Heads Up!

I have always thought that my Great Aunt's children were my second cousins. However, after a bit of research into kinship terminology, I've discovered that they are actually my first cousin's once removed.

Assuming that I haven't confused you with all this terminology, today was the baptism of my second cousin; that is, the child of my first cousin once removed. Take a minute to get your head around that. If you're anything like me and you need a visual, refer to the figure below:

My second cousin Aidan was so cute in his little white Christening jumpsuit. He was so well behaved and smiled lots for the camera. He's such a precious little human being. 

After the baptism, family and friends all gathered for lunch. One of the highlights of the day was playing the Ellen Degeneres iPad game Heads Up!. It's pretty much a game of charades/Celebrity Heads. I played the game with some of the children there, my siblings, a few of my other second cousins and their dads (who are my in-laws. i.e. they're married to two of my other first cousins once removed). I'm sorry if I've lost you trying to explain my family tree. Anyways, I've never played this game before and it turned out to be so much fun! 

To be honest, I've never really spent time with my second cousin's dads. This is mainly due to the fact that I don't speak Vietnamese very well, and I've just never been close to them. But playing this game was so lovely because I was able to see a side to them I have never seen before. They're really fun dads...who surprisingly know a lot of English. Some of the words that we had to try and act out/guess were famous songs and actors and the two dads knew a lot of them which took me by surprise. I think that all these years since they first married into the family, I assumed that because they weren't born in Australia that they must not be familiar with Western culture and media. I was wrong though.

I loved one moment in particular where one of the songs that came up was "Ring my bell" by Anita Ward and one of the dads started singing it. Very cute. I really enjoyed spending time with family members that I don't usually hang out with. It is now a very special memory to me. 

This moment has taught me that although doing wild and extravagant new things like sky diving or visiting new countries can be great fun, sometimes it's the little things that can have a lot of meaning. It's all individual and depends on how the new experience makes YOU feel. People may think that playing a game of charades with the family is not exciting, but for me it was about getting to know the people who have always been in the picture but who I have never taken the time to get to know. 

So please, go out and search for all those little things because you might find that they make the greatest impression on you. 

Also, check out the game. It's so much fun to play with a large group :)