I Missed Out

Several great events happened at home this Easter. And I missed out on all of them.

1) Church in Greektown. This was the kind of church where you have to kneel to get communion. And they put a little paddle underneath your chin in case any communion dust drops off the host. And you don't touch the host, it is placed directly on your tongue. Well, Mary was kneeling with the paddle under her chin this Easter, and when the person handing out the body of Christ got to her, she stuck her tongue out just like she was supposed to. The only problem was, when he took one look at Mary, he knew she was a Carlin. And he grew up with the Carlins. In fact, Mark Carlin used to be one of his best friends. So as all of these thoughts were running through his head, Marys tongue was still hanging out. And you can only stick your tongue out for so long before it starts to shake. This is exactly what happened to Mary. Her tongue was shaking like crazy. She reports that in the end, she managed to get the host and swallow it.

2) Grandma M, after taking a coconut topped cupcake from Mary, declines a peanut butter cup offer because she is 'on a diet.' "How much weight do you want to loose?" Asked Grandma Padalino. "Oh, twenty five pounds," said Grandma Mancini. "Ten pounds?" "No twenty five pounds" "Oh, ten Pounds is not bad. Me, I can eat whatever I want to and I will always be the same, 135 pounds." Grandma M reaches for another cupcake.

3) Mary decided to start singing 'this little light of mine' at the dinner table. Grandma M, after refusing to sing and even laughing at Mary, decided to harmonize for her because she didn't know all of the words. So, when appropriate, she would chime in "i'm gonna let it shine."

4) Ma has been treating a callous on her foot as if it were a wart for over a week. She has been applying acid bandages to the bottoms of her feet, and realized on Easter that they were not warts at all, and now she has burned two holes in her foot. She wrote to me in an email, "Yes Liz, you have to be careful when treating imaginary warts."

All of these memories could have been mine. This is why you should go home for the holidays.