Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

It’s my sister Roxie’s birthday today. In our family, Thanksgiving is all wrapped up with Roxie’s birthday and deer hunting (a very, very important rite of passage for boys in Wisconsin). There were a number of years that her birthday fell right on the holiday. I was always grousing because my birthday was so close to Christmas but at least it never landed right on it. In this photo, Roxie is the one in the holiday-appropriate orange. Kim and Kevin, the twins, are in the middle. They were born 10 1/2 months after Roxie. For a month and one-half (from October 5 until November 23), all three of the “Little Kids” are the same age. They’re not so little any more (okay, Kim is only 4′10″ so she is pretty little) but they’ll always be younger than Sandy and me.

Last spring, the family gathered in Arizona for spring break. Pamela Jo got inspired and made us take family photos. We all complained and grumped about it but now, I can honestly say that we’re all dang glad she forced us to do it. There were 19 of us (parental units, five sibling families). Quite a group to manage. It was surprisingly painless. So, the photo above is from the spring gathering.