A cousin moved to town last month. She and her husband had a cookout at their place yesterday, with her parents, me, and my SO.
I should explain that the family is fairly large by some people’s standards. My paternal grandparents had five kids. My parents had two kids, the middle brother had two kids, and the youngest brother has the daughter we gathered with yesterday. One of my aunts had ten kids, and the other one had at least six. By the time I came along (fairly late) the family had spread out a bit. I’d only see my cousins at reunions, funerals, or other get-togethers, and never got to know them as well as my older sister. I still can’t name them all. It’s easier with the uncles than with the aunts. I think the last time we were all together was at dad’s memorial reunion in 1999. I told my cousin I remembered her there, wearing piano-key suspenders and a black porkpie hat. Yep, she was a teenager. Now she’s a PhD RN and has a four-year-old boy.
My poor SO! See, when you get two or more members of this family together, joking ensues. My uncle said that he’d been talking for years about how he wanted to try skydiving, and his daughter and son-in-law finally bought him a dive. ‘I broke my leg! Next time I’ll use a parachute.’ I told him that if I ever skydive, I do not want a parachute on the first one. There’s a chance it won’t open, and I don’t want to take the risk. Later, my four-year-old cousin (once removed) was scratching his nose. He said, ‘What’s on my nose?’ My uncle and aunt said simultaneously, ‘Your finger!’ And other things. At home, the SO responds to my japes with ‘Oh. Was that a joke?’ or ‘I’m ignoring you.’ or she just rolls her eyes. Yesterday she saw that it’s not just me! 
We need to have more of these get-togethers. 