- December 25, 2024
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There’s nothing I love more than spending time with family. There is this feeling I get, like it doesn’t matter what else is happening in my life, if I am surrounded by family, the people who truly know me — the goofy, clumsy, emotional, dreamer, still think I’m a kid, me — everything is OK.
Luckily, since my immediate family and my grandparents live in Florida, the extended family tends to visit on the regular to get away from the blistering cold of not living in the Sunshine State.
Last week my cousin and his girlfriend stopped in at my grandma’s for a couple days after they set sail on a cruise. Of course, luck, or un-luck, would have it that it was the day Florida tapped into its bipolar weather system and gave us a cold, windy day. That meant that instead of chilling on the beach, we would be spending our cousin time siting in grandma’s living room joking around and looking at old pictures.
I sat on the floor, leaned against the couch, taking my time, looking through each album, snapping pictures with my phone of my grandparent’s wedding pictures, pictures of me as a baby and funny pictures of my mom when she was a child. My cousin and his girlfriend sat on the couch, him reminiscing about the past and her teasing him about his cool kid spiky doo. (She fit in very well.)
My sister sat next to me furiously flipping the pages of each album saying “I’m not in this one!” And my nephew, who wanted to get in on the action too, pulled himself up to stand with the support of the coffee table and leaned in to grab hold of a new album, one without any pictures in it yet, one that has been designated for pictures of him.
Grams hung out with us for a bit, answering questions about who was who in the old black and whites, but she couldn’t keep away from the kitchen for long. She likes to feed us, and she doesn’t skimp when it comes to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After a full lunch, she pulled out the cake. It was a different kind of cake, not one filled with chocolate and sweetness, but one that more resembled a carrot cake. While all of us remarked on how delicious and sunshine-like the cake was, grams simply said, it’s really easy and passed along the recipe.
Grams' Mexican Cake
What you need:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cans crushed pineapple (un-drained)
I cup walnuts (chopped)
½ cup coconut
What to do:
Stir in all ingredients well and pour into a greased 9-by-13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
Frosting
What you need:
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1 stick margarine (softened)
2 cups confection sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
What to do:
Mix all ingredients together and spread on cooled cake.
