willhines.net

Thanksmas, when my mother’s family in Cleveland (or Strongsville, specifically), Ohio gathers the tribe for a get-together in between the two other holidays (ones which draw us all to more nuclear-family-oriented-gatherings) has finished. It was fun. Brian, Kevin + Cat, and I descended back to our birthplace Friday afternoon and began a weekend of board games, inside jokes, photos and a few nice meals.

The highlight for me, as it is often is, was our ritual of abandoning my Aunt Sue alone while the rest of us duck out to the divey Dapper Dan’s for a beer. I don’t really remember how this started. Anyway, I always think she’s going to be tough to fool, but she has never yet seen it coming. This year, I was the “patsy” — the one assigned to stay with her and distract her while everyone else drives off. We all pulled up to the house after having gone out to dinner Saturday. Sue and I walked in first. For one second, she turned behind her and asked why her husband wasn’t following right behind and I was trying to come up with an explanation when she suddenly dropped the matter entirely and said “Oh! Let me show you pictures of Paul [her son] in Africa.” We walked inside, everyone else drove off, and we sat down at the laptop where she showed me pictures for 20 minutes. Then she looked up and asked “Where is everyone?” They were at the bar, I said. Let’s go.

Fun times.

There are a lot of awkwardly worded sentences in this entry.

| Tags: brian, cats, family, kevin, thanksmas