Mexican Americans, you gotta laugh....

[Murph]

Ok, I am Anglo, not just a little, but a lot. One of the funnier things, is when Lupe tells me that we are having a "small" family get together. To me, that normally means no more than 10 people, Boy was I wrong! I could not see much difference between a "small" family get together and a "large" family get together, other than the family members from Alice and Lubbock show up. Last nights Quincenera which I photographed was a "small" family get together (not more than 120 or so people).

I always laugh out loud at the scene in the movie "Fools Rush In", where Matthew Perry first meets Salma Hayek's family, and he tells her: "This is a small family gathering?", and she says: Yes, looks like a lot of people could not make it tonight." It makes Lupe mad, because, she always tells me I don't spend enough time with my family, I spend it with hers. My family, we get together on specific holidays and such.

Three constants at either the large or small gatherings is that my father in law and I argue over who is going to cook the meat on the grill (He always burns the fajitas, and sausage), and Lupe and her sisters always get to arguing over something, and my mother in law always tells Lupe: "Mija, he doesn't eat enough, give him some more sopa"....Oh, well, I am looking forward to at least 19 more years of "small family gatherings" with her, since we are coming up on 19 years being married.

PS: After 19 years, I still cannot tell my mother in law I do not like her rice.

[Stacey]

Ha, I've been to a few of those "small" gatherings... thrown together at the very last minute, 50-60 people show up, eat all day, dance all night...

Very fun. I miss it.

[Murph]

Yeah, it seems that we cannot have any event without her mom cooking rice. And Lupe takes a perverse pride in making sure I have a "large" helping of it. I gag it down with a smile since I do not want to offend her mother. I did get revenge though, when I took her home to East Texas and my grandmother served her Okra gumbo.....

[dreemes]

Sounds like you need a large helping of okra gumbo to go with that rice.

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by Murph

PS: After 19 years, I still cannot tell my mother in law I do not like her rice.

So far, you are a wise man, now don't go do sumpin' stupid ('cause there ain't no such thing as "the right time" to tell her that).

[TheObiJuan]

Hahaha, so very true.
Thanks for the story!

[GUER03]

Welcome to our world! Although you've been in it for many years now. Why do you think some many of us Hispanic men have a gut? The women seem to think we have to eat that much but it tastes so good we can't say no.

But like Harold said, there is not good time to tell her that you don't like it. So just keep smiling, faking it with the fork in the right hand and handing it to the dog under the table with the left!

Gotta go, I have some rice on the table! ;-)

Albert

[Murph]

My MIL makes homemade tortillas to die for, you can't eat just one....or two....or three.....

[MikkiStreak]

hehehe, I'm in the same boat----- Christmas Eve with his side of the family consists of about 50 (siblings, spouses, children, and aunts/uncles/cousins who lives within 20 minutes of the family matriarch)... Christmas day with my family consists of 8 (my sister and her family and me, fiancee, daughter). It's one of the reasons why we're getting married out of the country---- if we had it here, we'd get RSVP's from about 100 people and wind up with another 300 of his relatives crashing because they always assume their 'yes' is a given. :)