Our Twins Are Nine Today!

Yesterday our gang gathered together at our house to celebrate the 9th birthday of our wonderful twin granddaughters, Alesha and Amanda. These girls were born fraternal, non-identical and have they ever lived up to their non-identical status! One is blonde the other is brunette. One is very slender and the other has a little more meat on her bones. They look different, have different ideas, likes and dislikes, but both love their MiMi and Poppy very much. Medical experts tell us there’s some five variations of twin sets and as fraternal, non-identical, our twins share 50% of the same genes and are the most common variety of twin sets.

They wanted the Bratz makeover dolls so Poppy searched until he found exactly what he was looking for. One Bratz blonde and one Bratz brunette. They received clothes and toys and so much stuff and they enjoyed it all. I had recently expressed a desire to get the whole clan together and this turned out to be a wonderful time of fun, feasting, fellowship and with grand kids running up and down the stairs for over two hours, unmitigated chaos.

My wife had gone out of her way to put on the big feed and everyone enjoyed themselves. The guys, as typical, ate in the family room on TV trays while we kept up with Tiger beating the stuffing out of the entire field by 8 strokes including Rory who, as the leader going into the final day, had spoken loudly and at length how beatable Tiger was, as well as watching Kurt Busch run away with the 500 mile NASCAR Pocono race. Fork in one hand dealing with some of the best home cooking known to humanity, and the remote control in the other making sure we stay informed with the very latest vital information. Now I ask you again, “Is this a great country or what?”

Our pastor actually has the same birth date that our twins have. A couple of years ago I was in the Wednesday night Bible study and a lady asked our pastor if he had received the birthday card she sent. He said he had and he appreciated it but since it was March it really wasn’t his birthday. She didn’t know how she had gotten that wrong but apologized. I announced to the class that I was probably the only one there who actually knew the date our pastor was born. No one spoke up so I proceeded to tell them how Pastor had become very fortunate in that he somehow got himself born on the same day as our twins, therefore, that’s why I knew his birth date. One of the ladies questioned this by saying, “Wouldn’t it be the twins born on his birthday and not the other way round?” I shot back, “Okay, you tell your story the way you want to and I’ll tell mine the way I want to, and the way I see it, he’s very fortunate to share that special day with our two special girls!”

Maybe it’s stories like that one that make people dread dealing with proud grand parents. I do plead guilty but I also know that we have wonderful grandchildren who have caused us to be this way. Where else could you go to see Alex who is 22 months and Brady who is 18 months doing their version of the WWF Smackdown? Where else could you go to have this one, and then that one, and then another, coming and going, climbing up into your lap and hugging and loving on you. Our twins are very loving anyway but they especially enjoyed their special day. Family. What a treasure. We thank God for how blessed we are! More later……………..