To celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago, I visited my father and sibs…

And brought them a home-cooked supper. When I visit, when the word goes out that I’m cooking, my brother (who lives nearby) will turn up, which is very flattering. Sometimes he’ll bring a dessert, other times he’ll bring a side dish or salad. This time I baked cheese brownies, which Pop loves, so my brother brought a salad.

He also brought one of our cousins, actually the son of one of our first cousins (our niece’s generation). Guillaume ("Billy") drove up from San Diego to celebrate the New Year and slept on my brother’s couch.

He hadn’t seen my niece in years and said, "oh, gawd, I wish you weren’t my cousin !" when they hugged. My brother chuckled, "It wouldn’t matter," he said. "Aw, that’s mean," Billy laughed. My niece shrugged. "So sorry, my dude. Wrong gender." His eyes widened as the light came on, but he didn’t say anything more.

My brother told me he had considered bringing a pie for the next family supper, but when my sister told him I’d made cheese brownies, he couldn’t "upstage" that. Pop came in, grinning, "cheese brownies ! Yay !" I pulled back the foil and showed him.

Billy looked puzzled. "’Cheese’ brownies ? Like with cheese cheese ? That sounds gross."
My brother rolled his eyes. "’Cheese’ like cheesecake blended brownies ! You’ll love ‘em.”

So we sat down and had our supper. We felt Mom’s absence, of course, but I’d like to imagine she was watching. She would’ve really approved of our ability to smile and joke again.