My family is my crazy factor. My family is my therapy session. My family is my rock. My family is my sanity. My family is my best qualities. My family is Italian.
The best way to describe my family is to give an explanation of a typical day with my entire family. First off, we ALWAYS meet up at my grandparents house for family nights, which is usually every Sunday at 2pm. Never, in the history of ever, have we hangout at another family members house; my grandparents house is the only one that is a neutral playing field.
This is what I mean by neutral: there is no bickering over who is the favorite of the family that gets to host all the functions. If we host it at my house, then my mom is considered the best cook of the family and then it gets around and there is a weird, non-existent fight in the air. If we host it at my uncle's then everyone gets mad because he lives so far that there must be something really special about his family that we need to drive all the way to their house. And the insanity goes on and on.
When we get to my grandparents house there are two things that are certain:
1. my mom, dad, brother and I are always 2 hours late. Never more. Never less.
2. we always prepare something to eat to bring over that day
Once we walk in the door, you have to seriously watch out. My cousins are always running around bumping into important possessions and falling all over the place. After we make it past the traffic, it's like we stepped back in time into the 1920s. All the men are sprawled out on the couches watching the latest sports game and eating chips, pepperoni, cashews and olives. I make my way over to the women in the kitchen and start to help prepare the dinner for tonight or at least the appetizers (bear with me, it get's very very 1920s). Once we all sit down to eat at our very long dining table, to house all our family members, we eat like there is no tomorrow. Politics and religion seem to always wiggle its way into the conversation and once it gets too heated to even bear the situation, I take my latest book and head to the bedroom for quiet reading time, of course, after I help clean the table. Occasionally I can hear my grandpa scream from his comfy couch seat in front of the TV, "Die! Get me some Cuwafeee!". Before he can even finish, my grandma, Diane, screams back from the kitchen, "Do I look like your servant?! Get it yaself!". Then, in a couple hours, we have dessert and watch a movie or gossip until we are too tired to talk or until the first adult drops from being too drunk. Time to go home!
Even though this scenario sounds pretty weird at parts and something I would dislike, I really love it. These crazy people are what sends my safe, little, orderly world into chaos, which is what I need. I love when my cousins come to me with problems or when I have to breakup a fight between two little italian stallion boys. Even though we have our family drama, I know we will always be be there for each other even as the generations come and go. I hope that when I have a family of my own, we still have the same Sunday get togethers but maybe the men will cook this time around more while the women get some laid back, much deserved chill time.
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