...my dad's best friend Roger and his wife Bonnie for dinner. Roger is British and my dad's version of Grant. It was really sweet to watch them hang out and interact. (Sadly, Roger passed away just a few months after my dad in late 2018.)
My brother and I thought we were going to be all hot shit and outshoot the old guys, but it turns out my Uncle Tom and his brothers all brought their own handguns and PRESSED THEIR OWN BULLETS. They were all crack-shots.
Also found a bunch of fantastic old photo albums. I snapped a couple of pics of my favorite pics. Here me with my parents and brother. I think this was from my 5th birthday - which would make it August 1981.
On Saturday afternoon, Meredith and I took the train out to my parents house in NJ so that we could spend Christmas with my fam! I brought along the Wii so that the whole family could play (which we ended up doing for hours on end). Here's my mom and brother getting ready to square off in tennis. But before they played, we decided that we all needed to...
On Tuesday I met up with my brother, who was temporarily living in NYC for a few months while on a consulting gig, and our parents to go see The Producers on Broadway. It was AWESOME! (Thanks, Mom & Dad!).
On Sunday I took the train down to south Jersey to hang out with my family down at my parent's little shore house in Mannasqaun. Here's my brother and his lady Amy and my parents about to get their lunch on.
Something was wrong the can opener and my dad ended up having an epic battle against this can of cranberry sauce. Check my brother pointing at the mangled-ass shape the can was in when Pappi finally managed to get it open.
I got up to help him out and was told that he didn't need any help "figuring out his own camera, Goddamnit!" So I took some photos of everyone waiting. Hahah.
On Monday (the day after my birthday) I went down to meet up with my parents and their little shorehouse near Long Beach Island in southern NJ. Here's my mom, brother, dad and Uncle Bruce chilling on the beach at LBI.
Dad, Brett and Bruce. Right after this picture was taken, Bruce turned to me and said "Hey, you're not working right now are you?" Me, "Nope, I'm still looking for an interesting job. Why, you know of something?" Bruce: "Nope, but I just realized that I have to go on a business trip and I'm not going to be able to make it to Aruba to use my timeshare there and it's too late to cancel. Do you want a free week at a nice resort in Aruba?" Me: "Ummm, yeah." Bruce: "Cool, if you can find cheap tickets on short notice, it's all yours." And that's how I ended up in Aruba during the last ten days of January 2004.
For Christmas day, my grandparents and one of my mom's sister's family (The Carricks) came to our house. Christmas dinner in the house y'all. When I say "Hey," you say "Ho!" Now when I say "Je" you say "sus!"
My brother always gets shit because he looks, walks, talks and acts like a little Mini-Me version of my dad. I tried to snap a sneaky picture of them watching TV together while eating matching sandwiches and wearing matching white shirts and blue baseball hats, but I started laughing right before the cam went off and gave Brett time to flip me the bird. They look like the goddamned Bobsie Twins though, right?
On Christmas Day it was snowing like crazy! We piled in the car and risked life and limb (literally!) to drive 45 minutes to Clark, NJ to eat Xmas dinner with my Grandparents and one of my mom's sisters and her family.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
