Facts About My Family

Rachel and Sarah of Our Family View From Us Two are hosting a Family Facts Blog Event this month! Enjoy! :)

What are some of your family's favorite phrases, exclamations, or sayings? Favorite phrases? We have way too many!! Mostly, we quote movies, so I'll give you a few of the best ones: "Toss me. Don't tell the elf." (The Lord of the Rings); "Sink me!" (The Scarlet Pimpernel); "I don't have that on my computer." (National Treasure); "You told me last year..." (Pride and Prejudice 1995); "Oh, beetle, how I weep to see..." (The Treasure Seekers); "Where'd you get the locomotive headlight?" (Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase). And then if you had to add just one more not from the movies, my family's absolute favorite word is SWELL. 

What's the number of boys to girls in your family? One boy to five girls. Yes, I am one of five sisters. Pity my one, lonely brother. :)

What is your favorite tradition your family has? Christmas is always the time that's filled with traditions. Every December we countdown to Christmas with our "Christmas Box." Each night, there's a special message written, hidden in the box corresponding to the day, pulled out by eager little fingers, and read. The message, usually written in poem form, will tell us what we are to do that night: eat a Christmas treat, bake cookies for friends, watch a Christmas movie, drive around and look at Christmas lights, share something special we enjoy about the season, read and/or quote Luke 2, sing carols, etc. Even though I'm 18, I still look forward to this every year, and Dad has entrusted me and my sisters (the older ones) to write the notes for some of the nights. Though we don't rhyme as beautifully or as hilariously as our dad, it's still a lot of fun! 

What do you call the midday meal at your house? We don't usually call meals at our house. We eat meals and call our friends. ;)

Is the majority of your family morning people or night owls? Night owls, definitely. We'd like to be morning people, but somehow it's harder to get up earlier than it is to stay up later. 

What is your favorite vacation location? :P My grandparent's small beach house next to the Atlantic Ocean. We've gone there every summer for about as long as I can remember and to me it's always been a place of relaxation and family time. We're not really big beach people, but we enjoy taking walks together in the sunset and going biking.

Are your family's weekends usually full of activities such as sports, parties, and outings, or are they more of around the house, fix-it-uppers? Our house is just one of those houses that is in constant need of fixing up, so it's easy to guess which of the two our weekends will be. ;) If we have parties, they're usually always on Friday night or Sunday after church with family or close friends. 

What is the nationality/ies your family comes from? (i.e. Scotch, Russian, etc) My mother's side is mostly English, while my father's is partly German. That together makes us Germish, if you don't take into consideration the fact that we've also got bits of American Indian, Irish, Scottish, and a lot of other stuff thrown in.

Do you go away for holidays, or celebrate at home? Depends on the holiday. Usually for Christmas, we like staying home and doing a family celebration. For Thanksgiving, our new tradition for the last three years is to have a sleepover at our cousins' house the night before the big day so we can bake together. But Fourth of July, Easter, Mother's and Father's Days... they happen wherever we feel they should happen, whether it be at our home or someone else's home.

How did your parents meet? Oh, this will be a long answer. But it's pretty awesome, considering I and my siblings were the result. ;) Moving on... They met at college, specifically in choir. Dad first saw Mom on campus and thought her pretty, but it took him awhile to actually gather enough courage to speak to her. For her part, Mom thought my dad odd and labeled him a geek. They went on a few dates, but she never really thought much about him. It wasn't until a horrific car accident leaving her in the hospital with 70 stitches in her face and Dad started visiting her frequently, that Mom changed her mind. At this point, Dad knew that she was the woman whom he wanted to marry, and prayer was his constant companion. He asked the Lord to give him a peace about it, about whether he should pursue Mom, about whether God wanted him to marry my mom, and God pointed him to a verse in Psalms: "I will praise Thee forever, for Thou hast done it." And Dad knew. The rest of the story (after they went on more dates, which included one totally set up by my dad's sister, involving a nice restaurant and a plant that continually dripped upon whomever it felt like) is your usual glorious story ending: "And they lived happily ever after, to the end of their days."