I love my family.
I love them for their details, and for recognizing mine.
I love my Dad for being the quickest person to apologize... We are two of the most stubborn people you'll ever meet. He thinks he broke me (referring to my will); I think he more showed me how to not give in or give up. The best thing he taught me was to be quick to apologize and quick to forgive. Keeping your pride isn't worth it.
I love my mom for being the quickest person to turn a dream into a reality. She's an artist and she doesn't even know it. To her, it's just life. To us, it's just mom being mom. Coming home last night, opening the front door to find a huge spread of fabric and stuffing across the entry way.. "Hi honey" - "Oh, hey mom" - stepping over the threshold, and over mom, and over her latest project to get to the stairs, that's just a normal day. And when I came home late last night to find the kitchen bench re-upholstered... normal. There's not a room in our house that doesn't have something she 'personalized' - be it the bench she built in the kitchen, the painting she touched up in the entry, the walls she learned how to 'marble paint', the 'fire table' outside that she framed, extended and then tiled... or the acre of gardens that encircle our home. If mom has a sketchpad out, dad's grabbing his wallet!
I love Kimberly for her fierce affection and tenderness. She loves like only women in storybooks. She can out-bake anyone, and she will if one of her little sisters is sick with a cold, or a heartache. She's fought to keep close even while far away. She loves her family in a way that never quits and always listens.
I love Kristin for always seeing who (and what) others fail to see. She's strong. I think she might really be the most stubborn of us all, I was just the most vocal about it. I love that she's never satisfied. She goes after the 'more' with a tenacity, even if she doesn't think so. She's always up for something different, and open to discovering someone new. She's almost oblivious to trends because it doesn't really matter to her so much if others love it or hate it. (Strangely, she's also the most 'fashionable' of us all probably.) If she likes it, she likes it.
Just a few thoughts. That was a terrible, tiny little bit about each of them... but it's one of the details of each that has me smiling today. I think it's rare to have an entire family of people who are all 'detail oriented' and yet, I think we all are... in our own ways.
Showing posts with label To be a Kelly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label To be a Kelly. Show all posts
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tradition Nazi says.
I've earned the title from my cut-throat ways and rigid devotion. When holidays come, you best be following the rules. But there are more traditions in my family than just watching particular films on particular days, or going to Starbucks in our pajamas. Oh no, there are far more subtle ones, and I'm not the only one deeply devoted.
I believe I had just gone into 7th or 8th grade and Kristin was in High School when my parents decided to borrow Kim's Camry for a trip to Whistler. The car had a CD player, unlike either of my parents (that's not why we took it, just a benefit). And while cleaning the car before we packed it and took off, Kristin and I discovered it also had a remote. We put in fresh batteries and stored it safely in the back, where we would be. For the next however many hours, Kristin and I would turn the music up for old classics we loved, and down for Sandy Patty and endless Hosanna or Hillsong collections. We had our own disc mans and rather than compete, we'd just gradually notch the volume down notch. I think we did it more for the humor of messing with our parents than anything. We waited until we were home watching the video of the trip to tell them. We'd considered just videoing ourselves doing it, and it will remain a regret of mine that we didn't. It would have been a brilliant way to tell them. Our Dad laughed, and just kept saying "Are you kidding me?!" I love it when we make my dad laugh....
...like another time. Dad was teaching me how to use his video camera. He kept repeating"Just short clips Kati, short clips, a few seconds, then move on. Water! Get that!" If you've ever watched a family video of ours, you may have noticed that there is more in there about running water than there is of say, US. We should refer to them as a documentary of water, not family videos. I think my dad missed his calling, I think he should be out in the wilderness alone, shooting footage of running water for the Discovery Channel or Nature Channel or something. But they'd probably have a problem with his 10 second clips that keep cutting. His greatest fear is footage the way his brother shoots... that runs on and on and on... kind of like his conversations. (Not my dad, his brother. Only my family will find this funny... or you, if you've met him.) By the end of the long walk, after the roll of film was nearly full of footage from the water along Burke Gilman Trail (creeks, the Lake, puddles, streams of dog pee, too much? sorry), my dad was getting stuff out of the car and Kristin and I decided to shoot a little 'deleted scenes' clip. We finished before he got to the front door. It wasn't until that evening, as the footage came to an end and my dad picked up the remote... and then stopped. Kristin appeared on the screen and in a broken series of comments, hammed it up, pretending to break out in sobs. My dad just looked at us. Then laughed. "What the... when'd you...Gah."
