we got to see a ton of friends over christmas. as usual, i failed to remember to take pictures of 90% of it. which is probably okay, since we would have had our eyes shut and mouths open for most of it. seriously, i pulled muscles i didn’t know i had laughing so damn much for 10 days straight.
our first day in town, we rolled out of bed, got dressed, and got to work on the piles of italian treats from The Hill in STL at my parents’ house with WaltJizzney and his kids, RiledUp and IFlingPoo (his wife CrazierThanThou was stuck in an almost-eternal airport layover, cussing out customer service and eventually “going Office Space” on a phone and leaving it in pieces), and TalkyTalky and his son TalkyJunior (his wife BicycleIrish and their new baby girl couldn’t make it because the baby was sick… probably a good call, given how many different ways the rest of our kids were sick and how bad they are at germ control.)
this is as close as i got to photographing the wiley chillens… caught the back of Evilgremlin’s head and a blur of IFlingPoo. TalkyJunior was captured motionless for a moment while eating.
note that WaltJizzney is wearing his “normal” glasses.
the next night, PositiveRoleModel’s class held an impromptu 15-year reunion at a bar downtown, where we got to see TheWriter, (and meet her husband TheGamer – technically, he’s also a writer, but we’re trying to keep shit simple here), WaltJizzney and CrazierThanThou, and some other random folks. then came a whole bunch of christmas, and later in the week, OrangeJewess stopped by in between lunch with a high school friend and getting locked out of her dad’s house, and we went to St Louis for sushi with TheDoctor and his wife. and finally, we got to see MonkeyHouse and his wife ZooKeeper. MonkeyHouse was the very first friend i made when i started high school. i had just gotten back from four years in germany, i was starting my sophomore year and i had no idea what the hell was going on. i was a deer in the culture-shock headlights. MonkeyHouse took one look at me and said, “you look happy. who died? i’m going to call you smiley.” it’s a nickname that has stuck, though its been a while since it’s been ironic.
anyway. their two boys are the same age as EvilGremlin and the twits, so they knew just what to do… march in the door with their BakuTins full of BakuCards and Bakugan, and have a BakuBrawl. and pretend their parents aren’t being wierd when they misspronounce bakugan as, say, bukkake. oops!
you know what’s really awesome about good friends that you stay in touch with your whole life? their kids are AWESOME. sometimes, after an “incident” with a neighborhood kid here and there, i’ve worried that my kids didn’t fit in. but anytime they hang out with their gaggle of second cousins (or once-removed, or some shit… i forget. we’re part mexican; they’re part italian; it’s just “cousins.” fuck it), or TalkyTalky’s kids, or MonkeyHouse’s kids, or TheDoctor’s kids, or WaltJizzney’s kids, i’m reminded that they’re just fine. hours on end with little to no supervision, and there’s no boredom, no whining, no tattling… they laugh, they share, everyone behaves like a model citizen and has an awesome time.
next up: happy family christmas special time, and a toast to the new year!
