Showing posts with label childhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label childhood. Show all posts

Friday, January 4, 2013

30 Questions: Family Dynamics

Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.

Okay, I've kind of been putting this one off. It's not because I don't want to share my family dynamics...it's not that at all! It's just that there's a lot more to this answer than a simple "Then is was ___ and now it is ____."

So, family dynamic of childhood.

My brother, sister and I were pretty imaginative kids. My parents kind of let us do our own thing, which cultivated that imagination. We ran all over backyards and basements, dreaming up ridiculous TV shows (complete with theme songs) that we starred in. We made "potions" from whatever we could find. My parents were always there for us and we did get in trouble when it was warranted, but they let us figure ourselves out and make our own mistakes. 

Among the kids, I was sort of a silent ringleader. My brother and I would gang up on my sister (as she was the youngest and generally the most likely to tattle/whine/etc.)...but I somehow always managed to avoid getting in trouble even though my brother was not so fortunate.

And now, the dynamics of today.

We're all friends. Parents, siblings...we just hang out. Clearly, there's still a slightly different dynamic between me and my parents and me and siblings, but we all like each other. I talked to my mom and dad on the phone almost every day. When I'm home, I go out to the bars with my siblings. My whole family plays drinking games together. We like going on vacation together.

In short, it's pretty awesome.

I'm pretty blessed to have such an awesome family!

Monday, December 3, 2012

30 Questions: Childhood Memories

Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.

Those of you who know me well know that I have an absolutely horrible memory (well, unless we're talking about song lyrics or very random trivia). This applies to me as a little kid, as well. So, most of my childhood memories are lacking in detail because I don't remember much of them!

My biggest memory from childhood is baking cookies. Whether it was Christmas or just making chocolate chip cookies, it was always an event. My brother and I would always make a game of sneaking to the refrigerator to snag a taste of cookie dough while it was chilling. There was always a fight over who got to lick the bowl or the spoon. Usually, I cheated by "accidentally" leaving a lot of dough on the spoon and claiming that. Christmas cookies were the biggest of all our baking - it was an all-day event, starting with making the dough, then chilling it for a few hours, then absolutely destroying the kitchen in a cloud of powdered sugar and flour as we rolled out the dough and eventually iced the cookies. And every year, we took a picture like this:


Next stop on the memory train is family travel. I remember going on my first cruise when I was in 4th grade with my mom's entire extended family (cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents). To a 4th grader, that ship seemed like being let loose in a big city! We went to our kid's clubs and snuck through the casino even though we were convinced we'd get kicked off if we got caught in there. Also when I was little, I went to Washington, DC, with my dad. We waited in line with some Chinese tourists at the Washington Monument who were obsessed with my blonde hair and wanted to take pictures with me. I wore little dresses around because I was at an age where I liked to do that. It was a great trip for a young girl to go on!

Finally, I remember creating crazy, imaginative games out of nothing with my brother and sister. We still laugh today about some of the things we came up with! We had "games" called Alaska (this was mainly just hiding under lots of blankets), Kitty Kitty Kittens, the Return of the Alien Show and many, many more. Most had their own theme songs to go with them, too. We were very creative children who really found a way to have fun with just about anything. 

So, there are the memories. And as a bonus, here is my famous photo from my infancy.




Monday, November 21, 2011

21 Things

21 signs you grew up in the '90s...and I totally get all of them!