NaBloPoMo: Tell us about your grandparents

February is my Blog Post a Day Month and so i have jumped onto the blog wagon and will post a blog a day based off of the prompts given by @blogherblogging. This month's theme is all about family.



NaBloPoMo Prompt of the Day (Feb 6): Tell us about your grandparents

My mom's parents

Oh grandparents.... they are so much more than a Christmas card and 20 bucks on your birthday. I lost my grandfather between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2011. He was an amazing man who til the day he died would refer to me as "eric" or "peanut." Some of my favorite childhood memories with him were over the holidays when we would watch football and cheer on whatever team i liked at the time. My grandmother continues to provide comic relief into her 80s. As she has gotten older, her "absent mindedness" has continued to show itself.

Roommates in college will attest to the random cards and newspaper clipping that i would receive about topics ranging from student debt to weight loss. I guess that she was trying to send me a message.... naw! After college and in graduate school, this grandma graduated to packages and random things. Whenever a package would arrive on my front door, it was usually the "free crap" given away at the casinos that grandma thought that i absolutely needed.

The package that takes the cake is one that was full of unmentionables. My grandmother has battled through cancer and the loss of lung and as a result has lost a lot of weight. Because she lost all of this weight, she got it into her mind that i would love to have her old clothing that no longer fits her. WRONG! As she was going through this "spring cleaning" process, she decided to mail me a box full of bras and undies... granny pants up to your boobs and full coverage bras... not my style at all. The roommates and i got a huge laugh out of this and since that day, that package has gone down as "the package heard 'round the world."

My dad's parents

So on to the other set of grandparents...they fight and nag each other like cats and dogs but it is entertaining as hell. Every Christmas morning they host the breakfast meal of apple and banana fritters and pineapple sausage. All of the cousins meet there and it is the one time of the year that we are usually all in the same place at the same time.

Some of my favorite memories of these two involve a box of macaroni and cheese in their old house. I remember as a kid that my sister and i would always make our way over their house and immediately request mac and cheese. It didn't matter if it was 8 o'clock in the morning or night... we wanted that yummy cheesy mac from the blue box.

I also had a step grandmother from my stepdad who was lovely lady from Austria that always had chocolate in her house. Whenever we would go visit her she would have chocolate in the fridge that we would immediately gravitate towards.

The last set of grandparents are from my stepmom. While Manuel passed away a few ears back, Tomie still lives on and makes tons of food for everyone. My favorite memories of these two together are gathering on Christmas Eve and singing Feliz Navidad while Manuel strummed the guitar. Tomie still to this day makes tortillas and pesole which are two of my favorite things!!!!