Laughter in the home

(I prepared this post on Saturday and finally feel it is what I want to say.)

As a child growing up my parent’s house I remember it being full of laughter and love. My dad always made it a point to give us girls hugs and tell us that he loved us. I am the sentimental one in the family (zip it Long island dad, no chuckling) so I guess I remember this more vibrantly than my sisters.

I remember nights that we’d dance together in our pj’s. I remember playing Pictionary on a large paper and laughing at each other’s artistic skills. I remember holidays with music on the reel to reel (and they still have that.)

On April fools day we’d play jokes and I remember my older sister took great delight in those opportunities to get me. One year she turned everything in my room upside down (including my hamster cage, and boy was he confused.) Once we had a cardboard cutout of a guy model that we put in the dark powder room and so when people would enter and turn on the light it would scare them. (We were big on scaring for laughs.)

I remember my little sister doing cartwheels in the living room or the time she wasn’t paying attention and ran into the closed bathroom door scaring the heck out of me (we still laugh about that.)

There are many many things I remember. Sure there were bad times and tough times. Yes we siblings fought. And yes I had those teenage years where I’d argue with my parents but what I remember the most is the laughter. I love to laugh. I love to joke around and have fun but I love to laugh.

I have thanked my parents many times for passing on laughter to me. So now it is my turn, my job to help fill my home through laughter and memories. Now it is my turn to hug my children and my turn to make sure that though there will be tough times, my children remember the laughter. I won’t know if my job was done successfully until I’m much older but I hope my children tell me as I have told my parents. And I hope they pass it on to their children.