We had my family visit this week, it was a very fun weekend. We stayed up until 3-4am Friday night and we ran around all day Saturday doing as much as we could do to fill up a Saturday. They all live next door to each other in a small south Texas town about three hours away so family dynamic is hard to change. We are mostly all married with our own families, except for my younger brother, who had lived with us recently until he left to make his fortunes in the oil fields down there.
My mom was always the head of the household growing up with my dad being a truck driver and thus was not home as much as we would have liked. She relied on me, the oldest son, to help as much as possible, she being a teacher and earning a Master's Degree to become a counselor right as I entered high school. My next sibling, always the talker and master negotiator to get out of doing chores, has found the perfect profession for him. He is an attorney, and by all accounts a good one. My sister, who was always Mama's Little Girl, has followed in her footsteps, becoming a teacher first and now an assistant vice principal. My other brother who did not come up this weekend, is now working as a safety inspector out in the oil fields with my sister's husband.
The interesting thing to me is how things don't seem to change. My sister, having developed a tough outer shell and become a disciplinarian, still wants Mama around every step of the way, my brother and I still make jokes that she needs her food cut for her by mommy and/or she's fussy cause mama hasn't burped her. My brother still likes to keep the entertainment going by running his mouth and cracking wise about any and everything he notices.
I didn't necessarily see it like my brother, but we went to Jumpoline (a cool place for kids with wall to wall trampolines), and although we paid for an hour, my sister wanted to head to the mall, of course my mom had to get going following her, leaving about fifteen minutes of fun time on our paid wristbands. It's not like I can jump and my older boy is too cool to do it, my younger boy was soaked with sweat and he was about done, so I had no problem leaving. My brother was a little bothered because his daughter wanted to stay longer, but once everyone starts leaving, well, party's over.
We all met up at mall by Santa, my parents wanted to take a picture with all their grandkids, but my mom thought line would take too long. Mr. Attorney talked us all into getting in line. It didn't take very long, my older son and I ran to Sears to look at some stuff he needs to redecorate his room, so I still found a way to be productive, and as soon as we finished the Santa picture, we were on our way to our dinner reservations across town.
Dinner was predetermined, I introduced them to the Estancia Churrascaria a few years ago, and now it's only place they want to eat as a family. It is more than dinner, it is an experience. Forget the sides (they do have a salad bar which comes with meal), this place is all about the meat. Gauchos bring you 14 different cuts of meat from beef, pork, chicken, and lamb. The meat keeps coming til you say "no mas". You will surely go home in a meat coma, if that is your goal.
Afterwards, the ladies still managed to go do a little late night shopping, all us men folk, stayed home, rubbing our bellies swearing not to eat like that again.
They left early, as they always do, but I enjoyed myself. This is the reason I have my large house, so we can all get together under one roof occasionally. Hopefully, they'll be back soon, my mom makes a big deal about bothering us when they come over, but really, what else are we doing?
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