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Archive for December 25th, 2006

Family gatherings, conversation

Monday, December 25th, 2006

Perhaps it’s because my family is so big (my parents both have lots of siblings and lots of children), or maybe it’s because we all like to talk — a lot… But we have some interesting and hilarious discussions. To hit a few points of conversation at last night’s Christmas Eve gathering and tonight’s Christmas gathering:

  • Internet dating tips from my 40-something uncles, including “Don’t even consider anyone without a picture,” “If they’re obstructed by a peice of furniture, don’t waste your time,” “There’s something wrong if they’re waaaaay in the background, and you just see a tiny dot,” “Always meet for coffee or drinks during the day… Meeting for dinner is just asking for trouble,” “Anyone with like 20 photos of themselves thinks they’re hot stuff…,” “Everybody lies,” and more.
  • Spanish lessons for the whole family from Brandiann, including apparently saying “Yo” as in “Yo tengo” or “Yo necessito” or “Yo anything” only serves to emphasis the “I”. It’s redundant/unnecessary. It also makes you sound self-centered.
  • The finer points of Spanish insults from Brandiann and my dad (who picked up some terminology during his stint many years ago driving cab in Southern California). Since you couldn’t be there, I’ll point you to the comment left by my sister a few weeks back.
  • The trade secrets of selling meat from a truck, courtesy of my little brother. Need I say more?
  • My younger cousin telling us that apparently if you shoplift from Wal-Mart and the value of the items is less than $25, you get to keep it. I don’t think I’d take my chances, but the discussion prompted by this kept us laughing.
  • Now that the youngest “kid” among the cousins is well into high school, we have resigned ourselves to the kitchen kids table, leaving — for once — empty seats at the adults table in the dining room.

That’s just a sampling of the random conversations that occurred. Also, much discussion focused on my career/job prospects, my cousin’s new camera (which I literally spotted from across the room with my innate “new technology sensor”), and teaching my grandpa to use his new DVD player.

Tomorrow is our annual “Christmas Dinner” at Papa Joe’s in the valley. That means three consecutive nights with the extended family. But it’s fun, especially this year as I realize soon I won’t be able to attend our regular Sunday night dinners. (Not that I made many this year because I worked from about noon to 2 a.m. on Sunday’s supervising the Stater.) Nor will I make it home for every Easter, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, etc. holiday to see them as often as I do now. So it’s nice to kind of round out the year spending lots of time with them.

I just hope I don’t make a repeat of the year before last, when I had to leave to go to the emergency room for stitches because I, apparently, can’t cut a roll. I still have the scar on my finger.

‘Santa?!’

Monday, December 25th, 2006

The cutest thing happened last night/this morning.

I got up to go to the bathroom at about 5 a.m. I walked past my nephews’ room and noticed the light was on. I chuckled but walked on. Then, my 11-year-old nephew (who claims to be too big to believe in Santa) cracks the door and in the cutest, most innocent voice goes: “Santa?!” It was adorable.

Apparently, he and my 7-year-old nephew had both been up since 3 a.m. Now, my little brother used to wake every one of us kids up bright and early on Christmas, but we usually at least waited until dawn.

As a side note, it doesn’t even feel like Christmas when there’s no snow on the ground. This is Ohio. Where’s the snow? The weather gods couldn’t even humor me enough to have snowflakes fall and melt on impact. Nope, it’s just any other dreary December day outside. I may be the only person, but I happen to like the snow. So this is a major bummer.

My nephews, who both received shiny new bikes this morning, would probably disagree. Most years, when you get a bike for Christmas, you have to wait four months to use it. Not today. Within half an hour they were out riding around. (That was before they lost interest in it and moved on to another new toy.)

As for me, I have a few gift cards and several new books. I now have at least two dozen books waiting to be read. (Mostly they were from this semester when I bought them but didn’t have time to read anything, but I’ve added at least half a dozen in the last week.) Oh, and one of those gift cards is to Borders, where I’m sure I’ll promptly add more books to my queue.

Merry Christmas.