reasons why I like my family

1) This >>> is their idea of a good time. Not sitting catatonic watching the game. Not having stuffy formal dinners, with three sets of forks. But lighting sparklers and standing around feeling so pleased with ourselves about our sparklers. My family rarely has to DO something to be having fun.

2) If I haven't called in a couple days, or haven't been around the house for too long, someone comes hunting... whether it's my bro stopping in for coffee and a chat, or my sister taking me out for coffee and a chat, or just missing my gramma's phone call and listening to her awkward pause-filled message after I phone her back and we talk about who's pregnant, who's uncle-by-marriage just died, or who came out from back east to visit last month for half an hour. Main point: I'm not allowed to drift away from them, and I think that's great!

3) No one is afraid of dogs.

4) My family is all about adventures. Wether we're walking down to the beach to collect stones (down in Sooke), or going up the mountain with a case of beer to go four bying and light a fire and cook hot dogs, my family are all about simle pleasures. And it doesn't take a whole lot to tickle them pink.

5) They're GOOD PEOPLE. Plain, simple good people, who pray at the dinner table on holidays, and welcome other people who don't have real loving families like ours to be a part of us (like Ken). I can't even think about how many of my brother's friends my mom "adopted" over the years, and gave advice to, and helped build their trucks, commandeered when there was firewood to be chopped, or simply shooted the shit over a coffee with. Even the all-night cry fests that helped me and my siblings brow up to be the people we are were extended to my brother's friends who needed it. I think that's one reason why Courtney decided to finally marry Quinn. Our mom brought her into the family a long time ago. A peice of paper and a ring just makes it official.

6) They like to feed me. When they hear about how empty my fridge is, the first thing my sister does, is put together a care package. We all return the favor one way or another. When my pockets are full of student loan money, my sister and her kids and I spend a day together and I buy them all McDonalds (FOUR friggin happy meals, so that each of them gets a toy, lol!). My brother and Courtney absolutely LOVE having bonfires, and picking up hot dogs, and hamburgers, and between us three siblings bringing over packages, there's always more than enough to feed whoever shows up. And don't even talk to me about my gramma, lol! She despises the ethnic foods Sherayna and I like, with their funny spices, and foreign flavors. No, our gramma's table is ALWAYS filled with mash potatos, and roast beef or chicken, and garden veggies from their own (EXTENSIVE) gardens. And dessert is ALWAYS homemade pie, or cake with ice cream, and frozen sugared berries, again from their own garden. My grandparents eschew all that health food store bullcrap, and make fun of health nuts and dieters whenever they get a chance, but I think they're the most organic people I've ever met!

7) They're all about "stories." Before my grandpa's hearing and sight got as bad as it is, he used to watch lots of shows, besides his news, which he watches religiously. He always called them his "stories." I remember being a little kid, and visiting my grandparents in the summer, he'd shout from the living room, "Hurry up and finish your dinner, Alleah, so you can come watch stories with me!" Besides being the cutest old man imagineable, he's full of real-life stories about the war, and being an aircraft mechanic. The first thing I do when I arrive at their house in Sooke for a weekend visit (the same as my mom when she was alive) is walk around the garden with Grandpa, and talk about the flowers he's growing, and then we go in the house and sit down and he tells me stories about the war. He always gets choked up at something or another, and we move on to whatever politician is pissing Grandpa off this time. He's such a sensitive soul, I wonder what would have become of him, had he been old enough to serve in the war when it was on...I'm glad he wasn't. It would have destroyed him, or killed him. My grandpa is far too loving a man to be able to survive the horror of World War II.

8) Kids are at the top of the social heirarchy in my family. Adults make decisions with The Kids at the front of their minds. Every decision my mom faced, was made with our welfare in mind. Number one is my grandparent's attention are the kids that are running around. They've been raising kids, or helping their kids raise kids, and now are helping THOSE kids raise kids since 1946. I always remember, as soon as I was out of school each summer, my grandparents were constantly bugging my mom to find out when they could take us kids down for a visit. I remember many summers when I spent the whole two months down at their home in Sooke, watching Disney, playing Pocahontas in their garden, cooking myself popcorn and grilled cheese sandwiches while they worked in the garden all day, coming in only for meal times. It must have been a major shock to them, when all of a sudden, I was a "grownup" and had too much to do over the summer what with doing shows and performing with Collective. I remember how bemused they seemed when I asked to take my boyfriend (Geoff) down with me for a visit.

9) My family hasn't changed for a hundred years. They've always been the way they are now, with their food, and their stories, and their love of children. I remember my mom telling me stories about summers she spent visiting her grandparents in Ontario on the farm, learning to ride a horse, helping her grandparents garden. My grandma tells me stories about her grandma teaching her to cook, and how there would be mounds of good food on the table at every holiday to feed the thirteen kids in her family, and whoever came to visit. I remember reading the family tree, when my grandma wrote it up. Beyond the obvious sheets of names, birthdays, marriages and dates of deaths, there were also stories of interest about my ancestors. Stuff like when they came over from Europe, where they came from, and where they went. Famous people affiliated with my family and how. One story was about my great-grandma, Lilian. She was abandoned by her mother and was shunted from foster home to foster home. When she got married, she swore nothing like that would happen in her family. Her husband bought a big old farmhouse, and that's where they both lived out their lives, raising thirteen kids and helping raise those kids' kids (among THOSE, my mother). I consider my lifestyle, and the way my family is to have started with my great-grandma, who was determined that her family would never experience what she had. That's why her picture is on my living room wall.

10) They love me.