Kith & Kin

Author’s Note: I wrote this story over twenty years ago. As I often do, I’ve taken an actual event and related it, I hope, with some humor. Is every fact strictly true? No, but at least 90% of it is. Or maybe 80%. Either way, I hope you enjoy it! So my brother Eric and his wife, Aimee, want us all to go to Acres of Fun to let the kids play and for a game of Laser Tag. I am almost forty years old; I do not want to play Laser Tag. It is stupid and pointless. It is beneath my dignity . . . way beneath it. But I do not tell anyone that I am feeling this way. I do not want to be petty. So we get to Acres of Fun. It takes about three hours for the guy at the desk to figure out how to charge us for six kids and four adults. You’d think they’d never had a group this big come in before. So then Eric gets us all paid for (he and Aimee are paying for this, which is another reason I have vowed not to grouse), and the kids go over to the “Soft Play” zone. You know, that’s like a McDo...

Thanksgiving is perhaps the best holiday of the year, filled with many traditions in our house. The day goes something like this. . . . Mama is up at 6 to put the turkey in. Back to bed briefly. Up at 7 to put the ham in. Showers. Takes the dog on a walk. It’s now 8 am. Time to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Slam the vacuum packs softly on the edge of the counter so as not to awaken an irritable male. Like a grizzly bear, the household male is hibernating, and, if awoken accidentally, is likely to come out of his cave in what could be called a “mood.” Put the cinnamon rolls in the oven on the rack below the turkey and ham. Wash up dishes from the morning’s preparations. Get out the mixer, corn, corn meal, and other ingredients to make Mama’s Famous Corn Casserole. Mix ingredients thoroughly, according to the recipe. Pull cinnamon rolls out of the oven and drizzle frosting over them. Set them on the counter, knowing that their scent will awaken Papa Bear as it wafts t...