used to these trips to Madison and back. Compared to a plane ride, three or four hours just doesn’t seem that far anymore. I’m grateful for that.
With Love,
Natalie