They started arriving on Friday night. The first group in was the Vermont Vegans. Unloading the soy beans and tofu took a bit of time but they were welcomed with open arms. On Saturday morning came the call from the local jail. The North Carolina cousins need some bail money for some small matter about DWI and an unregistered pick-up truck. Grandpa went to town to get them before they wound up in one of the local saloons.

By Saturday afternoon, the Florida cousins came with baskets of grapefruit and oranges. That was one thing that you could count on with the "Citrus Cousins". The fruit might be a mite on the funny tasting side, but you learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The College educated cousins arrived in a beautifully outfitted RV. They were all dressed in LL Bean matching safari wear and when they smiled they almost showed their teeth. It took a while for them to thaw out.

On Easter Sunday morning...all the kid cousins went out to find the Easter eggs that were hidden . They had to range far and wide because Grannie never did hide eggs in the yard, "Nasty and dirty in the mud! You don't want to be putting those things in your mouth!" There were a few churches who did have Easter egg hunts after the services finished and the kids always got there before church let out. Got a huge bunch of eggs that way. The Vermont Vegans were not really in favor of that but once in a while a little egg salad was acceptable. They always apologized to the eggs and the celery and the onions when the were making it.

While the Aunts did the cooking and food preparation, The Uncles were removing doors and putting them end to end on sawhorses. Never would find a table big enough to sit this bunch at! One year the North Carolina cousins got really wrecked on Grandpa's special Moonshine and busted up the door that was supposed to go back on the bathroom. The College cousins took one of the tents that they always carried with them in the RV and made a sort of a door to be used for the time being, the time was still being but it was better than pulling a sheet over you when you had to use the facilities.

By Monday morning all was back to whatever passed as normal. Every year they all got to be family for Easter. They even stopped asking questions about that group of cousins who looked sorta Japanese and spoke no English....They'd been coming for about 12 yrs now and were really sweet about cleaning up and helping out.

They also brought some really great Won Ton soup too, even the Vermont Vegans ate it.