Holiday Memories

Hmm, so Holiday Havoc is the prompt. I'll just start with holiday memories and see where that takes me.

Holiday Memories:

• playing Pictionary with Wes's family ("We're the same stupid.")
• kickball games at Aunt Carolyn's house (Robby's shout during kickball)
• getting my 1974 MG Midget convertible for the 16th Christmas and not knowing how to drive a standard
• making candy with my family

Here's the Pictionary story: Will, my nephew, insists upon a family game of Pictionary the night before Thanksgiving, the one day we can all get together. I resist but not for long because everyone else is playing. Wes's two brothers, Billy and Jeff, play on the same team with Will, Billy's son. Wes and I are on the same team with others.

The card requires an all-play to draw Hercules. I'm no artist, so I draw my regular stick figure but give him big biceps. Of course, he looks like he has cysts or tumors instead of muscles, but it doesn't matter because Billy shouts out, "Hercules!"

"How did Jeff draw Hercules?" I wonder and lean forward to see his notepad. What I see is a stick figure standing between two columns, pushing them over. "That's Samson, not Hercules!" I yell.

Everyone laughs as they realize Jeff drew Samson. Billy grins and says, "My brother and me, we're the same stupid."

Here's another Thanksgiving story. This time we're at my aunt's house, where we eat Thanksgiving lunch with about eighty of my closest relatives. After the game ends, we head outside for the annual kickball game. I watch and talk to Wes while he snaps pictures.

My cousin Robby stands with some other cousins and talks while his wife Brenda plays.

Brenda kicks the ball, and it soars past the oak tree serving as third base. She rounds first and heads to second base, the Wal-Mart bag filled with pine cones. Tom, another cousin, gets the ball and fires it at Brenda. It nails her on the rear.

Robby yells, "Tom, if you missed the target, I was gonna tell you to get your eyes checked!"

I look at Wes and say, "How long have they been married?"

"Long enough, I guess," he responds.

***

Even though I chose the topic, it didn't really engage me until I started telling stories. Then, I typed and giggled, wanting to interrupt Lindsi and Diana to talk about my stories, but refusing to interrupt them while they typed.