and it inevitably leads to some crazy story. some sad...some sweet...but most of them funny. i'd say probably 99% of them are funny stories. it's just the way our family has always been. my dad is one of the funniest people i know. and my mom is funny too...but in a totally different way. she and my sister are twins with their sense of humor. when the three of us girls get together and start remembering things...it gets pretty hilarious. for us, at least.
like this one time when we were pulling into new orleans. if you've ever driven there, you know that once you get to the outskirts, traffic gets bad. there are something like 6 lanes...and it just gets crazy.
well, about three years ago..maybe four. i dunno. it was the august of hurricane katrina. we went at the beginning of august. katrina was at the end of the month. anyway, we went to see aunt betty, frank and nick. and we got stuck in traffic outside new orleans. mom and i were in the front seat. and spencer in the back.
spencer looks to her left and sees this minivan. and written on the door was, "one van phan". with his cell number, email address, etc. it was a taxi driver of sorts. well, spencer...being spencer...goes, "gaaa lee. i would not want to be riding in that van right now....i bet it's HOT!"
i sort of look over to see what she's talking about...and immediately i realize that she has translated the "phan" as "fan". hi.larious.
so i start laughing...and mom realizes it then too...and she starts laughing. well, we have this bad habit of wetting our pants when we laugh too hard. i've done it my entire life. while funny....it can get pretty embarrassing.
so mom and i are laughing so hard we can't breathe...and we're both chanting to ourselves over and over again..."don't pee...don't pee!" spencer is in the backseat trying to figure out why the man only has one fan when it's the dirty south and it's something like 100 degrees outside.
while this probably isn't funny to you...it was hysterical to me and mom. and spencer once she figured out why we were laughing so hard.
so back to what makes a family special....(long road to a small house, i know)...
traditions. family traditions make a family special.
we had several. let's see...
birthday dinners were up to the birthday person. we got to pick everything for the day. everything from what we ate for breakfast...what we did...what we had for dinner....everything everything everything. my pick was always pigs in the blankets with macaroni and cheese. this is typical. my mom is a gourmet chef...and i choose mac n cheese. from a box.
as we got older, we always went to new york city in the summer. or for spring break. shopping. aunt carol was there. and there is no better shopping than new york city. the streets of nyc. we'd shop. watch broadway shows. eat in china town. buy stollen purses from shady men on the streets. a great time.
one of clint's traditions was eating kfc on sundays after church.
i'm such a fried chicken kind of girl...that we've decided to adopt it for our family too. we swing by there right after church and then all eat together when we get home.
so...pratt...i hope you enjoy this as you get older as much as your daddy and i do.
here you are with mac n cheese smeared on your face...digging into the five dollar fill it up box.
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