<p>After all, if you were blessed, you have something very precious in common.
So, are you close to yours?</p>
<p>I don’t have any first cousins. I used to see my second cousins often when I was a kid, but not since age 15 or so.</p>
<p>A few of my cousins I have not seen in 40 or more years–their choice. Several have passed away. The remaining ones live nearby and I see them occasionally. I am friendly with two of them but not close. </p>
<p>I am very close to my sisters and our children are mostly close. Most of us still get together for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter and a few picnics or other events during the summer. Oh, and kid birthdays are a good excuse for a get-together. Sadly, my son who is an only child and the youngest of the cousins, does not seem like he is very close to any particular cousin. Living 2300 miles away probably won’t make those relationships stronger. Being one of seven, those close family relationships are important to me. My H, also an only child has made his friends his family. </p>
<p>I have been away from home since 20- I keep in touch with one aunt. H is in touch with his first cousins and for the first time they visited us a thousand miles away- this summer. It was a great visit- we are all empty nesters now. H has gone to a Thanksgiving family reunion his whole life and these are some of his cousins that visited. Our D’s have no cousins. H is only child and my B did not have any kids. Like lotsof above, I knew early on that friends would be very important to them and yes, they are very much their family and I am glad for that.</p>
<p>My only first cousin was a girl adopted as an infant when I was 15. So I am very glad my kids have 13 first cousins! My 16-year-old daughter has a cousin only two months younger, and they are VERY close - we call them “twin cousins,” even though they live over 2,000 miles apart. They Skype a lot, doing homework and watching videos together.</p>
<p>My husband had no first cousins at all.</p>
<p>I have lots of cousins. I’m really close to some – one is one of my best friends, and we see each other at least a couple of times a month. Others I see only on holidays or major milestone events but I feel very close to them. Still others I only see once a year at most. Then there are a couple of them that I intensely dislike. So it runs the gamut. I consider my ties to my large extended family to be one of the true blessings in my life.</p>
<p>I’m an only child with a bunch of first cousins. Growing up, I lived a few hours away from them (they almost all lived in the same small town) but I saw them on most holidays. I had one cousin just a couple of moths older and we spent lots of time together when I visited–and I often spent a week or two at her house in summers. Now I live in the same area as most of my cousins and see at least some of them several times a year (family gatherings for various things). One lives in a nearby city that we visit often and is nice enough to let us use the guest room pretty often, which we greatly appreciate especially since they are fun to hang out with 
I’m glad that I’ve ended up staying close to many of my cousins, since I don’t have siblings.</p>
<p>I am one of close to 25 first cousins (I can never remember exactly how many), just on my mom’s side of the family; my dad was an only child. Of those close to 25 first cousins, I am the second to youngest! So I have lots of cousins in their late 60s and 70s. Amazingly, they are all still alive. I am closer to some than others, but am not geographically close to any of them, so I don’t see them very often. Some I honestly don’t ever remember meeting. But I am Facebook friends with a few of them (and some of their children, who are closer to my age than the first cousins), and we keep in touch that way. I was extremely touched about six years ago when two of those cousins were taking a long road trip from Texas, to the east coast, then to the Midwest, and spent some time with us here. We’ve never really gotten any many family visitors here. I never had any sisters (H didn’t have any sisters, either), so some of these cousins are the closest female relatives I have. </p>
<p>I was close to one of my cousins when we lived on the same floor in same apartment building. We’ve drifted after we moved to the suburbs and our kids grew up and moved away. </p>
<p>Am fairly close to my sibs and our kids are close to their 1st cousins, especially those within a few years of them. Some of the cousins are within 2 years of ours and we made a big effort to get together often when they were growing up. </p>
<p>We were much younger than many of our cousins, so never got too close. That said, my D is having one of my 1st cousins store D’s car for 2 months & has stored it before and S’s car for months previously. </p>
<p>I have 4 first cousins on my mothers side and only 1 on my dad’s side. I am very close to my maternal cousins. We were raised together and inherited a family business together. The boys run the business and we girls just reap the benefits!! We spent most holidays together until I moved overseas. I refer to their children as my “nieces and nephews.” My kids are as close to their 2nd cousins as they are their 1st cousins. Honestly, my cousins are more like brothers and sisters to me. My brother and I have both moved away and my cousins take care of my elderly mother. I am very blessed.</p>
<p>However, my only cousin on my dad’s side has been a drug addict since the early 80s. She’s been in and out of prison, etc. Lost contact with her about 20 years ago after she had been convicted of stealing her mother’s social security checks. Obviously, we are not close. </p>
<p>Have 4 cousins on my mother’s side, 2 of whom are parents of children in their mid-forties. The first cousins range in age from 50- late seventies due to wide age gap among their parents, as well as when the prior generation started their families. </p>
<p>While the nearest one lives 2 hours away, we have all become close as adults and have some shared memories. The older ones have kept me up to speed about our grandparents as they were grown at GPS’ time of death and I was a child. We see each other when possible and keep in touch. We call the children of the cousins in their 70s “cousins”, too. They are nearer in age to me, but think it’s mostly because of it being a small, close family. Largely lost touch with 2 cousins on father 's side. </p>
<p>My parents had only one sibling each. I am close to my 2 first cousins on my Dad’s side (grew up a few blocks away), but sadly I barely know the first cousins on mom’s side. My paternal grandmother was one of eight kids so I have lots of second, third, removed or whatever cousins on that side and I am close to several of them. Some of us have talked about a cousins reunion soon and I plan to be there if it happens.</p>
<p>I have about 30 first cousins. All but 1 live very far away and always have but we have visited as have they. Would be close if we lived closer. The one that lives here is almost as close as a sibling. I am SO glad that my kids have cousins living very nearby and get to grow up with them. Only a few live far away and we see them for weddings and other special family gatherings. I was always jealous of people who had cousins growing up so I did everything I could to have my kids know their cousins. Family is not the same as even close friends.</p>
<p>I have no cousins on my mother’s side, as she is an only child.</p>
<p>Through my bio father, I have two female cousins who I didn’t meet until we were all in our 30’s. They’re very nice and cordial, but we’ve only met maybe 3 times in our lives. We have a Facebook relationship. They live on the west coast and I live in the midwest, so there’s really scant opportunity for us to be together.</p>
<p>Through my adoptive father, I have two cousins who I’ve only met a few times as well, as they were born after we moved to the midwest. I’m not even FB friends with them, and honestly they wouldn’t know me and my sister (and vice versa) if we tripped over one another on the street.</p>
<p>I don’t really have a sense that I’m missing anything, though. It is what it is. </p>
<p>My mom was a twin, so my sis and I are very close to my mom’s twin’s kids. We have just this year bought retirement homes less than one mile apart. I have other cousins on my mom’s side, and while we are friends on Facebook, we never get together. We have spent Thanksgiving and one week each summer together for 21 years, so we knew we would enjoy spending time together in retirement. </p>
<p>I don’t have any cousins on my dad’s side. I have 8 on my mom’s side, ranging in age from 28 to 53. (yes, one of my first cousins is younger than my eldest niece).</p>
<p>I am facebook friends with all but the eldest first cousin. I rarely see any of them. I did make a point of seeing the one that is closest in age to me a couple of years ago when we were driving through his town (about 8 hours from my home.)</p>
<p>My mom and her siblings are all still living, so we keep up with each other through the family grapevine though it isn’t the same as having a personal relationship.</p>
<p>We’ve recently endured an awful loss in our family. My daughter has no living siblings, but her cousins (my nieces) have been four beautiful towers of strength for her. My sister’s daughter, in particular, is an only child. My daughter and she now see each other as more than cousins; they’re sisters. As a parent, it is a gift to know that my child has someone who will be there always. </p>
<p>I have no cousins. My mother was an only child, and my father’s two sisters never married.</p>
<p>My kids also have no cousins. My sister and my husband’s brother never married.</p>
<p>I’ve always envied people with cousins. I wonder whether my kids do.</p>
<p>I am extremely close with my 4 first cousins on my mom’s side (plus their kids/spouses & their kids) and a lot of my second cousins on my mom’s sides. We are together for every holiday and do other things together (going to city for dinner/show, vacationing together, etc.) Our kids refer to my 1st cousins as Aunt & Uncle. </p>
<p>Growing up my grandparents had a summer home on the shore were we all lived and several of my mom’s Aunt and Uncles had summer homes in the same town so we were always together as children. </p>
<p>My son is also an only so being close to his first cousins and his second cousins is very important. His generation (my son is the youngest) do a lot of things together too outside of family dinners. </p>
<p>My dad’s side was very small and I only had two first cousins. Not nearly as close to either of them but it’s not like we never saw them. </p>
<p>Since this is a thread about cousins I’ll post this Onion article here:</p>
<p><a href=“Report: None Of Good Cousins Coming To Thanksgiving This Year”>Report: None Of Good Cousins Coming To Thanksgiving This Year;
<p>No, not close at all. I have 7 first cousins. Haven’t seen or talked to any of them since my Mom died in 2003.<br>
Some of them came to the funeral some didn’t. All were in easy driving distance.</p>
<p>Three of my cousins (all boys) grew up just three houses down from my house. The youngest was my age. When we were kids we ran around together with the neighborhood crowd. Hung out together some in high school but were in different “crowds” by then. Just drifted apart. </p>