La herencia de los abuelos. Keeping up the family legacy

New Year’s Eve 2013, the cousins and our spouses. We may be getting older but we still relish in each other’s company.

The cousins, we may all look different, but we sure act alike! Answer to the question: You related…is obvious when you watch how we all act. Kind of scary for the spouses I would say…hahaaha!

 

La herencia de mis abuelos paternos es la importancia de la familia. Para ellos la familia que iba a la iglesia juntos y rezaba juntos quedaba juntos. Hace seis años que mis abuelos murieron, pero la mayoría de nosotros, mis primos y sus esposos porque ya somos viejos y casados, y mis tios tratamos de mantener esa creencia en la importancia de los lazos familiares. Lo que pasa es que ya somos grandes, hemos perdido nuestra fundación, nuestros abuelos, pero ahora sabemos que ellos tenían razón. Aunque la mayoria de nosotros ya no vamos a la iglesia, creemos en vivir la vida bien, tratar a la gente como le merece y enseñar a nuestros hijos la importancia de la familia y la humildad. Además Díos está en todos lados, no solo la iglesia los domingos. Me encanta que puedo pasar tanto tiempo con mis primos y que somos tan unidos. No importa si crecíamos juntos o no, somos de la misma mente, la misma vaina, la misma familia. — The legacy of my paternal grandparents was and always will be the importance of family. For them, the family that went to church together and prayed together stayed together. It’s been about six years since my grandmother and then my grandfather left us for the bigger family reunion in heaven, but most of us, all of us cousins and our spouses, because yes, we are getting up there where most of the grandkids are now married, and our parents try to maintain the belief in the importance of family ties. Our grandparents were the foundation and we lost them, but now that we are all older, we’ve come to realize that they had a point. When the chips are down, even though you don’t get to choose them, most of your family will be there whether it’s something simple like moving a couch or losing/gaining a loved one. Those relationships though, need to be nurtured like any other. I love it that we would all prefer to hang out with each other at one of our Aunts’ or Uncles’ houses on nights like New Year’s Eve or other special occasions rather than hanging out with friends. I’m thankful that our spouses and significant others understand and appreciate those special bonds that we share as family and that they’re okay with hanging out with family. Of course, the fact that they’re with us to begin with shows that they’re okay with the crazy that is our family. One of my uncles commented that our grandparents would be proud with the way many of us cousins have continued to value each other and our friendships with one another over all else. In my heart I know he’s right, that’s a very wise uncle of mine.

We’re a little bit nuts ¡Estamos un poco locos!

The crazies

Crazy, locos, that’s us. My family is a little bit nuts! Okay, a lot nuts! We’re the type of family that you have to make sure you go to the bathroom often so you don’t have an accident while laughing.

My dad has five sisters and they’re all very close. They hang out with each other and throughout the years, they continue to crack each other and us up on a daily basis. I admire that even now they are company for each other, they hang out with each other whenever they have a chance. When my grandmother was alive, they used to do “girls’ day out” as in pick her up and haul her to the movies. Everyone has the same weird sense of humor so it’s not like they had to argue over which movie to watch. It’s comforting to know my aunties have each other as company especially as they all get older.

For all of us, nieces and nephews, they are our greatest fans and our biggest critics. They’re the first to cheer and shout in support of us from athletic events, graduations, to other lifetime events. They are also the first to smack us on the head if we are getting to big for our britches in the ever loving attempt to keep you humble that only your family member are allowed to impart with such honesty. I think there are very few families out there where the 20 and 30 something year old nieces and nephews would prefer to ring in the new year with the 50+ aunties, yep we’re a weird bunch o’ nuts.

Oops wrong football! ¡Es fútbol!

Hanauma Bay

Last week Sunday the husband and I spent a few hours at Hanauma Bay… as you can see from the picture, the beach was pretty deserted which was interesting knowing how much of a tourist attraction Hanauma is. We sat there for a good while trying to figure out why the beach was so deserted on a Sunday and then I heard a group starting to hoot and whoop because they had just checked the “score.” Ding! We’re probably the only ones in the US who are into the wrong kind of “football.”

Our family is into fútbol. We like soccer, my husband was born and raised in South America, I played soccer when I was a girl and I’ve lived and studied in South America and have come to think of Argentina as my second “home.” I’m still the football coach’s daughter though, I understand the game; had to, dad coached for years, younger brother played and my high school girlfriends and I were the “stats girls.” It’s just that after years of being “forced” to live and breathe that kind of football, I choose to enjoy the fútbol that I loved playing as a girl. The fútbol that can unite an entire country for a time at least, and during Mundial season result in even the local priest telling people to stay home on Sunday and watch the game!

I like to mess with my students because I work at a high school that’s big on football, so the boys will ask me so Ms. who’s your favorite football team, and I’ll look at them without batting an eyelash and say Barcelona. Usually it takes a good 10 seconds for that to sink in and register with them. And then they say…awwww come on Ms. seriously who’s your favorite football team. And I generally respond with that is a football team. What can I say, our family is the only one that doesn’t get upset if drill weekend falls on Superbowl Sunday and Monday nights are great at my house because my husband and I can actually talk, he’s not watching the game on TV. In fact, we take serious advantage of the fact that everyone else in the US is football obsessed, from hitting Hanauma bay on Superbowl Sunday to hitting the theater and other normally crowded locales on a Monday night. However, when the World Cup rolls around….now that’s a different story at our house altogether!!