La mia famiglia

Perks about being a member of my family:

1. The wake up call.
This consists of the three youngest children in the family creating a melody and making the words, 'wake up, it's time for prayer,' fit into it. They then scream this enchanting melody at the top of their lungs and pound at your door with all of their might until you finally find the energy to pull yourself out of bed to open it. They then drag you up the stairs, continuing to serenade you with their newly created song, all the while acting like various animals. (This morning, it was toads.) This persists until one of the older kids groggily walks in the living room and threatens to remove, with a toothbrush, the vocal chords of small children who continue to sing. The choral procession quickly ceases; however, various, older members of the family embarrassedly catch themselves humming the tune throughout the rest of the morning.

2. The conversations
The conversations in my house have the reputations of perpetually turn into somewhat of an argument; so much so, in fact, that we have had (more than one) family home evening lessons on the important ability of being able to discuss without arguing. Hilarious, I know. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone expresses it... loudly. Often, if there is a heated discussion going on in the kitchen, members of the family will flock there-- they don't want to miss out on the fun. Most of the time, though, when they get there, they don't know what they discussion is about, and so they ask strings of questions to get in-the-know. Lengthy conversations are often repeated anywhere from 2-4 times. The subject matter of the conversations also can be especially amusing. For purpose of this blog, I will give you an instance that happened just last night.
My mom, dad, sister and I were the only 'older' people home, so we were hanging out in the kitchen, eating and talking like we usually do. My mom and dad started making fresh salsa. (Which is divine, I might add.) After making the salsa, we got out some chips, and went to town. However, after about 2 seconds of this, my Dad made a comment on the bitterness of the salsa. For the next 15 minutes, a discussion on the topic of what could possibly be making the salsa so bitter ensued. In the meantime, my 13 year old sister arrived home, 15 minutes later for curfew. She got a few words spoken to her by my parents, started eating the salsa, and joined in on the bitter-salsa conversation. My 15-year old sister eventually organized the salsa in a way that allowed her to taste each individual part. Her taste buds' consensus on the bitterness was the onions. This theory was tested by the connoisseurs of the salsa-- my mother and father-- and the conclusion was made that we needed different onions.
Another example:
Last year, my family was attending my Grandmother's funeral. It was a poignant day, as most funerals are. We were acting accordingly, until after the burial when all the relatives were visiting, and we had, for lack of a better phrase, free time. My brothers and I then casually started a conversation about the theory of relativity. It was a passing thought that someone vocalized, that eventually became a heated discussion involving many ideas and theories; not only the one presented by Einstein. The conversation was enlightening and, one might say delightful to the mind; but was halted when we were scolded for being too irreverent. We then reverted back to sitting quietly and picking at our vegetables while the adults talking about... adult stuff.
Along with various, random topics of conversation; my family incessantly argues over grammar/definitions/facts.


3. The sarcasm/Teasing.
It is nearly impossibly to say something even partially unintelligent in my family, and not have someone make fun of you for it. Tripping/falling/dropping things causes relentless teasing, and unremitting laughter; even by persons such as my eight-year old sister. No one is exempt from the can-be-teased category; not even my parents.
Example of this:
Because of the size of my family, it is getting increasingly harder to get my entire family together at the same time. As a result of this, we do our Family Home Evening on Sunday night, and then do a family activity on Monday night. So, we were having our Family Home Evening this Sunday, and it was Maxwell's turn to pick an opening song. He chose "The Wise Man, and the Foolish Man." A classic. We start to sing the song, actions and all, and I decide I'm going to be a little interpretive about it. Instead of doing the typical "rain" hand movements, I do a little side-to-side action with my hands, thinking no one will notice, or care for that matter. Apparently I've been away from my family for too long. As soon as my brother saw my liberal hand movements, he immediately began to mock me. This mocking lasted all the way through the story of the foolish man, and continued after the prayer.

4. The raucous declaration of, "Kaylie's home!!!" as I walk through the door. (I know that is punctuated extremely poorly, but I don't want to fix it, and so this is my disclaimer.) The small siblings bombard me with kisses and hugs, and I absolutely love it. LOVE it.

5. Mom always sends me home with food-- and most of the time it's good stuff that I can't buy. Like, for instance, the bottled peaches she sent me home with last night.




Yeah, my family is awesome.