McKie Memories

This past weekend, my brother's CD Good Spirits was released. (If you want more information/to purchase and download it, you should go here: Good Spirits.) So, we hosted a release party. I spent so much time planning/preparing/cooking/setting up and it was really important to me. So, this thing happens where it's really important to me that people do something (in this instance: come to the party) but I don't necessarily tell them that it's important to me. Which might not be nice of me, but that doesn't really matter, does it? Nope.

Anyway, some people who I really wanted, and kind of expected, to come, didn't. Which was disappointing. But then that disappointment was usurped by the fact that my aunt and grandmother drove three/four hours to attend the party and surprise us.

I stole both these pictures from my aunt's instagram. Just, semi-crediting, you know?

Right: Nash and Jacob performing the song "Finger Stains"

Left: my cousin Emily and my grandmother sitting by the fire

So that, along with the fact that I've been spending a lot of time with the McKie clan as of late, has inspired me to create this list of pleasant memories:

1. In the woods at my grandparents' house, there is a small play cabin. When we were younger, my cousin, Anna, and I used to have fake tea parties with kool-aid and cookies in that cabin. We'd use a plastic tea set and we'd decorate the shelves with small rocks we collected.
2. When we were all a lot younger, we used to have "Cookie Bake Weekends" at my house during Christmastime. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins would all come and we'd bake cookies. 
3. My grandfather used to write these comic books for us called Super Grampa. He even made Grampy Awards for when we did something cool (guitar recital, honor role, etc.), a special decoder, and Super Grampa trade cards. One time, we threw a Super Grampa party for his birthday.
4. Used to, both my aunts lived in Kansas City, and we would all get together a lot. One time, we went to Chili's. While we were there, my cousin Emily and I kept sneaking my brother packets of salt, and he'd eat them, and my cousins Devin and Tristan thought it was so funny which just kept encouraging us all. Anyway, my brother ate so much salt he vomited in his bowl of what-once-was-mac-and-cheese. That's not really a pleasant memory, I guess. It's just a story I enjoy telling. 
5. I used to go to Chuck E Cheeses with my aunt Heidi and Devin and Tristan a lot. And sometimes when the whole gang was together, we'd go then, too.
6. A lot of my Christmases have been spent at my grandparents house with my family, my aunt Marci, and Emily. One year, not too long ago, Devin and Tristan came, too. We always do puzzles, which is fun. We do one large puzzle all together. And then, whenever we'd wake up too early and have to be confined to the back room, we'd do small, kiddie puzzles over and over again until everything was set up. 
7. One Christmas, my aunt Marci, Emily, and my family went to stay with my Uncle Joe and my cousins Billy and Anna. It was fun because we don't usually get to see them on Christmas, because of my uncle's job. We all drove up on Christmas day and then spent the day after Christmas together. Like, Christmas just got pushed back a day.
8. One time, around Christmas but not on Christmas, my family stopped by my uncle Joe's to hang out with all of them for a bit. Anyway, he had sugar cookies in his house. But they were Kwanza and Hanukkah cookies, because I guess he didn't want one holiday to monopolize our celebration. 
9. One time, my mother took all of the cousins to Kalediscope. Kalediscope is this super fun place where you get to do arts and crafts. But, back in the day, you had to be five years old to enter. So, Devin and I are five days apart in age. And within the next two weeks, we'd both turn five. And my mother had us lie. I guess we gave her a lot of grief for awhile after that. 
10. We used to go on camping trips as family a lot. One time, Anna and I really wanted to get to solve a mystery, but we quickly learned you can't just auto-demand a mystery. Another time, these bikers drove into and destroyed my aunt Marci's tent. And then my uncle Joe lectured them. I think that same campout, Emily said George Clooney was hot, to which I responded "George Clooney is old," and Uncle Joe pitched in, "George Clooney puts the chunk in hunk." 
11. At the end of one campout, the parents had all of the cousins wade into this lake. But we weren't supposed to go in too far because we weren't supposed to get our clothes wet. But all of the cousins, we wanted to swim. So we all just conveniently tripped. 
12. Two weeks ago, Emily, Nash, and I went to meet Billy and Anna for dinner. Then we went to a concert. It was just nice because we don't get to see one another as often these days.