We all live within 15 minutes of one another, except for Granny.  Many weekends you'll find us, with our parents, and one another, instead of being off elsewhere.  In fact, as I type this my brother, his girlfriend, my one sister, and the two kids are with Daddy at the Lodge.  

Katie (baby sister) and Richie live beside one another in a duplex.  Until a couple of months ago, Katie and Mary (other sister) shared a house.  Like, I said, we're an odd family.

But, of all the odditties, the weirdest one has to be our term of endearment for one another: butthead.  At one point or another we've all called the other that.  It's our version of dear, honey, or baby.  It has already filtered down to the kids, Kyrsie (neice) is always calling us buttheads, in fact, it's one of the few completely recognizable things she says.

I don't even remember how it began, I just know that for years that's what we say.

In the evenings, many a nights, I'll be sitting here plodding along, working on some piece of writing, or reading forums, when Daddy will call out "Susan."

I reply "What?"

"You're a butthead."  Then he collapses into giggles.  Now, you have to picture this.  My Daddy is a big guy.  He's six foot tall and large.  He has a voice deeper than Barry White's.  When I was growing up, all my male friends were afraid of him, and all my female friends loved him.

The calling of butthead isn't the cutest (or oddest) thing he does.  He sings, a lot.  Not to the radio or the television, but to songs he makes up.  He sings songs to his grandchildren about how wonderful they are.  He makes up songs about what he's going to do with them and how happy they make him.

At Christmas time he sings Christmas Carols, loudly.  His deep bass rings through the house.  Hell, even if it isn't Christmas he'll sometimes belt out a verse or two.

He's not the only clown in the family, though.  Katie?  If you take her out in public, let her have just one drink, she's the life of the party.  At the Lodge Christmas party last year, she acted out Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire, the whole song, in dance.  In front of everyone.  Including acting like she was a reindeer and flying across the dance floor.

Yeah, like that.

Oh, the weirdest continues.  Richie cracks jokes, constantly.  I can still remember him being around 6 or so and asking:

"What's round and red and has 7 dents in it?"
 

"Snow White's Cherry."

6 y'all, he was 6!  Can you even imagine?

Mary's more of a subtle weird.  She's a schoolteacher, but when you get her out and in a good mood, she's just as strange as the rest of us.  Her sense of humor comes out more at home, when it's just the family around.

Mom, well, Mom tries to act like we offend her, all straight laced and uptight.  But, if you catch her right, you'll see her laughing at our silliness and jokes, or just shaking her head.  

If you've been reading me for awhile, you already know how strange my sense of humor is, if you haven't, well stick around.  

I'm out of time to write today, this isn't the end of this discussion, I'm sure.

You butthead.

Suzy Smith