I Want This Gift

I love my family. You all know this. I just came back from Thanksgiving and even though there were some rough spots (when aren't there?!), it was fantastic. They are so full of love and life and character, it makes the word 'family' shine.

My little brother. My best friend and worst enemy. But mostly my best friend. He and I have been through more together than anyone else has been through with me. And I've been through a lot of crap with a ton of people. I would be lost without him. He's really grown up to be a hilarious, quick, smart, sensitive guy. He tells Michael (the older of the two cousins on mom's side) that he loves him (he tells everyone that, but anywho). Like, I watched him say that to Michael yesterday morning and was just so amazed at how he could make those three words 'cool'. Michael will never think it's not a 'guy thing' to say that you love someone. I think that's incredible, and I bet Mark doesn't even know he has done that for Michael. Not to mention Mark and I had 'girl talk' at two in the morning watching 'Along Came Polly' and 'Blue Crush', that was fun. We talked about computer games and I was able to watch his multimedia project video, which was so impressive! It was all stop motion, and it's just like 'what happened to that pudgy little Buddha child I used to beat the living daylights out of?' Mark hugs me when I cry, and he does damage control with mom. I try to do the same for him. When I wasn't feeling well Thanksgiving morning, he totally took both kids and let me sleep in. Michael came down at 6am to pull off Mark's sock. I hear:

"Hey! Not my sock...aw, now my feet are cold."
*giggles*
Then, twenty minutes later he sits up and goes
"I found my sock."

It's some of that stupid stuff that is SO funny to us. We taught Michael and Michele the game "Guess What?" "What?" "Five minutes to get rid of it." That was, maybe a bad choice, in retrospect. We also played the game "You remind me of a man!" What man?" "The man with the power. " "What power?" "The power of voo-doo!" "Who do?" "You do!" "I do what?" "Remind me of a man!"" "What man?" "The man with the power...." and so on. Michael's a smart kid, he came down one morning and said that to us while we ere half asleep, and I said "What man?" Thinking it was cute he remembered that we talked about it the night before. He goes "Five minutes to get rid of it!" And runs away laughing his fool head off. Oh that child. So, that's my shpeal on the boys.

This Italian family of mine loves the sounds of Frank Sinatra. My Pop-Pop *is* better than Frank. Seriously. I may be bias,m but I don't give a damn. He sings so beautifully. And Frank has been his MAN since before I can remember. When I was little, and would play in a baby pool, Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom would sit out in the sun with their old silver portable radio, the antenna way up, and Frank would be blasting. My grandparents are So in love. They fight and pick at each other, but they love each other. When Pop-Pop does something and Mom-Mom goes 'Oh, I don't want to talk to you." He'll bat his eyes and try to give her a hug and say "I love ya sweetheart! Don't you love me, honey?" And she'll swat him with a dishtowel while she goes to get more dishes off the dinner table. It's just, stuff like that. He does the sweetest things for her, she does the cutest things for him. They are so loving. And generous! More than anyone. No one has a bad thing to say about them.

Thanksgiving night while we were doing dishes, the whole house was singing to Frank Sinatra. And the song "New York, New York" came on. Mom-Mom was sitting next to Michele and I and Pop-Pop was singing his heart out while people started to do the dishes. My mom said to him "Go dance with Mom(-Mom), Dad." And he told her "No, she don't want to dance." But he locked at her and she held her hands out, and everyone laughed. So, he went over and they danced and my little brother caught this on tape. You can hear Lydia (Mom-Mom) dancing a little, and see me in the background and Michele on the floor with this HUGE smile. Even at six years old she can tell what they have is special. Now, they're on You Tube. Everyone in the family thinks this is genius, that we put my grandparents on the internet. When they finished dancing (You can hear Poop-Pop starting to say "That's all, I gotta do the dishes" as he walks away), Michele looked up and said to me "That's just hysterical!" I looked at her and told her "Nah, it's just incredible." She didn't get it, but that's okay.

I guess the point is, when I'm eighty (do those two look eighty to you?), I want to be so in love, have such a wonderful family surrounding me, and still singing and dancing my heart out. That's a gift, you know? What those two have. And it's just amazing to me.

I can't figure out how to upload the video on here, so here's the link instead.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eDhoTorigck