One of my cousins several years ago, realized that all the families were starting to splinter, because we all had children and some even had grandchildren and there was no singular matriarch or patriarch to keep us all together.  So, rather than trying to compete, she started a new night that no one had “dibs” on.

We were all products of major holiday events that were divided by our parents under the careful eye of their parents.  Most of us grew up in two family flat homes with a kitchen that could seat at least eight, while the cooking was going on, and then the dining room was where all the adults sat, so all the cousins were always together.  I think that the other unwritten rule about big family events was that there would not be any empty spaces on any table, where food could be featured.  Since I was a fat kid, I never understood how anyone in the family could be thin, with all that food.  Easter always had the traditional egg fight, no we didn’t toss raw eggs, we would each choose a decorated hard-boiled egg (and everyone had their own method of selecting the proper trait of a winning egg).  Then systematically one egg end, would strike another egg end, and one egg would crack, eventually one egg would survive all the other eggs, and that was the result, that you had bragging rights for the year.   

My cousin also had a mini shrine placed in her house honoring her mother.  I was the ringbearer for her mother’s wedding, and yes, there are age differences among all the cousins.  Her mother lived in the upper flat with her mother (who was also my grandmother) and my father and mother and kids lived downstairs in the lower flat.  Lifestyles were much different back then.  I digress, as I usually do.  The bottle was hand-painted and decorated and was also inscribed with paint and says “Medzeeg” which translates from Armenian as “grandmother.”  I had never heard of the wine, and it took a while to find any information.  The wine is Domaine Badet Clement “Josephine” Cabernet Sauvignon IGP Pays D’Oc 2022.  Domaine Badet Clement offers 111 wines with the designation of Pays D’Oc.  This designation is a catch-all for the southern coast of France and basically corresponds to the Languedoc-Roussillon, one of the larges wine regions in France and produces the majority of what used to be called Table Wines.  This bottle of wine will never be opened, but I have found out that it is a garnet-colored wine that is light-to-medium-bodied with decent acidity and tannin structure.  I think it is a great item for the family.

My cousin had her whole house decorated for the Easter celebration with butterflies of assorted sizes and motifs.  She was also requesting that everyone take photographs of the evening and send them to her, and she would create a total page or site for the party.  She had Armenian flags flowing as well, and before the dinner commenced, she had the group pray “Hayr Mer” or “Our Father” and known universally as “The Lord’s Prayer; and people could recite it in Armenian or in English. And in a more playful tone, my cousin had a huge collection of bunny ears (not reminiscent of Mr. Hefner) and she was taking photos of everyone.  For years I had survived not being in the ears, but my Bride and my cousin ganged up and just as the photo was being taken, the ears slid off the top of my head, and I had the only example of a bunny goatee.