My dad has long decided he either takes Kristin OR I, he won't take us both. He can't handle us together he says. But that's funny, since we got it from him. My dad is one of the most playful guys I've ever met. Teasing friends, his daughters, or strangers. He's the guy who'd walk to the front and address a full movie theatre, "I know you're all wondering why we've called you here." Or, turn around in a full elevator and say the same thing. Walking through a crowded mall, my dad would stop and suddenly started calling out "Lorette! Lorette! Don't leave me Lorette!" thrusting his arms out and around as if he were blind. People would begin looking around for who this heartless Lorette was, who would just walk off and leave her poor blind man without his bearings. She'd just keep walking... my mom is one of the feisty women you've ever met. And loving. She fits the Irish image quite well. ;)
Yes, teasing and games are a tradition I don't have to insist be followed, the whole family is pretty serious about them. (Not to be confused with boardgames. Pray you never have to play a boardgame with my family. Pray!)
I've earned the title from my cut-throat ways and rigid devotion. When holidays come, you best be following the rules. But there are more traditions in my family than just watching particular films on particular days, or going to Starbucks in our pajamas. Oh no, there are far more subtle ones, and I'm not the only one deeply devoted.
I believe I had just gone into 7th or 8th grade and Kristin was in High School when my parents decided to borrow Kim's Camry for a trip to Whistler. The car had a CD player, unlike either of my parents (that's not why we took it, just a benefit). And while cleaning the car before we packed it and took off, Kristin and I discovered it also had a remote. We put in fresh batteries and stored it safely in the back, where we would be. For the next however many hours, Kristin and I would turn the music up for old classics we loved, and down for Sandy Patty and endless Hosanna or Hillsong collections. We had our own disc mans and rather than compete, we'd just gradually notch the volume down notch. I think we did it more for the humor of messing with our parents than anything. We waited until we were home watching the video of the trip to tell them. We'd considered just videoing ourselves doing it, and it will remain a regret of mine that we didn't. It would have been a brilliant way to tell them. Our Dad laughed, and just kept saying "Are you kidding me?!" I love it when we make my dad laugh....
...like another time. Dad was teaching me how to use his video camera. He kept repeating"Just short clips Kati, short clips, a few seconds, then move on. Water! Get that!" If you've ever watched a family video of ours, you may have noticed that there is more in there about running water than there is of say, US. We should refer to them as a documentary of water, not family videos. I think my dad missed his calling, I think he should be out in the wilderness alone, shooting footage of running water for the Discovery Channel or Nature Channel or something. But they'd probably have a problem with his 10 second clips that keep cutting. His greatest fear is footage the way his brother shoots... that runs on and on and on... kind of like his conversations. (Not my dad, his brother. Only my family will find this funny... or you, if you've met him.) By the end of the long walk, after the roll of film was nearly full of footage from the water along Burke Gilman Trail (creeks, the Lake, puddles, streams of dog pee, too much? sorry), my dad was getting stuff out of the car and Kristin and I decided to shoot a little 'deleted scenes' clip. We finished before he got to the front door. It wasn't until that evening, as the footage came to an end and my dad picked up the remote... and then stopped. Kristin appeared on the screen and in a broken series of comments, hammed it up, pretending to break out in sobs. My dad just looked at us. Then laughed. "What the... when'd you...Gah."
My dad has long decided he either takes Kristin OR I, he won't take us both. He can't handle us together he says. But that's funny, since we got it from him. My dad is one of the most playful guys I've ever met. Teasing friends, his daughters, or strangers. He's the guy who'd walk to the front and address a full movie theatre, "I know you're all wondering why we've called you here." Or, turn around in a full elevator and say the same thing. Walking through a crowded mall, my dad would stop and suddenly started calling out "Lorette! Lorette! Don't leave me Lorette!" thrusting his arms out and around as if he were blind. People would begin looking around for who this heartless Lorette was, who would just walk off and leave her poor blind man without his bearings. She'd just keep walking... my mom is one of the feisty women you've ever met. And loving. She fits the Irish image quite well. ;)
Yes, teasing and games are a tradition I don't have to insist be followed, the whole family is pretty serious about them. (Not to be confused with boardgames. Pray you never have to play a boardgame with my family. Pray!)
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