Category Archives: Family

A Remembrance of Christmas Past

December 24, 2011 – 12:30 pm

Christmas. 1989.

My sister and I, along with our grandmother, aunt, and our three cousins, piled into a van and headed south to Mustang Island, Texas. I have few solid memories of my childhood, for good or ill, but there are moments from this trip I will never forget:

CC Image • amy in holland on Flickr

My youngest cousin, who’s the same age as me, singing Feliz Navidad for the entirety of the trip. To this day, whenever I hear that song, I hear his eight-year-old voice singing it and then I want to punch something.
Upon arrival at the hotel, we changed into our swim trunks and ran down to the beach, only to be confronted with a serious cold front. We ran back to the hotel as quickly as possible, wind and sand whipping our skin and defeating our spirits. It remained cold and wet for the duration of the trip.
My youngest cousin placing ice beneath the covers at the end of his sister’s bed for her to find at some future moment. I don’t remember if I was an accomplice to this prank or not, but I surely knew about it before it occurred. However, he may have coerced me to silence by threatening me with ten more verses of Feliz Navidad.
My sister and middle cousin shouting “Happy New Year! Happy New Year!” out of their hotel window, only to be met in response by a “SHUT UP!” from some other hotel window.
Playing Spy Hunter in the hotel’s arcade, and by arcade I mean the one arcade game they had in the corner.

I don’t remember any of the gifts I received that year. I don’t remember what the ride home was like, or if my youngest cousin had taken up another song for my ~~enjoyment~~ annoyance. But I wonder why I remember the moments I do . . . read more »

Tags Christmas, Family, grief, Mustang Island, vacation | Permalink | Comment (0)

Family Funny Life Technology

The Nonagenarian and His iPad

July 10, 2011 – 8:30 pm

I called my grandmother recently. While she has a cell phone and knows how to use it, I called her home number. She answered by saying my name, then told me she’d read it off of the caller ID on her television. She then asked if I could believe she was that hip in regards to technology, to which I replied, “You’ve always been that hip,” which she has. Then she told me this story:

My doctor told me of a 93-year-old patient he recently had who came to his office with both an iPad and and iPhone. The doctor, amused by this seeming anachronistic sight, told the elderly man, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m impressed that someone at your age is so adept with such technology.” To which the man curtly replied, “Well, you don’t live to be 93 by being stupid.”

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Family Funny Videos

I’m Related to Chewbacca

February 26, 2010 – 4:54 pm

…the promised update isn’t coming today, but, there’s this, a nephew that cracks me up. I just wish the cameraman wouldn’t have been laughing so hysterically and going all Bourne Identity with the cinematography.

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Family Funny

Ridiculous Coincidence

August 4, 2007 – 12:39 am

I bought a computer for my grandmother recently. Before you start thinking that I’m the best grandson ever, she bought it with her own money; I was just the middleman. We bought her a Dell because I received an email with a “Back-to-School” special that was right in her price range, even giving her more computer than she needs.

Since we wanted to install the system this Sunday, when I head up to Waco to see her and the rest of my family, and since the last time I ordered a system from Dell (a refurbed desktop) it came from Round Rock, I told my grandmother I’d have them ship it to me in Georgetown, just a few miles from Round Rock, in hopes that it would arrive via free 3-5 day ground shipping before Sunday.

After checking the tracking number, I was shocked to see that the computer was being shipped from Tennessee! I was saddened by the fact, but chalked it up to the fact that my grandmother’s computer was not a refurb unit, and, ergo, was not being shipped from Round Rock. Oh well.

I just checked the tracking number again tonight (Friday). Where is the computer currently sitting? At a DHL station. In Waco!

I’m scheduled to receive the packages on Monday, one day after I’ve gone to visit her.

——-
Brought to you by a drug rehab recovery center in Malibu. Really? Really.

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Family

Annual Family Concert Weekend

June 24, 2007 – 7:57 pm

My family has apparently started a summer tradition of picking a concert at the Smirnoff Center in Dallas and all getting tickets. It began haphazardly last year with Chicago and Huey Lewis. You know, when the whole family goes (siblings, cousins, parents) you have to cater to all ages. Luckily, this year, and just this past weekend, we saw Ben Folds and John Mayer. It was a good concert, not great, but good. Enjoyable at least. Ben Folds was a little more experimental than some of my family would have liked, and his cover of a Dr. Dre song was…interesting, to say the least. John Mayer’s a phenomenal guitar player, but should stick to playing, not talking. Too bad we couldn’t have all gotten Police tickets.

Possibly even more fun was the golf the next day at the Lake Park Golf Club in Lewisville. It’s a straight, short course, par 70, so I felt like I was doing a lot better than normal, which I was, at least for the front nine. I think I had 4 or 5 pars for the round, which is great for me. I also had the best shot of the day. I was two inches from the hole, a gimme, and I was goofing around, taking a large backswing with my putter and pretending I was going to launch the ball somewhere. I hit the top of the ball with the bottom of my putter, the ball spun high into the air, then dropped straight into the hole. I will never be able to do that again.

We ate at Babe’s that night, a restaurant in Sanger, TX. Great food, and the waitresses sing, and they’re actually good. Also, there’s a cutout of John Wayne that peers into the window of the women’s restroom. (I only know this because the Woman told me so – I don’t often visit women’s restrooms, what with their sofas and bathroom vanities). Going to Babe’s is almost as much a ritual as the family summer concerts are becoming.

It’s always interesting what kinds of rituals form as the newer generations grow up. To the loyal few, do you have family rituals?

Also, my grandmother made a point to say how much she appreciates the fact that our extended family gets along so well. It’s something I thought was absolutely normal growing up, but the older I get the more I realize how fortunate I am to have the family I have.

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