Kelly's mom and Mark are cousins, so that makes Sam and Kelly ... related. (I'm not clear on the 'second-cousins or cousins-once-removed' thing.) Not only are they some flavor of cousins, they're also good friends who've spent a lot of time together since they both started at the same pre-school at just over one-year-old.

Kelly is exactly one week younger than Sam, but has always been a tiny little girl making it appear that the age difference is greater ... if all that's taken into account is size. Anyone assuming that her petite form indicates a delicate nature would be dangerously mistaken, however. This girl takes no guff.

Of course, being my son, Sam respects her greatly for this.

The photo was taken about an hour ago and the Baie Lazare village children's Christmas party where these two cut quite a rug on the dance floor, as you can see in the second shot.