This weekend saw a number of the ladies in my family gather together for a baby shower for the second-newest member of the clan (the newest was born on Tuesday). This “hen party”, as my dad likes to refer to such get-togethers, was our first chance to meet my grand-nephew, Holden Oliver Sipe (the “roosters” were at my brother’s house, bonding over football). Allow me to briefly describe to you my large and rather unusual family. By the time I was fifteen, my six brothers and sisters and I had lost both our parents (recalls that line from The Importance of Being Earnest . . .). At about that same time, Lloyd and Norma Sipe’s youngest son was heading off to college, and they realized the house was going to get awfully quiet. They had never met our family but heard about us through mutual friends, and within a few months the four Kennedys under 18 moved in as foster kids. That was over 35 years ago, and our family–all eleven kids, the in-laws, the grandkids, and now the great-grandkids–has grown and meshed together. Most of us are spread around the Pacific Northwest, so we enjoy the excuses we periodically get to visit and catch up with each other. These events are not usually the big holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, but are often centered around weddings and, as today, births. The new baby is passed from grandma to aunt to cousin to sister while the conversations swirl and the youngest family members run and play underfoot. News of  jobs, boyfriends and travels as well as of illnesses, challenges and heartaches is shared. The first of these events which I attended as a new member of the Sipe-Kennedy clan was a baby shower for the child who would become the daddy of today’s cause of celebration, young Holden. What a joy it is to see all these generations of this family continue to gather to revel in our unique relationship, to share the collected wisdom and love and support we have to give to each other. I am grateful for the willingness of Dad and Mom Sipe to take on the challenge of raising a second family, but I have always been just as grateful for my Sipe brothers and sister–Robbe, Tim, Glenn and Rick–and their openhearted acceptance of us as family, too. We have all benefitted from that generous spirit, and it shows in such gatherings as the shower today. Some day those youngest ones there today will be the new parents, and I know they’ll still be enjoying the fun, warmth and support of this very special family. Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader