An Insane Easter 2025, My Grandma's Last Month

Hey everyone, so 2025 has been a crazy Easter season for me. It all started with March 20th weekend when my grandma went to the hospital with sepsis from her bed sores. Yeah, that's very concerning, she's 90 years old and not in great heath, and has dementia and is on a puree diet because she's having trouble eating. We had many goodbyes and it was very touch and go, but she managed to pull through, making it the 7th time she beat death. I went to the hospital after work when she was in emergency and told her the story of when I didn't shut up the entire way to Pennsylvania for a family reunion, and she said "and he [me] just kept going and going and going," which was very good for me because it meant she remembered the story. When she got to her room her ring hand started to swell so we took off her ring and necklace, and I wore her ring and necklace Frodo style until she passed (keeping her ring and necklace safe). During her time in the hospital I texted her other grandson (the one who lives in Texas) and my oldest friends who she considered grandkids (she was at like all our major events since we had a lot of events, and went to many of their sports games) to call her because we don't know how much longer she has. They all called her that day and everyone was really happy that they did. The hard thing with the dementia is that we couldn't have "real conversations" and haven't been able to for over a year, so even with all the goodbyes and such it was uncertain how much she really got and if we really had closure. Well about a week later I had a vision where she came to me in a dream as her younger self and we had one more conversation, a real conversation where we went over things that haven't been said had real REAL closure. After all this she made it back to her memory care facility where my mom and mskate spent basically every day with her just in case "it was the end." I brought over our extra roku, set it up on her TV, and they were able to watch more than just MeTV Toons and PBS Kids (specifically Out of the Box on Disney Plus, because she loved kids and watching them play, and that's basically all Out of the Box is). A kind of funny thing with the hospital, my boss was very understanding and told me to do anything that I needed to, and one time I told him "this might be the end and I might not come to work tomorrow" but then she pulled through, I went to work, and he said "I thought you weren't going to be here today" to which I responded "I didn't think so either, but my grandma's a fighter and a trickster, so I don't know when."

Palm Saturday is when we had a big final event. Our family is about family celebrations and holiday parties, and we had been planning a party for my grandma at her memory care facility basically since we realized she isn't going to be able to make it to Easter at my mom's house. The plan was that on the Saturday before Palm Sunday we would take her down to one of the activity rooms and all of her family and friends would go there and we'd sing sing alongs and have pizza. Well she got even worse and couldn't get up and leave the bed, so we got all her family and friends in her studio apartment where we sang songs and had pizza. At the party we had my parents, brother, mskate and myself, her best friends, my mom's best friend, the mom of "figurative grandkids," and some of the old neighbors she was very close with. Here's the big thing, she had become semi-non-verbal while in the hospital; before then she didn't say much but would respond in a semi-appropriate way to what we were saying, but after the hospital she wouldn't really respond to much. When her best friend and accordion player came in and said "I'm here to play music for you" she said "thank-you," and that was like "the last real thing she actually said" (she mouthed words and "talked to visions," but saying "thank-you [for coming and playing music]" was the last thing she said). Throughout the entire sing-along mskate held my grandma's hand, and at some songs she squeezed her hand using what little strength she had, and during other songs she held her head up "looking at us" during the music instead of just having her head lay on the side. It was really something. Pizza went well, mom was worried that it would be too much of a smell and cause problems, but it was fine. Everyone said goodbye after the party and let her rest now.

After the party mskate and I went to the mall just because we were kind of in the area (not really, but there was "a need to go there"). When we were there we made her one last build a bear. My grandma really liked build a bear, she loved the cute outfits and the personalized messages. For her 80th birthday her grandkids and great nieces made her a bear. Mskate and I decided we'd make her one last bear, one she'll take with her in her casket to hold onto for eternity, and we'd make a shirt similar to all the "this grandma belongs to [each grandkid's name]" shirts that she would wear when we we were little. We also recorded a voice clip about how much we love her using the same words I said in her first bear. It was pretty emotional (because she was dying and this was "the end"), but I pulled through. It was a very cute cub bear, the smallest they had, and since we didn't know how much longer she'd have mskate played the recording for her over the phone as my mom held it up to her, and she perked up with it. We also got our picture with the mall Easter Bunny since mskate worked with them for Santa and we got little bunny stuffed animals and coupons for either ice cream or gourmet cookies. I got the cookie, mskate got the ice cream. It was good.

Now it's time for my favorite Sunday of the year, Palm Sunday. Why is it my favorite? Because I get "a toy" for mass (a palm branch). This was kind of extra, because it was also our week to do coffee and donuts (there are 4 groups that do coffee and donuts; the Knights of Columbus, The Women's Group, The Ushers, and then Pokematic and Mskate with 1 other lady). It wasn't a big deal, it's just that this was why we had to have the party on Saturday and not Sunday. After mass I told our priest why Palm Sunday was my favorite mass as a child ("I got a toy" as I wave my palm), he chuckled and said "there you go." Hey, it got me involved in mass and that's a big thing for kids. Some time after mass we went to Meijer with our build a bear and tried to find a shirt we could put cricut letters on (because mskate has a cricut); it wasn't going to be "the most sticky and secure" because it would be adhesive vinyl on fabric, but it "just had to last until the burial" and "wasn't going to be played with much." We settled on a yellow toddler swim shirt since it was about the right size for the bear and could get all that we wanted on it. Mskate made 2 sides, the front said "this [grandma's nick name] belongs to" with hearts on both sides of the words, and on the back it listed the grandsons and their wives, "just like the shirts she wore when I was a kid." The funny thing about "it doesn't have to last that long," she lived 1 more week, was able to listen to it multiple times, and everyone's name except for mskate's started to peel and loose letters. It was good though, because that meant she was able to enjoy her last gift.

Fast forward and it's now Easter weekend, specifically Good Friday. Because there was so much going on this weekend with Easter we were already planning on spending the weekend at her parents. The plans were Good Friday liturgy (because "Catholic's don't technically celebrate mass on Good Friday") up by my parents, pretzel making with my parents, and then dying eggs at my grandma's. There were 2 traditions there, we'd dye eggs with my maternal grandparents and we'd make pretzels with my paternal grandparents. The pretzels this year didn't turn out very well, I put too much baking soda in the boiling pot and I think they were a little under cooked, making them turn out VERY bitter, but I later found that if I squirt some lemon juice with every bite I get a good fizzy feeling and neutralize the excess baking soda. Then at my grandma's apartment we dyed eggs while playing out of the box and reminiscing about all the times we dyed eggs at her house. I don't know how much she actually remembered, but it was good for us. We told her "we aren't taking our shirts off and climbing on the table like we did when we were little." We also used some egg dying kits that were pretty old and some of them didn't work well (specifically red, for some reason red/pink is always tricky). The nursing home was also doing breakfast with the Easter Bunny that day and the plan was to have her go down and see him, but because she couldn't leave the bed the Easter Bunny came up and saw her in her apartment. She liked it.

After egg dying I did balloon animals. A little backstory here. When I was about 8 years old I said "I want to learn how to make balloon animals," and my grandma bought me a pump (because balloon animal balloons are very difficult to blow up by mouth) and a bag of balloon animal balloons, and I picked up on how to do it pretty quickly, especially after reading some how to books and experimenting. I'd do it for myself, and as a teenager I did it for people that needed someone to do balloon animals for birthday parties and carnivals. My late uncle had special needs and lived in a group home, and I would make balloon animals for him and the residents of his house all through my years of him being alive, and now that my grandma is in a home I started making balloons for her and residents once she got back from the hospital. Most of the time I just made balloons in her room and then brought them out to the activity room, but this time they were all sitting in a circle without much to do and so I went into the circle and made everyone balloons. I mostly made dogs and swords, and for one resident who didn't have much hand motor abilities I made her a giraffe hat. One of the residents asked if I could make him a gun; I actually kind of can (I once made a tommy gun similar to the one in The Mask), but that's a 2 balloon creation and I didn't want to make something that could be "extra mean" ("I'm going to shoot you" kind of thing), so I made him a sword instead. He then got creative by taking the bunny rabbit I made for his wife, sticking the sword through the ear loop, and he said "look it's a gun, bang bang bang bang bang." The funny thing is he used to work in the same department at the same company I work for now. When I found this out I asked the oldest employees that still work with me if they knew him, but they unfortunately didn't. When I talked to the resident I asked if he knew [this one guy] since he was the oldest guy I worked with and he retired like 1 year after I started, and he said "yes, I think I did," and it was in a way that suggests "I reminded him of something real" and not "I'm confused and just agreeing." Now for "the loud resident." Her big thing is to ask "are you my baby," and other things, and one time when she asked me that I said "no I'm [my grandma's] baby," and that threw off her script and gave her some lucidity where she said "no you're not a baby, you're too big." I asked her what she would like and she said "I want a man, can you make me a short man I can pick up." I said "no, I can make you a dog, a cat, a giraffe, a wiener dog, a poodle, a rabbit, or a sword." Her friend that was sitting next to her said "she can't be trusted with a sword, make her a poodle." She liked her poodle, which became her baby.

Here's where things get crazy. Mskate is doing a fund raiser of "egg my yard," where we set-up egg hunts for people who donate to the diabetes charity she really likes. Last year I bought a bunch of plastic eggs on sale the weekend after Easter and the plan was that we would do them on Holy Saturday, but one family had something going on and requested us to do it on Friday. We said we would, but then mom got "the hard call" that my grandma was on her end and we had to get over there now. Mskate and I, my mom and dad, my brother, mom's best friend, and grandson figure's mom all drive over separately. She was on oxygen and holding on by a thread. Since it's Easter and were going to be spending a lot of time there as we wait for her to go home to Jesus, I found the Ranken Bass Peter Cotton Tail specials on youtube and put them on the TV. She seemed stable enough, so around 7PM mskate and I went to do the house that requested we do it on Friday. We hid the eggs all over their yard and porch, hiding eggs in bushes, seat cushions, sports equipment, and everywhere. We asked if anyone needed anything while we were out and all that was asked was water. We picked up a case at Walgreens and were like 10 minutes from her apartment. When we were maybe 5 minutes away my brother texted us saying "forget the water, come back now, it's happening" (we already bought the water so that wasn't an issue). Apparently my mom called my great aunt and after she said her goodbyes my mom noticed the color draining from her face and she was like "no mom, you need to hang in there a little longer for [pokematic and mskate] to make it back." This is like 8:45 PM long past visiting hours so we were kind of locked out but vikingpolak was able to let us in. We all gathered around, said an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, and around 9:15 PM she passed. We called hospice and it took about 1 hour and 15 minutes for them to come and pronounce her. During this time the other residents were asleep so we were able to go into the activity room and just come to grips with what happened. One of the insomniac residents was walking around and sat with us as we were processing the passing of my grandma. She was showing us her stuffed animal dog she was carrying around, and it was comforting to have someone that "wasn't there" to be a little distraction. After about 15 minutes we went back in the room and waited for hospice. They came, pronounced her, and then we just had to wait for the coroner at the funeral home to take her away. While we waited we packed up her apartment, just packing up everything in the bins that we brought knowing it was a matter of when and not if. We wrapped up all her pictures, took down her command hooks, packed up her dishes, identified things we'd donate to "trash for treasures" (a thing the nursing home does so residents can get rid of things and pass them onto residents who could use them), put the things that would be going to the funeral home in a specific bin, and basically got the place ready to move out. It was kind of weird doing that while my grandma's body just laid there deceased, but that's what we did. Mskate and I left before the coroner got there because it was like 11 PM and mskate was REALLY tired and just wanted to go to bed. While we were taking things down I made a big deal that we had to be careful with the oil painting of the wedding dresses (grandma, mom, and aunt all in their wedding dresses), because I remember my grandpa always telling us "you boys be careful when playing in the house, that painting is very expensive and can't be replaced, and we can't put glass over it because of how it is." Some people were being less than careful with it and I had to be my grandpa and said "this isn't me, grandpa just REALLY beat into my brain that we need to be careful with this painting." We also wrote a note for her resident friend that would come in her room, say hello, and tell her the church is praying for her (didn't want her to try to go in the next day and get all confused why the door was locked).

Now it's Holy Saturday, a day that was supposed to be a rest day. However, with the whole "grandma died the day before" thing it ended up being our "meet with the funeral home and plan arrangements" day and "move everything out for final" day. I don't have a lot to really say about making the arrangements; we picked out a nice rose casket with rose accents on the corners (not like she was a big flower person but it would match her style), we picked out prayer memory cards, got the link to upload pictures to, and gave the funeral home her burial outfit, specific lipstick, and some things to send with her (the artificial corsage from her 60th wedding party and 90th birthday party, her "grandma's little angels" pin with our birth stones that she had in her jewelry box, and pendants of our pictures from when I was 4 and vikingpolak and tanman were 2 that we found in her purse the night before). We said "we don't have any specific requests, just make it look good." After the funeral home, we went to her apartment and cleaned out everything. She didn't have a whole lot left; 2 bins of photos and assorted things, a floor lamp, 2 end tables, a minifridge, and 2 standing lift chairs. Vikingpolak rented a utility van from home depot because of the standing lift chairs. One of the chairs was going to my parents house and one was being donated to a "pay it forward accessibility" charity. We moved the chairs in order of when they would be taken out (first the chair going to my parents, then the chair to be donated), and had our "rush out the door of memory care" sprint since they kind of lock the residents in so they don't wander out and get lost. Since we were moving we were able to use the employees only hallway and delivery doors. Here's where things got really lucky, apparently right after we loaded up the van and got on our way the power went out and they went on emergency generators for essential functions, and the elevator is not considered essential and therefore wasn't working. A tiny miracle if you ask me.

Vikingpolak and I drive to the place where we were donating the one chair and her 4 prong cane. It was kind of out of the way of everything, and since it was a holiday weekend no one was normally there so we had to have someone come in special to receive the chair. It didn't seem like it was that big an inconvenience though, he was just happy to get a stand-up chair since they seemed to primarily get power wheelchairs and walkers (at least from what I saw when we brought it in). Since we were kind of in mom's best friend's neighborhood, we stopped by and said hello. We went to McDonald's for lunch and had an extra diet coke (we each got a meal but vikingpolak didn't want his drink), so we gave it to her. She then gave us red and green M&Ms to give to my mom for her baking. It was a quick "hello, hug, exchange, bye" since she had work to do. After that we went to my parents and swapped out the chairs. I don't know if the chair we replaced was a stand-up chair or just a powered recliner, but the motor burned out and it was "just an upright chair" now. I tried to take the back off but that wasn't happening, but in the process of trying I found my brother's old keys he lost 5 years ago. We put it on the curb and my dad listed it on freecycle (a local "you want it, just take it" group), and then we moved the new to them hand-me-down chair in. Getting the old chair out and the new chair in was not easy, both had very heavy steel mechanisms and my parents have a vestibule that does not make moving furniture easy. We made it though, and now they have a good powered recliner with stand-up functionality.

Later that night it was time to "egg the yards." We had 14 houses to do, Mskate and her dad did one half and her mom and I did the other half (with 4 of them all being on the same block, 2 of them close to that block, and then 1 close to their house). For the 4 on the same street with each did 2 houses. As I was doing it when I saw a ring doorbell I held up some eggs and waved; not like I had to prove we were friendly, but just a nice gesture to say "we're here and this is what we're doing" and maybe give them some social media fodder. One dad said "thank-you" over the smart doorbell and I responded "you're welcome." It took us about an hour to do all 7 houses, and I want to say it took mskate and her dad about an hour and 15 minutes to do their houses. It was a lot of work but it was worth it and everyone gave us very positive feedback the following day. We'll definitely do it again next year and probably take on additional houses, but next year we'll enlist the boyscouts, girlscouts, highschool national honors society, and anyone that want to/needs to volunteer to stuff eggs and distribute them. It's funny, we originally said "just the cities our parents are in" but then we expanded to another neighboring city by popular demand; mskate was worried that we would get in trouble for breaking the rules and I reminded her "who would we get in trouble with, you're the one who made the rules and can change them if you want to" and she was like "oh yeah, I guess you're right." Then when I brought up enlisting people that need service hours she said "but who would we get to sign the sheets, the people who are in charge of the charity live out of state," and I said "honey, this is YOUR non-profit fund raiser, YOU would be the one signing the service hour sheet" and she said "I guess you're right, it's just such a weird thought of being the one in charge and signing the sheet instead of having to get the sheet signed."

It's now Easter Sunday. Things were a bit odd since we were planning on going to my grandma's apartment and just spending some time with her, but without her anymore we kind of didn't have plans. We went to mass with my parents and exchanged Easter eggs with people during communion. One of the people gave us a real dyed egg that had the egg stuff taken out and was just a shell with confetti inside it. After mass at my in-laws we smashed the egg outside and made a fun confetti cloud. At mskate's parents we got Easter baskets, candy and some presents; mskate got a region free bluray player (because last Christmas we got a region 2 DVD set of Disney movies but nothing to play them on), and I got a collection Godzilla movies. We also had Easter brunch. After that we went to my parents and had some Easter baskets with candy and ate some of the honeybaked ham dinner that one of grandma's neighbors got us for dinner. Nothing super special, just a nice calm day.

The Monday after was pretty calm. "I got the day off because Easter falls on a Sunday this year" (it's just a joke I tell), and we spent the day buying day after Easter Eggs and prizes. We bought about 600 eggs and many prizes. Since a lot were prefilled I spent an hour or 2 emptying them. We then packed up and went home. Then when I got home I uploaded all the pictures I had of my grandma for the different videos. On Tuesday I went to work for 1 day, and then took bereavement the rest of the week. Mskate had to help mom get different arrangements set up, and then I spent my time getting the live stream set-up. I used my new laptop to get that done, so that was getting OBS working with the elgato and making sure the camera could pick up audio, and deciding if I would do a facebook live stream like I did for my grandpa or if I would do it through youtube like I did for my wedding (or both since I have a restream account). Since it would be easier to share and access an unlisted youtube link instead of making sure everyone was friends with my mom (especially for people that weren't on facebook like various old people who couldn't make it to the funeral, because they're all really old like my grandma), we went with youtube. I did my tests through facebook live though and a lot of my facebook friends were like "I can hear you" since my test was "can you hear me."

Now it's time for Friday, the day of the visitation, and testing the live stream at the church. We went to the church around 11AM and brought in all our stuff. The decan said he knew people were coming to test but didn't know who, then after he got close to us he recognized who we were since we regularly took my grandma to mass and she was really close to the decan (he'd come and visit her at her house, and some times at the memory care). We asked him to turn on the microphone at the pulpit so we could test the sound. I asked mskate to get up on the pulpit and do a sound check while vikingpolak stepped outside and listened to the live stream. Mskate wasn't very good at doing a sound check, he sheepishly said "hello," and after some coaxing "Marry had a little lamb," and some other things after long periods of nothing. Then I told her to get out of the way and then rambled for like 20 seconds until my brother came in and said "yes it's good." After that we went to accordion friend's house and watched Dumbo with the husband while we waited until it was time to go to the visitation. Whenever we watch something Disney with him he always says "the first movie I ever saw was Dumbo, I was 6 years old on the army base and had to take my little brother with me, I haven't seen the movie since and don't know what happened to it," so we said "let's watch Dumbo with him" and he really liked it.

The visitation was really good. Mskate and my mom worked on making the photo boards and they turned out really good (3 different eras). My grandma was really into ear rings, every holiday and outfit had a pair of costume ear rings, in total 78 pairs that she still had. What do we do with 78 pairs of costume ear rings? We decided to give them away to anyone who wanted them; came to her visitation, take a pair of ear rings. She was also very generous, always making sure people had food and money, so my mom had the idea of making goodie bags for everyone who came; m&ms, lint chocolate, meiji pandas, rice krispy treats, and/or biscof cookies, and an envelope with a $5 bill to do with as the recipient saw fit. Afterwards a lot of people texted my mom a photo saying "got my favorite snacks on [grandma]," and that was really happy for her. The funeral home did a really good job making her look good; her hair was great, her lipstick was good, her nails were done well, and mom said she would have been happy with how she turned out. Since she liked balloons and we couldn't have real flowers due to my allergies, we had balloon flowers. They put the balloons behind the casket all together, but we wanted to spread them out (1 at each photo board, 1 at the ear ring table). We had to climb behind the casket, which was a little comedic (as it should be). We also put the bear in the corner of her casket and her little Minnie Mouse that we got her on our honeymoon. I spent a lot of time visiting with people, making sure people took a pair of her ear rings (a lot of people were like "where did these come from, did someone make them" and I said "no these were all her ear rings") and telling them the significance of the stuffed animals and some of the pictures (particularly how the one chuck e cheese photo was from her last outing with us and how she liked the wheel of fortune games at the arcade). At the end of the night we had given away 73 pairs of ear rings. It was really great, I saw a lot of people I don't get to see very often and it felt good seeing all the people that she touched. She was a kindergarten teacher and 3 of her students paid their respects, one even said that she inspired him to go into teaching. It was kind of funny because the students were "around my age" and after I thought about it a little I'm like "that checks out, they would have been 5 and were from like 3 or 4 years before I was born." A lot of employees from her memory care came and paid respects as well, which was really good. In the final hour we had a prayer service and then my brother gave a eulogy. A really perfect coincidence, when he was talking about how she got a college degree while raising a family his college graduation picture with her popped up on the screen. At the end of the night we packed up all the family snacks into our folding wagon and packed them into our cars. We packed up the stuffed animals and let her have the Cinderella doll for the night (one of her other stuffed animals from a Disney vacation). I told the funeral home people "she's sleeping with Cinderella tonight, keep an eye on her" (and they did, we got Cinderella back the following day).

Now it's Saturday, the big funeral day. Mskate and I got there about an hour beforehand and got the streaming set-up, after buying a roll of wide masking tape to tape down the extension chord. PepperBC asked if there was anything she could help with and I said "yes, you can tape down the extension chord so no one trips," and she did and did a good job. Once we got everything set up, my laptop decided it wanted to do a BIOS firmware update. This couldn't have happened 2 hours prior when I was just surfing the web? Oh well, while it updated I went and said hello to the people that were there and paid some respects, telling my grandma "I'm doing a thing on my computer that you don't understand so your family that can't make it can watch" (because whenever I'd do something with my computer she and my grandpa would be like "I just don't understand that"). I went and checked on my computer and the update was done, so I started the stream. I did my sound check and said hello to all the family that I knew would be watching. Sound came back good so then I just went and saw everyone. Zeldamaster93 made it even though he didn't know my grandma all that well. I offered him one of the last pairs of ear rings for someone in his family. He got the speech of how to be a pallbearer even though he wasn't planned on being one, but at the cemetery we didn't know for sure who would still be there so he might have to fill in (the people who were scheduled to be pallbearers were myself, brother, her 2 grandson figures, nephew, and my brother in law at the church with the accordion friend's son doing it at the cemetery). My godfather and his family made it and I offered them the last 2 pairs of ear rings and they took them. I also had my god-brother do the pack-up of the streaming stuff once we were done. I went over what he had to do and he said he would do it. We said our final goodbyes and took Minnie out, and I asked the funeral director to have her holding the bear when they closed the casket. I kind of wanted her to be holding the bear facing down so she would be hugging the bear like she would hug us, but the director did it with the bear facing up but then that meant that the grandkid names were over her heart. We walked her down the aisle and it was a good funeral. After receiving communion and praying, I saw her in heaven waving at me, and then I saw her with my uncle, and then my grandpa, and then some people I think were my great grandparents, and then my other grandparents, and my older sibling that miscarried, and other people. It was a very "satisfying" vision. At the end we loaded her into the hearse and all went well. After that I went and helped my god-brother pack up the streaming stuff and then we loaded it into our car and drove to the cemetery in procession.

As we were driving to the cemetery I noticed we were close to where my uncle's group home used to be. This will come back later. We lined up at the mausoleum by the final chapel and all us pallbearers lined up by the hearse. It was good zeldamaster93 was there because the accordion son wasn't there. Then since we were carrying her a fair distance my mom pulled my god-brother over and told him to help carry the casket (afterwards I said he was like Simon being called to help carry Jesus's cross). In total 7 people carried her. We all lined up by the casket in the cemetery chapel, said a final prayer, and said our final goodbyes. We pulled out the stuffed animals (Minnie, Micky, and Cinderella) and had them kiss the casket (my god-family thought that was funny). We all followed her to the mausoleum and watched her get put in the wall. After we watched her get put in the wall we went over to where her walker made tire tracks in the wet cement when we "buried" my grandpa 5 years earlier. It was kind of funny.

After the cemetery we went to the luncheon at the country club that was right by the cemetery. I'll give the food details because that's what she would have wanted. We had salad, chicken cutlets, roast beef, mostacholi (or however that small tube pasta is spelled), and roasted potatoes. All of it was really good, and she would have approved. We didn't have a bar, just soda pop and water, but since hers and my grandpa's drink of choice was a Perfect Manhattan, I asked if I could buy a single drink and was told I had to go to the bar that was attached but not connected. I got one and we passed it around to whoever would partake (mostly just my family and the grandkid figures). It was very high octane, and no one was particularly happy with it. We ended up drinking about 2/3 of it, it was more for the symbol than enjoyment. Afterwards we paid off the bill and it was the end (my mom did her "stick the landing" gesture). After the luncheon mskate and I drove by the rout to my uncle's old house. We went by the McDonald's that we always went to beforehand where we would get lunch for ourselves and take to him, and play in the play structure (we had a lot of adventures in the play place using the paper ketchup cups and whatever the happy meal toy was at the time). The McDonald's play place was really simplified, now it's just a small slide. A far fall from 2 stories of tubing with a videogame thing and later TV with mirrors that was sometimes turned on where the ball pit used to be. We then drove by his group home, and it was still there. Afterwards we drove home using the same rout that we used to take to see him, pointing out all the different sights from when we would drive there. It was a good trip down memory lane. Nothing else after that for Saturday.

Now it's Sunday, (my brother-in-law) IRA's birthday celebration. He and I started the celebration by going to see A Minecraft Movie. Neither of us were super interested in seeing it initially, but then there were all the memes and rowdy crowds and we wanted to experience it. The funny thing about that, there was now a warning before the movie that said "if you are causing a disturbance you will be forced to leave without a refund" using official movie art, so that's kind of funny that it got official. I can see where the rowdy audience like The Room would work, a lot of things would lend itself to that. After the movie we went to PF Changs since that's kind of how the family celebrates, and cousin M joined us. After that we went back to their house and gave IRA his birthday presents. We got him a mystery box ornament for Nightmare Before Christmas (it was Zero the ghost dog), a mystery plushy for Nightmare Before Christmas (it was Sally), All in the Family the complete 9th season, and a Power Rangers model car. After that we packed up the cars and went home. And now I'm writing the blog as I sort through all our Easter and funeral stuff. It was one crazy month for me, lots of ups and downs, lots of emotions. But now I know she's whole and we no longer have to worry. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

The Christmas Blog, 2019 Edition

Hey everyone. Ahh another year another Christmas which means it's time for another Christmas blog. Unlike other years where I broke up certain things, I'm just going to combine it all. You'll see a lot of similar things, but this year the big new thing was mskate and I dating, which added another layer of fun.

I suppose things kind of really started back at Thanksgiving where I did black Friday shopping (technically amazon prime day, but the only point of note was I had a box of presents in the middle of my bedroom for half a year). Normally I would do a big Black Friday blog like I've been doing for the past, 8 years? Well this year was pretty uneventful. I hung out with IRA as we went to various stores. He really enjoyed the adventure since I've gotten it down to a science (there's a 10 mile loop that I follow every year to hit the stores I want to, and it's always the same order). Since he's much younger than I his mom, my mom, and mskate said "pay close attention to him, DON'T LOSE HIM!" Having heard this, he played a little joke on me and hid at one of the stores. I picked up a lot of things for my family and self, including 2 fry pans that I originally was going to get for myself, but then decided to gift to my dad and brother (brother recently bought a house and needs things, and I know at some point in the 24 years I lived with my parents I destroyed a pan at some point). I also picked up some gloves I plan on donating to various "keep the poor warm" campaigns. It was a fun night and a lot later than IRA is used to, struggling to stay awake as we were finishing up. I also bought some wrapping paper at Black Friday that lasted almost all the presents. Mom and dad had 1 with news paper and a strip of left over wrapping.

Now for the start of Christmas things. Mskate and I have made a small tradition of going to the wild lights at the Detroit Zoo (read the other blogs here and here). For the most part, it was a lot of the same as previous years, so I won't retread everything (plus the pictures would be very similar as they were last times), but it was also different enough to warrant the new visit. So in the same vein I will try to showcase some similar but different. Once again we went to the restaurant that is close to the zoo beforehand, and then parked in double secret locals only free parking. A lot of the lights were similar, but were in different locations. Like last year there was a cool display on the side of the penguin exhibit, and there were cool animal lights.

One thing that was a little different were the beavers weren't completely in bed, so I got to see one swimming in the exhibit. Yay. The otter exhibit was also open, but they were all asleep. Oh well. I did get to see some reptiles at the reptile house because since they have heat lamps that need to stay on constantly they don't have the same kind of "we need to sleep" schedules like the mammals. We stopped at the artic café just to get our bearings and warm up a little, and I saw on the menu they had a "wild bacon stack." That got me excited, until I saw it was just a bacon cheese burger.

Oh well, I wasn't hungry anyway. We also saw this really cool "light decahedron" thing, that projected onto the ground and surrounding areas. There was also the "choreographed light field" where the lights danced to the music, which I think was there last year. Video of both below.

We also went to the wild life photography exhibit, which was really good. I can't show any images of it, because "no photography," but there were some really great images. One that really sticks out to me was one taken from the bottom of a lake looking up at the lake weeds to the surface of the water. It gave off this feeling of being in a forest looking up at the sky, but it was different because of the lake weed. We also bought some kettle corn, which was really good. After the zoo I hung out with her family for a little bit, then I went to my parents for the night.

Now for the festivities with my dad's side of the family, I spent the night because the next day (today) we were going to see my aunt and grandpa. The big gift I made for them was raspberry jam with my late grandma's last raspberries that have been sitting in my deep freeze for years. I made probably 4 different trial batches to make sure I figured out how to make jam, and from those trials I made jam for my family. I even strained out the seeds and pulp for my grandpa since seeds don't like him. Mom brought up how it was just like grandma picking out the onions from the beef broth because "I don't like onions." Some more fun was my cousin recently had a baby and we were able to facetime with them so everyone could see the new great granddaughter/great niece. We also set-up my aunt with the special photo sharing app they use, so she and grandpa can see the baby. It was a great little visit.

The 23rd was my "break day," and it wasn't a great day. Long story short, things broke down on me and I wasn't able to "rest." You can read the full story here. Back to fun.

It's December 24th, and it's time for Christmas with my mom's side of the grandparents. They paid for a lot of the things I bought for myself on black Friday, and I got them each a little gift. I also gave mskate half of her presents then, the clothes ones. They gave me candy, some movies, a cordless mini-vacuum, and Kingdom Hearts 3; and some scratch offs, but they also gave my brother and mskate the scratch offs too. I got mskate a yellow dress and pink fuzzy sweatshirt. She liked both of them. I got my grandma afresh dish washer cleaner with a build a bear gift card taped to it (she likes build a bear), and I got my grandpa afresh washing machine cleaner (no gift card). The reason I got her something else and not him is because we made grandpa's real gift a new 43 inch 4K TV. We realized his current TV stand was too small, so I'm trading him one of my TV stands. One of the funny things was since my mom worked for the mall Santa she was able to get the boxes that the "Santa Snow Sticks" came in (a little present for the kids after getting their picture taken). Since we were getting so many boxes grandpa kept asking "where did all these boxes come from?" and no matter how many times we explained, he still didn't get it.

We went to church afterwards for Christmas Eve mass and mskate went home to go to mass with her family. It was a Catholic Christmas Eve mass, nothing super special. After mass we went to the restaurant my grandparents always go to on Christmas Eve after mass. Normally my family has Chinese food, but my grandparents wanted us to join them this time. Normally drink orders aren't THAT interesting, but ever since I was of legal drinking age my grandparents insist I get a glass of wine when we go out because they know that's my alcohol of choice, even though wine is overpriced at restaurants, and most of the time I just plain don't want a glass of wine with my meal. Mom knew they were going to insist I have a glass of wine with dinner and that I shouldn't get it "because it's too expensive," and I told her "no worries because I don't want a glass of wine with dinner." Well that wasn't good enough for them because when I said "I'll just have water," "no [Pokematic], you can have a glass of wine, we're paying for it." "No, price isn't the problem, I just don't want a glass of wine." I had some difficulty figuring out what I wanted, because they have a very limited menu on holidays and nothing was really "speaking to me." The brisket sounded good, and had sides I would have liked (broccoli and a potato gratin). Initially when I said "I'll get the brisket," they said "oh no, you like prime rib don't you, get that instead," probably thinking "because it's cheaper that must mean it's inferior, and [Pokematic] is only looking at price." I said "no, the prime rib doesn't come with sides I want, and I like brisket as well." Well, as we were ordering our waitress got the message that they were out of brisket, so I reluctantly had a steak. I say "reluctantly," because it was an expensive cut I normally can't justify cooking to my liking (well done) and it came with sides I don't like (baked potato and asparagus). I asked if I could substitute, but unfortunately that wasn't an option. Well this put my grandma in a tizzy, "because I want my little boy to have food." She offered me her sides, and I had some difficulty explaining "that won't do me any good because you're getting the same sides I'm getting, which means I won't like those sides." I was able to trade with other people in my family though, because they preferred asparagus to broccoli and baked potato to gratin, and the steak was good, just not worth that much in my opinion.

My grandma got prime rib and ordered it medium well, and for some reason my grandpa wouldn't stop talking about "how it was cooked how she liked it," like she wasn't sure she would like it. Mom got frustrated because 5 minutes of "this is how you like it, this is good, they did it right," was getting annoying and obnoxious, like he was implying that it wasn't done right. Well after dinner and time to box everything up, grandma didn't want to take home the half of a prime rib she had left. For people that love food so much, they sure do struggle with the concept of left overs and finishing the good food you paid for at a later time. It's not like it was all cut up or anything that would "harm the structural integrity" or something, just "she didn't eat half of it" and it looked like a complete meal. Mom tried to explain "this is enough for a lunch or something, it's a good piece of meat," which to her meant "this is something you should give to your starving grandsons" (which for the record neither of us are starving). Well because she was adamant, my brother took it. Good to see some things never change.

My mom took my grandparents home after that and we put out the luminaries. My parent's neighborhood does this really cool thing where everyone gets 6 white paper bags and 6 tea candles with a little note that explains what to do, except for the people on the end of the blocks or with large lots who each get 10. I know this because my mom was block captain for 3 or 5 years and it was my job to assemble the kits. Anyways, the instructions are to fold the end of the bag over some to keep it open, put something in the bag to keep them upright (like rock salt or kitty litter), put the candle in the bag on the stabilizing material, and light the candle. We figured out that if you put the candles in a dixie cup they have a better chance of staying lit and make it easier to light them and put them in the bag. We made ours and the across the street neighbors. A day or 5 earlier I had to take apart the couch to look for something that fell in it, and I found one of my brother's lighters. I initially put it along with a pocket knife of his I found as well in his stocking as a gag, but then we needed it for the luminaries. Nothing more to say on that. I spent the night at my parents house just so I wouldn't have to drive all the way back to my place and all the way to my parents house in a 12 hour period.

Now for Christmas Day. I put my family's presents out the day before, and I wanted to make sure I got done before mass. It was kind of funny how eager I was to open presents, just like a kid. I got more candy and chocolates, movies, and super monkey ball on switch. I got my brother a pocket knife (which he added to his pocket immediately), a tactical flash light, and a frying pan. I got my mom parchment paper, chocolate chips, and oatmeal. I got my dad a grill cleaning thing and frying pan. Because I couldn't remember who I bought them for, I got my dad and brother a set of plastic beer glasses. I also got my mom and dad a year supply of foaming hand soap. Everyone enjoyed their practical gifts. My brother got my dad and I...well I'll just let the picture speak for itself.

He's going to email us amazon gift cards, and he wanted to have some fun with it. Next was mass. It was a good mass.

After that was Christmas with mskate's family. I bought IRA a target gift card and a star wars happy meal toy, and gave mskate the last of her gifts (an instant camera and accessories, and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas). Her family also got me some things, more candy/chocolate and Spiderman Far From Home. It was a re-gift since IRA got it and already had it, but that's OK with me. Her mom also gave each of us a kinder surprise egg, and it just so happened that each of our toys was just right for us (mskate got a little pony, I got a little bike, and IRA got a little alligator). I also had brunch with them, over easy eggs. After gifts mskate and I went to get her grandma from her assisted living facility. Getting her out of the assisted living, into my car, out of my car, and into their house was very similar to helping my grandparents. She even gave me a little card, which was really nice. After that I had to get back to my family festivities.

PepperBC and her family had already arrived, and it was fun catching up with them. They recently got new phones which means they're able to play Pokémon Go, and Aunt K is really into it. Apparently we had some pokemon in our front yard, so she was playing when she came in. A little bit later my grandparents showed up, and we had to help get them into the house. It was just like earlier today. Not too much later their friends showed up with the accordion and pies. We basically spent 2 hours hanging out and then it was time for dinner; ham and pulled pork, with green beans, corn, rolls, and mashed potatoes. I had it all except for the mashed potatoes (because I don't like mashed potatoes). We all had to squish into the dining room table, and my grandpa and I didn't get to use the good China since we can't be trusted with it.

After dinner mskate joined us for dessert and sing along. I had 2 slices of pie, 1 lemon meringue and 1 chocolate, and 1 scoop of ice cream. That was about as much as I could afford to eat. After dessert we had our sing along, singing various different Christmas tunes like we do every year. After the sing along my great aunt called and wished my grandma and grandpa a happy birthday. While she was talking to them mom got her present for mskate and I. She got us matching warm ponchos. It's a cute little couples thing for us. Not to much longer it was time to open birthday presents for my grandpa, because he's a Christmas baby. It was a fun little time. Then there was some fun excitement with my grandpa getting a major cramp in his leg. He stood up and then it was crazy pain. He felt really embarrassed over how he couldn't do much and needed us to hold him up. After 5 minutes of holding him up I told someone-anyone to get the walker. We got him to the good chair and had him rehydrate. It wasn't very good. Mom got them home, PepperBC and her family got headed out, my grandparents friends got headed out, and I got headed out.

The 26th and 27th weren't much to talk about. I wrote a "your 3 minutes" blog for the 26th. On the 27th I went to see Star Wars Episode 9 (read review here) and went grocery shopping. I made the mistake of going grocery shopping when hungry, so I bought $180 worth of food on sale, saving $50. I also had to figure out which TV stand I could give to my grandpa for his new TV. I realized my garage TV stand would be perfect (right size, can hold the cable box and DVD player, and grandma's knick-knack decorations).

Now for the final "Christmas" event on the 28th. Mskate and I went to see Frozen 2, dad and I set-up grandpa's new TV and TV stand, and hold our Christmas party with my mom's best friend and her family. Frozen 2 was really good. I saw it already but mskate hadn't, and she really enjoyed it too. The TV went well. Grandma was worried that a new stand wouldn't be able to hold her knick-knacks, but when we brought the stand in and started setting it up she was happy. It was a little difficult to explain "no, you're getting this new stand and I'm taking the old one," but eventually they understood. The TV was also a little difficult for grandpa since he couldn't use the cable remote on his TV, so I ended up doing the "put tape over the buttons you don't use" thing. Now for the final party. It was a pretty calm event, basically everyone hanging out and talking. We had pizza for dinner and leftover sweets for desert. We also did a little gift exchange where I got a "make your own bouncy balls" kit, and I'm going to have fun with that. After gifts it was getting late. I drove mskate home and we said our goodbyes.

And there you have it, Christmas 2019. I guess I also saw zeldamaster93 on the 29th, but all we did was get pizza, give each other gift cards, and hang out for like 2 hours. All in all it was a really fun time. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma

Wow, this weekend was super fun. So my grandma turned 80 this past weekend. I'm just finishing up from the fun festivities. If you want the short, it was great. All my relatives on her side from all over the country came to our neighborhood, and we live in the USA, and people are from EVERYWHERE. I got off work for 4 days so I could enjoy it all. Now I think I'll get to the details.

I normally work on Fridays. I was able to get Friday off and enjoy the big pre-birthday dinner with everyone. My great aunt and uncle (grandma's brother and sister), 2 of my aunts, and their kids tan-man and MMT. My one aunt is my mom's sister, the one with tan-man and my other aunt is my mom's cousin with MMT. They were there when I got there. I haven't seen tan-man in years. He used to live relatively close to my family, but then he moved away like 10 years ago, across the country. I haven't seen him in 5 years. When I asked "so how have you been?" he gave the normal "I've been good, got my first year of college done." Then I said "yeah, but what about since the last time I saw you?" He chuckled and was all "well lets see, I graduated high school, I decided on what college to attend," and other things that happened since the last time I saw him. I told him how I took the NES home since it kind of was my grandparents for us to play with as kids, but it wasn't working anymore. I told him "yeah, the 72 pin connector is shot, we were rough with it as kids." I saw MMT 2 summers ago so it wasn't such a big deal, but it was still fun to catch up.

After awhile my other aunt and her daughter showed up, and both of these relatives are geeks like me. It was so fun to see peperBC (my cousin) again. We talked about geeky stuff like Dr Who, Monty Python, and Pokemon. I also asked her how her first year of college went, but since we live in the same state (just kind of on opposite sides), I see her a little more often than my other cousins, so there wasn't much catching up to do. Mainly what we did was make plans for what we would do together if we got away from the group. The big thing was this comic book/video game/all around geek store that's right by my house. We never got that far, but we did have fun planning. She's a little quiet, so I kind of did most of the planning. Another big thing was I wanted for peperBC and her mom to listen to Pac-Man Fever with me. Why? Because it's wonderfully 80s and is about classic arcade games, something all 3 of us really enjoy.

The dinner was fun. I got to talk to my aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in years. One thing about my family is that we get really silly. Like you would think that we had a lot to drink silly, but we we could all pass a sobriety test. We went out to the little park right by my grandparents house and took some pictures that were reminiscent of our youths. And if you think I'm talking about my cousins and I, no. We did that yes, but not to the extent that my mom and aunts did. We looked super serious compared to them. Like one of the things they did was all slide down the slide and not get off so that everyone was right up against each other. One of them yelled "straddle me!" Yeah. That's my family everyone.

This wasn't even everyone. In my generation, we were missing turtle girl, and my mom's generation was missing one more of my aunts and my one uncle. Funny thing with my family tree; my grandma had 2 daughters, my great aunt had 3 daughters and 1 son. When they all got together, and when they still get together, all the girls get really crazy and silly, and my uncle just kind of sits on the side line. Now he has some of my uncles to talk about how crazy their wives are, but he still is like "I'd rather sit this one out." Well if I didn't have my brother and tan-man, or if peperBC wasn't a geek as well, I'd feel the same way, because we're all very much like our mom's and aunts when we get together; and then my one male cousins who's MMT's brother and didn't come, well he's kind of like my uncle since he's normally left with MMT and turtle girl alone. But yeah, it's all good. We had our fun and then came back to "my" house for the sleepover. My grandparents and my family unit are the only ones that are local to the party, and with our house being funner, all the young cousins stayed at my house. We watched National Lampoon's Vacation and then went to bed.

Saturday was basically a day for us to do what we wanted. We didn't have any party or set-up so us young people were left on our own. All of us went to 2 of our "local" malls. One of them is a very upscale place with a lot of the high end and expensive stores. Also, a lot of clothing and accessory stores. They got rid of all the toy stores, electronic stores, video game stores, and the other fun stuff. They do have a microsoft store and a somewhat novelty electronics store with things like massage chairs and pocket video projectors, but not like anything super fun.

However, the main reason for us going to the upscale mall is because they have Build A Bear. When we were little, my grandma loved taking us to build a bear. We made her a bear with our voices in it, and we would get different outfits for it for all different occasions. Fast forward 10 years, and she still likes it. We don't do it as often, but we still get her a bear outfit for occasions, and since my grandpa accidentally threw out her entire bear's wardrobe, we've been slowly building it back up. Well all 6 of us went to build a bear and made her a birthday bear. We tried using their new voice station thing were it's out in the middle of the store and you talk into the background noise canceling microphone. Unfortunately since tan-man, my brother, and I all have deep manly voices, the machine thought we were background noise and it came out all muffled. The girls voices were fine, but ours weren't. One of the employees got us the old version voice box, took us to the back room, and let us record it there. We did and it turned out great. We picked out the bear and had it stuffed. This was a sight; when you stuff the bear they have the little kids get one of the little stuffed hearts and rub it on different parts of their body so the bear has different attributes; like "rub it on your forehead so the bear has all the wonderful memories." All 6 of us are between 18 and 21 year old young adults, my brother and I have pretty full beards, and we're doing this routine. Rub on our cheeks for smiles, rub on your tummy so never hungry, rub on your muscles so it's strong, etc. After that we did the "wash the bear" station, which is toy brushes and a smart screen that projects an image of a bath. Yeah. We then look through all the clothes to get a good outfit. We chose a summer look. We set up the birth certificate and got the bear ready. Quite fun actually.

After going to the upscale mall, we went to a more low key mall. This one has a lot more fun stores. It has gamestop, FYE, an arcade, hot topic, and the Sears where my grandma used to take my brother, tan-man, and I to get our photo taken. Thankfully for us, Sears Portrait Studio is no more. The 3 of us went to the place where the portrait studio once was, peered in and laughed. The girls didn't come with us, because they never had to endure "birthday pictures," "Christmas pictures," "Halloween pictures," "Easter pictures," "end of the school year pictures," "beginning of the school year pictures," "groundhog day pictures," "we haven't had your picture taken in 2 weeks pictures," etc. After laughing at the demise of the weekly torture station, we went to the food court and had Panda Express. I had beef and broccoli. I also had a taco from taco bell. After lunch, pepperBC, tan man, my brother, and I went to FYE. PepperBC and I looked at the anime and Doctor Who stuff. Tan man and my brother looked at all the movies, music, and TV shows. After FYE, pepperBC and I went to the arcade and had fun playing some arcade games. We tried the DDR clone, and we accidentally set the difficulty to high. We failed missurably. After failing at DDR, we played some pinball. Man I love pinball. Once I get my own place, I'm getting a pinball table. After pinball, everyone was ready to leave. We went back to my house.

Once we got to my house, my great uncle, his wife (Aunt C), and my grandparents wanted to go to the hardcore pawn shop. My great uncle and Aunt C love Hardcore Pawn, and since it's less than an hour drive away, they wanted to see it. I've been there before, so I knew what to expect. I took them down there, and as we pulled into the parking lot, we saw Les Gold making a deal on a classic Cadillac. We stood there and watched for a couple of minutes. Aunt C is exclaiming "THAT'S HIM! THAT'S LES!" She was really impressed. I walk them up to the front door and she's star struck. She sees the front door and is like "that's the front door." We walk in and she sees the loan window; "that's the loan window." We walk onto the showroom and there's Seth Gold. "That's him, that's the Son." She walks over to the small merchandise sections and picks out a Hardcore Pawn t-shirt and mug. My great uncle got a matching shirt. By that time, Les and Seth are right there. They welcome may relatives and shake their hand, except for Aunt C and Les, she gave him a hug and said "I watch your show all the time, this is so cool." They hadn't completed the shirts and mug transaction yet; all together the 2 shirts and mug would normally cost $75, but Les saw how happy she was to see them so he gave her a deal, $50 for everything. He and Seth also autographed everything. That made their trip.

After getting the t-shirts and mugs, they wandered around the shop floor. It's not a huge place, I was able to see them no matter where I was in the store. My grandma wanted to get me something for my birthday, and I saw a couple of PS2 games. I asked how much and the employee said $5 each. These were like madden titles and other games that aren't worth $5 used, new maybe, but not used. She was like "[Pokematic] let's get them," I calmly say no, "why not $5 isn't much, $5 is reasonable," bear in mind, she's saying this rather loudly, not screaming, but loud enough. I whisper to her "those games aren't worth $5 each," to which she loudly exclaims "they aren't worth $5!" I'm hushing her telling her to not make a scene and just drop it. She does. I look around some more. They have a pinball table. See some other things. Well then my grandpa notices the fur coats. My grandma has a fur coat she wants to sell because she never wears it and never really did wear it. He's like "[Pokematic] why don't you bring the coat down here?" I calmly tell him no. He says "why not I'm sure they'd give you a deal." My grandma gets in on it and says "yeah, just sell it to them." I whisper to them "I'll get more if I sell it myself." Like before, "you'll get more if you sell it yourself!" they exclaim. Shhhhhhh, not so loud. "I guess you would get more if you sold it yourself! But we don't care so long as you get some good money for it!" they exclaim. "shhhhh just drop it. Don't talk about it." Really, I was worried we were going to get kicked out because they don't comprehend that you can't openly "badmouth" a place of business at the place of business. Oh well, we were fine. They really enjoyed seeing a place they see on TV all the time.

That was basically it for Saturday. All my cousins and brother went to put put while I took my older relatives to American Jewelry and Loan. All us young ones watched Frozen. It was fun.

Now is the main event. Grandma's birthday party. We all woke up relatively early to get ready.We set up all the tables and food areas. We got the living room ready for the photo studio, and we made sure everything was all set. Then the people started arriving. My aunt, mom of tan man, and her friend the photographer showed up first. The first picture we took was a recreation of a picture we took the last time everyone was together back when we were REALLY little, like 12 years ago. That was fun. Then my grandparents and her siblings showed up. More pictures. Eventually everyone made it and we had fun. Lots of normal party things happened. I talked with people whom I haven't seen in a while. I had snacks. Eventually it came time for my grandma to open her presents. She did that. We then ate dinner. After dinner, my grandma's friend that plays the accordion played her accordion. Always a fun time. We then did a little celebration for my grandpa because his birthday is on Christmas and he always feel like he misses out on something. Since everyone was there, we had a little celebration for him as well. What a day. After the party we began taking things down. Just so much.

Now for the last and final day of the festivities. My grandparents and other relatives enjoy going to Frankenmuth, a very German city in Michigan. If you like chicken, the Bavarian Inn and Zender's in Frankenmuth has some of the best chicken so I'm told. I don't like chicken, so I wouldn't know. Both restaurants also own 1 hotel each; the Bavarian Inn Lodge and Zender's Splash Village. My grandparents used to take my brother and I to those hotels at least twice a year. Splash Village is mostly an indoor water park with a small arcade. The Bavarian Inn Lodge has a giant arcade, 4 different pools, a mini-golf course, and a little indoor playground thing with some free bar games. Memories aside, we first went to this place called the River Place shops. They have a bunch of different shops and boutiques. They used to have a huge and awesome arcade with this nerf ball fun place thing, but then they replaced it with a clothing store and moved the arcade to a different building, significantly downsizing it. They no longer had pinball, DDR, or any classic arcade games. Oh well. We went to this fudge shop and I bought a half pound peanut butter cup. This thing was massive, check out the picture.

We went to a bunch of other shops. There was one place that was kind of a nerd and immature humor store; like I saw some videogame joke t-shirts and Obama condoms. Anyway, the piece de resistance was when I heard the original version of "What's Up" on their radio thing. Not the techno version He-Man sang, the original. I had to use everything in my power to not break down laughing.
This one. Though it would have been very funny to hear the techno He-Man version.

4 Non Blondes | What's Up by phatt n00b
All 6 young people generally stayed together, but then pepperBC and I got separated from everyone else for a little while. We went to some other stores. They now have this hall of mirrors, and an all day pass is $7. If we had more time to just do our thing, that would have probably been fun. The guy let us look in to see it, but we didn't have the kind of time to spend in a hall of mirrors. Oh well.

After the River Place, we went to the Bavarian Inn. They have more than just the restaurant. In the basement, they have the Castle Shops. We went into one shop with some fancy things. They had these clocks that like, dance, when they strike an hour. They were really cool. They also have a candy store, a store with some novelty souvenirs, a toy store, and a wine store. We spent some time in the novelty souvenirs and toy store. My brother and I played checkers. I won. After playing around, it was time for dinner. Almost everyone had family style chicken dinner, except for me, pepperBC, and her mom. I had the rib dinner and they had like the chicken finger lunch. Now the Bavarian Inn has some of the best chicken noodle soup ever. I don't like having vegetables and chicken bits in my chicken noodle soup, only broth and noodles. They do it only broth and noodles, and the combination of seasoning and whatever they use is incredible. I think I had 3 cups of it. Thankfully it's unlimited. The ribs were good.

But now it's time for my favorite part of Frankenmuth, the Glockenspiel at the Bavarian Inn. They have a glockenspiel that "plays" a song on the bells. It has all these bells, but it plays a recording over a loud speaker, no real bell ringing happens. But that's not the best part. The best part is the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin as acted out by these statues that were made in Germany. When I was a little kid, I loved it. My grandparents took me to every showing, because I wanted to see every showing. They were sick of it. To this day I still know the entire story. Watch it here.



I wasn't about to watch it by myself though. No, I took all the young people out to watch it. My brother and tan-man saw it when they went to Frankenmuth with my grandparents, but MMT, turtle girl, and pepperBC only saw it once and they didn't really remember it. Me, I get excited every time. I'm really hyping it up. The pre-show bell song went on much longer than I remembered it. I kept saying "and now it's going to start" every time there was a pause, but the bells kept ringing. Then it finally started. Afterwards, I was happy. My brother remembered it, and he sees it every time just because it's a staple of our Frankenmuth trips and it wouldn't be the same without seeing it. Tan-man hasn't seen it in years, and he told me afterwards "I don't remember it being so dark." Yeah, you kind of don't realize that the piper stole the town's children as revenge when you're little. As for the girls,  well they were kind of "well, OK. I guess that was cool." Mom reminded me, "there's a bit of a difference between first seeing it when you're 4 and watching it every time you're in Frankenmuth since, and first seeing it when you're 18" (the age the girls are). Though here's something I learned. I always knew they told the story in German afterwards, but I didn't know they did the whole statue thing again. My grandparents always told me that they just said the story. For 15 years I've been believing a "we want to do something else" white lie. Oh well.

After dinner, we all went to Broners, the worlds largest Christmas store. It is, the largest, Christmas store, in the world. Everywhere you look, Christmas. They have ornaments for everything. Well, everything family friendly. But yeah. They're also very Christian and good at keeping the Christ in Christmas. That's really good. Tan man, my brother, and I hung out and wandered around the store. We saw all they had, they even had things for Halloween, Easter, St. Patric's day, and Valentines day. We looked at the Halloween stuff and started singing "what's this" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah. We got kind of board after an hour, since it is a bit of a boring store if you aren't everything Christmas. I remember them having a larger toy section, but now it's just a little corner in the store. We fell asleep at the end of the store. It was funny. Now it was about time to go home. Some of my relatives left that night, others left the next day. MMT and her mom were the only ones left at my house that night. Oh well. Still good fun.

Such a fun time. I look forward to the next happy gathering of all my relatives, because we're a fun bunch. I wanted to see if mbinski was able to come over because the last time MMT and pepperBC were at my house for something, MMT wanted to have a party with my friends, and mbinski was the only one who was able to make it on such short notice, and since then the running gag is that we want to have him over, because he fits right in with how crazy my family gets when we get together. When my mom and aunts dropped him off when he had fun with us, he told them he lives by the lions at the zoo, so his name amongst my family is "[mbinski] who lives by the lions." Well this has been pokematic signing off and bu-bye.

PS: I started writing this blog post the last night everyone was here because my sleep schedule is all screwed up due to the hours I work at my job. I got up to the end of the build a bear section, then went to bed thinking I'd finish it in the following days. I finished it 2 weeks after the event, but things were still vivid enough to remember. I would post some of the pictures of my family, but that would require asking them for permission, and I don't want to deal with that.