before i forget them all...

• waking up early on christmas day and crawling into josh's bed, and then both of us crawling into our parents' bed to wake them up
• going down to mendota for any holiday and stopping by casa de fruta to pick up the gooey candy in the clear sticks as a treat
• taking a blanket outside the harmony house in the backyard and reading a book
• taking the bus and VTA lightrail with my dad and realizing for the first time jeans make you cold
• my dad tucking me in so tight in bed i'd have to wiggle out before actually going to bed
• stealing my mom's makeup to pass on my own
• stealing my dad's alt rock CDs to make mix tapes, then slyly putting them back
• feeding the ducks at hellyer park tortillas and calling them 'mexican ducks'
• spending my summers with my mom at her work's staff lunch lounge reading and eating vending machine food
• my grandparents (dad's parents) hiding plastic easter eggs outside with coins and dollars in them
• playing with the neighbors on either side of my grandparents' house on massar ave, and the diazs behind us at the harmony house
• playing street fighter and pac man at the laundry mat by the harmony house
• going to garage sales and thrift stores with my mom, finding the book section, and reading while she shopped
• my aunt letting me reorganize her jewelry chest (i was OCD even at 9) and letting me keep a necklace or a bracelet as the reward
• my grandma making cream of wheat and sticking a stick of cinnamon inside for an amazing flavor
• my grandma also making homemade tortillas and us devouring them
• the cowhead dinner that traumatized me to this day
• my mom's hate of mushrooms and the way my dad used to try and make her eat them
• my dad's love of chocolate covered cherries and how we would always buy them at see's ON valentine's day for him
• my brother's sweet nature in wanting to cuddle when he was little, and still asking to do so as an adult
• having extreme theme parties as kids and having favors! (my mom went all out on our birthdays, which is so paramount why birthdays are so special to me now)
• when we would go to great america, and we all had bright ass colors to identify each other from far away! my dad was lime green, i was yellow
• whatever my indulgence was at the time, and my parents giving it to me (new kids on the block sleeping bag, yellow smiley face clock)
• josh, jon, and i jumping off the tree stumps at the alley house and almost breaking bones
• reading as many books as i could in third grade for the bookclub so i could get as many pizza hut personal pan pizzas as i could
• going to the fleamarket early when my grandparents babysat us, and thinking five dollars was a lot; i always always bought lip gloss as one of my items
• running up and down the aisles at supermarkets with josh and pulling coupons from those electronic dispensers and pretending it was cash
• the really badly constructed wooden tree swing at the harmony house that miraculously never broke under our weight
• the first time i made macaroni and cheese, and forgot to drain the water before adding the cheese sauce, and my family STILL eating it
• my grandma walking down to the end of the driveway at her house after we visited her, and waiting until we drove away so she could wave to us. she still does this now even though we're all grown up, and i remember this even from my very first memories, and i love this about my grandma
• when josh and i used to have "feet fights"
• remembering every day i loved my family so much, and that i would do anything for them. i still get that feeling.