I have always got on with my Canadian cousins. I adore them. It’s weird because you can literally count on your fingers how many times we have actually met, but then that’s the joy of families: they really can be the most beautiful thing. When my dad’s brother and his wife emigrated to Canada some thirty-odd years ago, there must have been a part of them that questioned if the move was the right choice: putting themselves in a country where, essentially, they knew nobody, thousands of miles away from both their respective, growing families.
Thankfully, my Uncle and Aunt did make the right choice: they lead a great life in Canada and have two gorgeous daughters, both older than me. In recent years my Canadian family has grown marvellously. Both of my cousins are now married, so I have cousins-in-law in both their fabulous husbands, and the younger of my cousins has a five-year-old son (Logan), who is just a dream.
This year, my eldest Canadian cousin fell pregnant with her first child. She and I have always had a weirdly close friendship, despite both the age- and geographical-gap. There are endless photos of the two of us dressed up, putting on a show and being ‘the entertainer’. In some of these photos we are together, snapped during the numerous trips my family have made to Toronto or her family have made to the UK; in others we are not together, but have been photographed in either my father’s or my uncle’s respective collections, looking exactly the same with our showmanship. Like two peas in a pod.
The news she was expecting her first child was #goodnews enough for me, then. But then I heard about this: her baby gender reveal party, which is quite possibly the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Even if I am, like, totally biased.
At my cousin’s sonogram, she and her husband decided to find out the sex of their baby: only they didn’t. The technician wrote the sex of the baby down and sealed it in an envelope, this envelope was then passed on to a close family friend (and, it transpires, a baker extraordinaire) and the part was planned. There, guests came together to vote for whether they thought the baby was going to be a XX or an XY, have drinks and celebrate in the joyous news that this fantastic couple were starting their own family.
The friend/baker, meanwhile, had brought cupcakes with either a blue or pink filling. No one at the party (except her, having the sex of the baby) knew what colour the filling was. Guests gathered around as my cousin and her husband bit into a cupcake each, revealing to the crowd – and to themselves – the sex of the baby for the first time.
It’s an incredible, amazing moment, highlighting the joy that a new life can bring. My cousin’s air-punch when she sees the blue filling made me cry with joy. I am now trying to convince my housemates to get knocked up, just so we can recreate this moment in Blighty.
Hope you like the video.
