Thanksgiving in Nebraska

We just got back from Thanksgiving in Nebraska.  I love Nebraska.  Nebraska gets a bad rap because usually, all outsiders see of it is I-80 and the airport.  Admittedly, this is not our best side.  Other than those two places, Nebraska is all earth and sky.  It is truly a beautiful sight.  Fields that go on forever and a day.  You can watch storms roll in from miles away.  It's breath taking and there is nothing like our sunsets.

This was taken from Nebraska Through the Lens fb page, check it out.

Nebraska is mostly made up of small businesses, cattlemen and farmers.  It is a true characteristic of these Nebraskan's that they are all in, all the time.  When I go home, I always ask my dad or, my uncle (if I can get to him), how the market is doing.  I love the way these guys talk.  My dad says things like, "They got their clocks cleaned on cattle this year."  They probably did, but they never throw in the towel.  My sister works on the insurance side of things and some of the stuff she tells me would break your heart.  Hail, rain, wash outs, no rain, tornado's, it doesn't stop them though. According to my dad, the only thing that'll stop a farmer, is the banker.

I have 20 nieces and nephews.  I love it. Every single one of them.  Here are a few of the little things that I love.  I was looking at my phone on the flight home I had 600 pictures of Joe and they all look like this:

 

My niece, Leah.  Oh, Leah!  She is just one of those kids that is fun to jerk around.  She can dish it out and take it.  For some crazy reason I let her do my hair.  I have very thin and not very much hair naturally and now have less.  My hair, what was left of it, was styled much like that of my 1 year old niece, Julia.

She was way less excited about it than I was.

Me and Leah

Anthony is my birthday twin and I accidently 'steamrollered' him.  I mean, we were wrestling, but I weigh...  anyway, I squished him.  I may send him something because one should never squish their birthday twin.  The sparkly pens I got him from the book fair don't count because the steamroller happened after. 

Look at him! So stinkin' cute!  And I steamrollered him!  Going to post office tomorrow....

My son's fiancée, Daisy, had her family visiting from South Carolina as well.  They are amazing.  I wonder what they think of us, though.  When Daisy's mom cracked my sons back.  She had him lie down on the floor, turn his head a certain way and as she pressed down you could hear the tell tale sound of bone cracking, back relief.  The next thing you know it, there we all are waiting in line for a back cracking.  We are all tall. Someone should have warned her.   

I am so proud of all of us.  My ex, Chuck, and I can be at the same table and everyone gets along.  I love that my family is huge and loud and we have really been through it all via one person or another.  It was not always good.  Honestly, some of it is really bad and probably still is, but we bring it together because we are a family.  We were taught to respect that and maybe there is some forgiveness in there as well. I have heard my parents say, "You guys better figure it out and get along!" or "Shape up and get with the program!" since I was little.  My sister Tricia and I got into a big fight last year and now, here we are sitting at her table, drinking too much vodka while cooking turkey and she is teaching me how to Snapchat. 

With the six of us kids plus wives and husbands, it seems there could always be drama and honestly there is but, we have been in the "program" a long time and we make it work.  The sister that is currently giving me trouble, drove us to the airport.  She even hugged me too long which made me forget to be upset at her.

As I read this over looking for typo's that I won't see, I had the thought that maybe it's for the children of this family that we, the adults, pull it together.  Even though we all, at one time or another were spitting mad at each other, we never bring the kids into it.  When I was mad at my sister, if she had said, "Anna is going with me to..." I would have texted her back.  "k."  In lower case, though, 'cause I was mad, but would never deny one the other.  Same with Chuck.  We did everything wrong except Jonathan.  We always pulled it together for him.  It was the one thing we did right.

*Side note
Things I learned not to say because for one reason or another the younger generation dubbed these uncool:
Go shoot hoops.
Let's snappie.
Let's do snaps.
Isn't snapping with your Aunt Tonya awesome!?

On a slightly other note.
Check out my new website: tonyajean.net and buy a card!  It's a work in progress, but seriously, buy a card.

Let's take a listen to some Steve Earle.  Some young Steve Earle.