Today we had dinner at Grandma June's in Lehi. She made homemade pot pies that were really good. The kids wouldn't eat theirs so she tried to get us to eat the extras. I politely told her that if you shouldn't force children to eat food, then that rule applied to me as well.
My Grandma is obsessed with Coke, so I indulged and had one. It reminded me that I really dislike Coke. I imagine my dislike of Coke is similar to my imagined dislike of beer. It just tastes wierd to me. If it doesn't taste good, why deal with the unpleasant side effects?
My brothers' families and my little sister all came. Family dynamics are rather fun to watch. We had this whole conversation teasing my parents about what we all "claim" when they die; I personally found the conversation to be eerie, ill-timed, and trite. How could my almost 90 year-old Grandma have found any joy in such a conversation? Then the conversation turned to my brother-in-law talking about how my sister has a large bottom. He always says stuff like that and my sister just laughs. I can't help but think such talk causes wounds he can't see, but it's not my place to get involved. Rest assured I never say stuff like that to Susie--I just don't find that brand of "humor" to be funny.
At that point I went downstairs to be with the chilluns. They were playing mock court, and I got to be the judge. When it was my turn to be the plaintiff, I said the defendent, my three year-old niece, had me abducted by aliens. She didn't like that so we instead played hide n seek, one of my favorite games. I am not good at hiding anymore because Ember and Hannah always had to hide with me.
When I tired of the kids I listened to my oldest brother talk about their recent trip to Cancun. Even though my oldest brother is inactive, I have a lot of respect for him and his family. His red head children are very well-behaved, and he treats them strictly but fairly. He also gets down and plays with his kids a lot. He's a good role model for me, though I just have to turn the other cheek when, for instance, I housesit for him and discover the cabinet with every flavor schnopps you can imagine. I have actually confided in Susie that I would like to try some wine just to see what it tastes like, but have no desire to try beer. Susie thinks I should go for it on our cruise, but I am not so sure. What if I liked it? Where would that leave me? But now I am off topic.
Family dynamics. My sister bad-mouths her husband to me sometimes, and while they are newlyweds, I find it unhealthy. My dad does the same thing to my mom. But he has an excuse: Insanity. He gets worse and worse these days. Today some of the stuff he said made no sense at all, but I just smile and nod. Sometimes I try and imagine what he was like when my mom married him, but that depresses me.
My other brother's marriage is better; I never hear him and Ashley fight anymore. And their kids are slowly outgrowing their annoyingness. James, the five year-old, is in kindergarten and has anger management classes on the side because sometimes he honestly loses it. Ashley told me today they are done having children because she feels like her two children are four children, and they kind of are. She has done the math, and noted that when Hannah hits legal age, she'll only be 42 and they can then party. I feel they peaked way to soon in life, but those were their choices.
They are all coming to California for Thanksgiving to go to Disneyland. Susie and I are going to get season passes when we move, go every weekend, basically OD on Disney, and then we'll be so sick of it we won't need to renew our tickets for years. By then we will be ready for kids anyway, so we think. Unless our plans change in this fast-paced world of ours, as Joe noted. It'll give us a built-in date night every week.
The evening was fun. It's just interesting to me to see how people choose to live their lives. I consider myself fortunate to be the youngest; I got to watch all of my older siblings start families. I fully intend to learn from their mistakes. We'll see how well that goes; I'll keep you posted.