Somebody's Getting Marrrrrrriiiiieeeeeeed (Part 2)

For my "baby" sister B, who is getting married in 3 days, grew up with this classic movie... and is now having to hear this phrase at least a billion times before Saturday.

(me and B)

Hooray for childhood sister memories, is all I'm sayin'.

The Happiest Millionaire

"I've been bit on my finger.
It could have been my leg.
It could have been my head; I might have died."

Sister A left this THM quote on my facebook wall last night.  And every time I've thought about this movie, I've had to smile today.  I love how my sisters can say one phrase -- one well-placed, inside joke from childhood -- and my whole day is made. 

If you've never seen Fred McMurray play an eccentric millionaire treasurig his pet alligators and going on chocolate cake diets, you must.  The entire thing is, to sound like my mother, "a hoot."  

"What's wrong with that?  What's wrong with that? My family rushing to my side -- what's wrong with that?"

"Dandy Little Bundle for a Fella to Cuddle"

My sisters and I have created our own language; I think every close family does it.  We have phrases and expressions that we use all the time and which don't always have explanations that seem to fit their use.  For example, "be careful of the icy patch" comes from our childhood (see previous post) and could be used as an ironic reference to an ex-boyfriend who has become rather sketchy, or it could be said while family members enter mom and dad's house, or it might be used on Christmas morning as a declaration of unity:  (ie, as all the sisters raise mugs and declare laughingly, "be careful of the icy patch!")

This ridiculousness is what makes family... well, family.  Dorky inside jokes and stupid memories that get replayed over and over (sometimes to the chagrin of brothers-in-love or soon-to-be brothers-in-love) over dinner and coffee and dessert and breakfast and at the movies and in the car and so on and so on.

The cool thing about husbands joining the ranks of the M girls is that the inside jokes get explained (even if they intrinsically do NOT make sense) and then, when you have the good taste that my sisters have, the husbands join in.  Because they are pretty cool guys, when all is said and done.  After all, any man who thinks that one of my little sisters is A Dandy Little Bundle for a Fella to Cuddle is all right by me.        

Careful of the Icy Patch

The fact that someone on youtube made a montage of "the icy patch" clips from Muppet Family Christmas absolutely MADE MY DAY :)

Here's to family, old movie memories, and being careful of The Icy Patch!

Home

The light is what guides you home, the warmth is what keeps you there. 

~Ellie Rodriguez

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration. 

~Charles Dickens

It's only a week and a half until I leave the cozybutsometimeslonely lodging of my little apartment and head towards the hustle and bustle of another M Family Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's.  It makes me smile just thinking about it -- the laughter, the drama, the cooking, the smooshing into a very small house and fighting over the remote control... ahhh.  Family.  Good times, good times.

My family is big.  And loud.  And passionate about almost everything.  Addendum.  Some of us are passionate about SOME topics, and some of us are bored to tears by said topics.  Which is part of the magic of my family -- there's always something to talk about and almost always someone who will listen to you talk about it.  Or argue with you about why you should be talking about something else :P

Home is a lovely blue house with a beautifully landscaped yard and an American flag always waving from the front porch.  

Home is a blue/white/yellow kitchen, a dining room with a picture window, and a bird identification book always close at hand.


Home is feeling the heat from a freshly poured cup of steaming coffee and seeing the sleepy faces of my family wandering out to the back porch, which has somehow become the unofficial gathering place for starting or ending each day when the whole family's in town.

Home is where the most beautiful, gracious woman in the world answers to the name of "Mom" and leaves little chocolate bars on the pillow when she knows you're coming home...

Home is where a smart, laughing salt-and-pepper headed man steals kisses from her when he thinks we're not looking and always makes sure there's enough coffee in the pot for "one more cup."

Home is where sisters live :)

Happy homecoming to all the weary travelers tonight.  May you know the truth and peace of being HOME -- wherever and with whomever that home exists.

"Like a Wink and a Smile"

When I was eighteen, my very littlest sister and I were best friends. We'd take long walks around the neighborhood together, and I'd ask her not to forget me when I went away to college. She was eight and would promise me with total sincerity that she'd never, ever forget me. And she didn't. All through my first year of college, my little sister would draw me pictures and send me letters covered with stickers and drawings of girls in pretty dresses. When I came home for Christmas, I slept on the floor of her room and we'd whisper secrets to each other.


"Our" song was Harry Connick Jr's "Wink and A Smile" -- we'd sing it to each other and try to figure out which one of us was the Wink and which one was the Smile... Every time I hear this song, I think of that sweet, smiling, little-girl-faced sister who captured my heart so many years ago; baby B was my little soulmate.


This past Saturday, a tall, strong Pennsylvanian boy asked my baby sister B to be HIS soulmate.


She said yes.

Congratulations to my beloved sister and her new reason to smile :)

... and the world must know how wonderful, how wonderful you are!

My sisters and I sing snippets of our childhood to each other.  Yes, we sing.  Randomly, and without regard for where we are, if we see something that reminds us of our childhood -- BAM.  The singing dorkiness erupts and the laughter follows. 

This morning, while wishing my sister A a fabulous happy birthday, I was reminded of this song.  (Probably because I was singing it to her.)  

Happy Birthday, A.  Share your glory.   

My Love Affair with Nat...

If I was told I could only listen to one artist for the rest of my life, it would take me approximately .09 seconds to ask for Nat.  When I was a little girl, my sisters and I would listen to his Christmas album in our basement in the middle of July. Even if it was 95 degrees outside and we wore bathing suits and sunburns, hearing one song from that album would inspire us to tell my mom the basement "smelled" like Christmas.  In college, Nat King Cole introduced me to an era of music that felt immediately like home to my old soul.  Here is Johnny Mercer's "Autumn Leaves," sung by (if the link on the title will work) the velvet genius of the one and only Nat King Cole.  It is, in my opinion, the perfect synthesis of emotion, lyric and melody.

Autumn Leaves

Lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Music by Joseph Kosma

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall