*basks in the solitude*
Oct. 20th, 2008 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
candylandWell, I'm home. Spent approximately a third of the last thirty-six hours in the car. That will wear you out, as will a sleepless night in a hotel and a morning spent on-and-off crying. And tomorrow is WORK TIEMZ. Yay~
What would a Candy-family outing be without Dad's temper rising? ...a fantasy, to be honest. Okay, my sister was home for the weekend (this was planned before we knew about Grandpa), and did not bring ANYTHING for the funeral. So she left a bit earlier to go back to campus and get her stuff together. We were going to leave a little while after her and pick her up--it wasn't far out of our way. Well...she decided it would be a good idea to unpack everything before packing for the funeral. So we get there and wind up waiting for a good fifteen, twenty minutes for her. Dad was starting to yeeeeeeell.
This was on top of her insisting that she had to bring all of her books with her so she could work on her paper because she had so much homework and she would have to study the entire way and work on her paper all the time we were in the hotel. Guess who slept three-fourths of the way there. Yeah.
We had dinner at Pizza Ranch with the family last night. And...well, I realized that our little section of the clan is the smallest. My parents only had two kids, whereas most of my aunts and uncles had at least three. My sister and I are the youngest of our familial generation. Neither of us is married, nor do we have children. So there's family groups of eight, ten, twelve, or more...and there's the four of us at our little table.
Let me put it another way: I didn't realize it until I read Grandpa's obituary, but our family is huge. Grandpa had five children (four of whom are living--my oldest uncle Tom died when I was middle school). Those five children gave him seventeen grandchildren, who have thus far given him twenty-six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Mom's side of the family is HUGE.
But dinner was fun. There were a couple of the younger kids there, and they decided that Dad was a fun target. That provided a lot of amusement for us all. Hanging out, talking, pigging out (best chicken in the world), catching up, and putting together a display board of pictures. Grandpa was rather camera-shy, but we managed to pull together quite a few pictures of him, as well as some other mementos. I hadn't realized that my grandparents celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary the year I was born, in 1985.
...I learned a lot about my family last night, actually. A lot of stories I'd never heard before. It was really wonderful. And Dad and Mom and I are now inspired, and discussing the idea of trying to research our family tree.
Oh, and Bug and I were sent on a mad rush to Wal-Mart. There was a picture of Grandpa with his four surviving children from his ninetieth birthday party in 2004, but it was really dark--I don't think the flash went off. So we hurried over to Wally World and scanned it in and tried to make it better. We improved it somewhat, and onto the photo board it went.
We were at the church at 8:30 this morning. The visitation/wake ran from nine to ten-thirty, and then the funeral started at ten-thirty. It was...god, I hope this doesn't sound horrible, but I was a little relieved to see that I wasn't the only one crying when we filed by to pay our last respects before they closed the casket. I'm always a basketcase at funerals, but a couple of my cousins were really teary too, so I felt better.
I was actually proud of myself for keeping it together at the funeral, which was a very nice service. It was just every time the music started, I would go ;~; because they always do those songs at funerals. Like On Eagle's Wings. That was the point where I put my songbook back in the slot and gave up on the singing. My aunts and uncles all were fairly composed until we went to the grave. Then there were tears.
We had a nice luncheon, and a massive photo shoot, including one of "The Cousins." Of the seventeen of us grandchildren, I think there were probably...twelve or thirteen there? Our family is so big and so spread out that we don't get so many of us together like this very often. Weddings and funerals, mostly. Oh, and Grandpa's ninetieth birthday :) So a lot of pictures were taken.
After all that, we grabbed our clothes out of the car and changed (pajama pants ♥) and headed back. Dropped Bug off at school, grabbed a burger on the way, and here I am. Completely exhausted and enjoying shutting myself in my room and not being around people for a while x_x
All in all, it was a nice couple of days. My catchphrase for the time was "Oh geez, Dad..." which was uttered almost every time my father opened his mouth. Including to bring up that ol' Presidential election. We're voting Democrat. Have I mentioned that my mom's side of the family is all conservative? WAY TO GO, DAD.
I need to get those word-counts in for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
autumnwrite, but all I really want to do is curl up in bed and not think about anything for a while. Man, I'm tired...
...but before I do,lwyn? I GOT THE PACKAGE AND YOU ARE AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND IT MADE ME GO OM NOM NOM WITH HAPPY GLEE :D ♥♥♥♥♥♥ *hugs Ghost Hunt DVDs and squees a little before falling over unconscious*
What would a Candy-family outing be without Dad's temper rising? ...a fantasy, to be honest. Okay, my sister was home for the weekend (this was planned before we knew about Grandpa), and did not bring ANYTHING for the funeral. So she left a bit earlier to go back to campus and get her stuff together. We were going to leave a little while after her and pick her up--it wasn't far out of our way. Well...she decided it would be a good idea to unpack everything before packing for the funeral. So we get there and wind up waiting for a good fifteen, twenty minutes for her. Dad was starting to yeeeeeeell.
This was on top of her insisting that she had to bring all of her books with her so she could work on her paper because she had so much homework and she would have to study the entire way and work on her paper all the time we were in the hotel. Guess who slept three-fourths of the way there. Yeah.
We had dinner at Pizza Ranch with the family last night. And...well, I realized that our little section of the clan is the smallest. My parents only had two kids, whereas most of my aunts and uncles had at least three. My sister and I are the youngest of our familial generation. Neither of us is married, nor do we have children. So there's family groups of eight, ten, twelve, or more...and there's the four of us at our little table.
Let me put it another way: I didn't realize it until I read Grandpa's obituary, but our family is huge. Grandpa had five children (four of whom are living--my oldest uncle Tom died when I was middle school). Those five children gave him seventeen grandchildren, who have thus far given him twenty-six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Mom's side of the family is HUGE.
But dinner was fun. There were a couple of the younger kids there, and they decided that Dad was a fun target. That provided a lot of amusement for us all. Hanging out, talking, pigging out (best chicken in the world), catching up, and putting together a display board of pictures. Grandpa was rather camera-shy, but we managed to pull together quite a few pictures of him, as well as some other mementos. I hadn't realized that my grandparents celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary the year I was born, in 1985.
...I learned a lot about my family last night, actually. A lot of stories I'd never heard before. It was really wonderful. And Dad and Mom and I are now inspired, and discussing the idea of trying to research our family tree.
Oh, and Bug and I were sent on a mad rush to Wal-Mart. There was a picture of Grandpa with his four surviving children from his ninetieth birthday party in 2004, but it was really dark--I don't think the flash went off. So we hurried over to Wally World and scanned it in and tried to make it better. We improved it somewhat, and onto the photo board it went.
We were at the church at 8:30 this morning. The visitation/wake ran from nine to ten-thirty, and then the funeral started at ten-thirty. It was...god, I hope this doesn't sound horrible, but I was a little relieved to see that I wasn't the only one crying when we filed by to pay our last respects before they closed the casket. I'm always a basketcase at funerals, but a couple of my cousins were really teary too, so I felt better.
I was actually proud of myself for keeping it together at the funeral, which was a very nice service. It was just every time the music started, I would go ;~; because they always do those songs at funerals. Like On Eagle's Wings. That was the point where I put my songbook back in the slot and gave up on the singing. My aunts and uncles all were fairly composed until we went to the grave. Then there were tears.
We had a nice luncheon, and a massive photo shoot, including one of "The Cousins." Of the seventeen of us grandchildren, I think there were probably...twelve or thirteen there? Our family is so big and so spread out that we don't get so many of us together like this very often. Weddings and funerals, mostly. Oh, and Grandpa's ninetieth birthday :) So a lot of pictures were taken.
After all that, we grabbed our clothes out of the car and changed (pajama pants ♥) and headed back. Dropped Bug off at school, grabbed a burger on the way, and here I am. Completely exhausted and enjoying shutting myself in my room and not being around people for a while x_x
All in all, it was a nice couple of days. My catchphrase for the time was "Oh geez, Dad..." which was uttered almost every time my father opened his mouth. Including to bring up that ol' Presidential election. We're voting Democrat. Have I mentioned that my mom's side of the family is all conservative? WAY TO GO, DAD.
I need to get those word-counts in for
autumnwrite, but all I really want to do is curl up in bed and not think about anything for a while. Man, I'm tired......but before I do,
lwyn? I GOT THE PACKAGE AND YOU ARE AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND IT MADE ME GO OM NOM NOM WITH HAPPY GLEE :D ♥♥♥♥♥♥ *hugs Ghost Hunt DVDs and squees a little before falling over unconscious*