April 17, 2006

Family traditions

Yesterday’s Easter celebration included dinner at my mother’s house. When the family gets together, we spend most of our time eating and talking. A new tradition this year was sending cell phone photos to my niece in the City, who is in grad school and couldn't make it home for the holiday. For some reason this tradition also included family members in the living room making cell phone calls to family members in the kitchen, about ten feet away. I think we have way too many college students in the family.

Other older traditions include:

Looking through my mother’s photo albums, to laugh at pictures of cousins as babies and toddlers.

Looking at photos

Music entertainment. Here we have Boy in Black on the guitar. His imitations included Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' and Johnny Cash doing Hurt, which is a Nine Inch Nails song. Perhaps that is why he is wearing dark glasses.

Music on Easter

A walk. It was sunny and cool, and always this time of year, it takes effort not to get your sneakers wet. Here, With-a-Why and his aunt balance on a stepping stone.

Balancing

Quiet moments. Here I am near the end of the afternoon, looking out over the lake, on a walk at a nearby state park.

Staring into the lake

20 comments:

Mona Buonanotte said...

Boy in Black has EXCELLENT taste in music...the Johnny Cash cover of Nine Inch Nails rawks!

Anonymous said...

That whole calling people that are 10 feet away thing is just so wierd---but typical

jo(e) said...

Mona: Yeah, you should hear him singing it -- he's got the right kind of voice and his imitation is pretty much right on.

PPB: Yeah, the cell phones are the new toys. I think the young people in the family like to startle their grandparents with all their technology. Shaggy Hair brought his iPod at Christmas time, and my father was just amazed by it.

Scrivener said...

Looks like a fun time was had by all.

My father-in-law won an iPod recently. He was asking how the thing worked--clearly had no idea what it was since one thing he wanted to know was whether he could use it to listen to the TV because he has such a hard time hearing what's on.

BeachMama said...

Looks like it was a great time. It is fun to watch everyone call each other, you would think that phones were just invented.

And yes, love that song!

Anonymous said...

the calling people nearby thing reminds me so much of walkie-talkies, when i was a kid. we would [of course] test them out in the same room. so the newish tech is pretty retro-geeky, i think. don't tell them!

lovely day, jo(e)! family, photo albums, music, spring day -- what could be better?

scrivener -- oh, that FIL story makes me kind of sad. my dad really struggled with hearing loss as he got older. he never really got used to hearing aids. earphones for the TV did help, so he could hear his shows without blasting everyone out of the house.

Leslee said...

Are you SURE you won't adopt me? I'm pretty low maintence. I come with a granddaughter for you....

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

It sounds like such a wonderful day!

jo(e) said...

Leslee: We always have room for a few more extras. And it would be great to increase the female-to-male ratio around here.

Liz Miller said...

I love how you got that group picture in. You maintained anonymity and yet showed the closeness.

Lovely.

Becci said...

Sounds like you guys had a good time. I am having fun reading your previous posts, too! Thanks for visiting my blog site.

sheepish said...

I'm cracking up at the cell phones thing. My brother and I will hold our hands up to our heads to fake call each other*, but I'm so not a cell phone person.

*As in "ring, ring. Just called to say you're being annoying. Ok, thanks, bye!"

purple_kangaroo said...

Beautiful, touching and funny--as usual.

Anonymous said...

I love the boy & his aunt on the stepping stone. It seems a bit perilous, as you can't see how they got there or how they can get off without getting muddy...

ccw said...

Sounds like a womderful day with family.

Anonymous said...

I pictured you with short hair. :)

halloweenlover said...

Sounds like a wonderful day. Love the picture.

Anonymous said...

Funny, I had you with short hair too!

In Portugal the family I spent time with had a very different approach to cell phones than I have. They routinely answered the cell phone during Saturday family dinner. And they would often call each other's cell phones because it would make the 6 mos. old baby in the family laugh in response to the ringing tune/tone.

jo(e) said...

That's funny that anyone would picture me with short hair. I've worn my hair long since kindergarten ....

Bitty said...

How lovely to have a state park within walking distance!

Seemingly unrelated but really not is my resolve to get to the beach more often this year. All that fabulous nature just a short drive away and I'm ignoring it. You're constantly inspiring me, making me itch to get outside.