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Monday, July 13, 2009

Ahhh, family visits! What are weekends for?

My family is a little strange. You may have gathered that from reading the odd snippet about them here and there. Growing up we alternated religions and diets (we were vegetarian for a while, macrobiotic juicers for a stint, junk food eaters currently), we were rather haphazardly homeschooled, and of course...there are eleven of us. Once in a while I drag my patient husband over to hang with my seven brothers (the seven brothers thing totally intimidated him while we were dating). Luckily, my hubby speaks my brothers' language, i.e. football, so they all get along.
Yesterday we came for an unannounced visit since we were in the area. Here's what went down:
1. Matthew showed me the new porch extension the boys and Dad built from scratch, and the new table bird feeder.
2. Izzy pointed out two tit-mouses (tit-mice?) eating from the feeder...scaring them away with his super-deep man voice (when did they all grow up?!)
3. Mom pulled out a snack of bagels with peanut butter..from the freezer. Now really, who freezes bagels with peanut butter? I'm so confused. We couldn't even microwave them because my mom thinks microwaves will kill you so they don't own one.
4. Izzy and the hubby discussed fantasy football teams. Usually Izzy picks Hubby's team because Izzy is kind of our resident expert.
5. Abe came home from the gym and told me his latest running times - he now holds the state record for the 4-mile in his age group!
6. Dad never showed up. Where was he? Joey was at work so we didn't get to hash the atheist thing out.
7. I decided to stir the pot by telling the world that Abe was a cuter baby than Sam was. Not sure why I thought that would be a good idea; I think I was trying to get Sam to talk. He's like Silent Cal.
8. Sam said nothing because Sam never talks, he just smirks and winks. Sam is brilliant but he only speaks when absolutely necessary.

Then we left and had Thai food because the frozen bagels didn't fill us up much.
Now for a confession. I only visit my family like 4 times a year and they only live an hour away! I'm so busy all the time, and they never come visit me, so it's hard on me to make that trip too often. But hubby thinks I need to visit more. How often is "just right" for family visits? Do your families live close or far away, and how often do you visit?
And most importantly, do you freeze your bagels and PB?

4 comments:

  1. I live three doors down from my in-laws and I can tell you that that is too close. I live about 8 minutes away from my parents and that seems to be close enough. Surprisingly (or not, depending on how you look at it) I see my family WAY more than I see my in-laws. I figure, you see them as much as you want to see them and are able to see them. No need to stress about it, right?

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  2. And, no, I do not freeze bagels and PB. I can see freezing bagels (my mom does it all the time) but the peanut butter ... no way!

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  3. Hee hee the bagels and peanut butter thing...my mom kills me, I remember her freezing bean sprouts when I was a kid...
    My in-laws live about 30 minutes away and we're pretty close to them, so we see them at least once a week. That just makes me feel worse about neglecting MY family!
    :(

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  4. Being from Germany, try at least to visit them once a year. Now with a kid it starts to cost too. Living in the same street, even on the other side of 'parents-in-law' turned out to be both: too close and a great help, especialy with the kid. So I guess it is always a mixture of good/bad. And after all they are parents.

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