Happy New Years Eve from Mexico!

So it's that time of year again, time to reflect on our previous year or years and to measure our expectations to our realities. Looking back at this past year it hasn't really been a series of ups and downs like it had been in the past for me but a pretty constant year, and a good one at that. I didn't have any serious negative things happen to me, my family and friends all appear to be healthy and at this point they're all looking good to survive another year and the positives in my life have been pretty spectacular.

This past year marked the birth of a few awesome little ones to some of my closest friends and it has been truly a joy to get to see them become the awesome parents I always knew they would be, and for some, continue to be. It also brought forth the announcement of a few new little ones to join us in 2015, which I truly cant wait to meet. It may even require me to finally make that trip to Arizona I've been promising for years!

2014 also saw a resurgence of this little endeavor called Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons. I fell short of the 52 blog posts I had hoped for by about 12, but still, that's far more than I had ever done and after 40 posts in one year I still enjoy doing it and occasionally we even bring in a reader or two.

Looking back at my new year's resolution post from a year ago I certainly didn't complete everything I had hoped to in this past year, but I had somme pretty amazing experiences, met some extraordinary people and have somehow been able to turn the massive amount of what could be mundane days that make up a year into one extended learning experience that undoubtedly has taught me a number of life lessons as well as has left me a better person.

One of the coolest things that happened for the blog this year was that we have coaxed a consistent contributor into the fray with Mike Braget. I know he must be somewhat in for the long haul with us as we even made his Christmas card this year! I know I had mentioned that I wanted to convince a celebrity to blog with us this year but I feel like its an even cooler experience to have Mike write a post from a hammock in Mexico!

Speaking of writing from Mexico...

My first post of 2014 was written from my desk at my house with just me and a glass of Jameson. It was a great experience and a post that looked towards the future without any real sentiment for where the year would bring me. As I sit here on my veranda in Playa Del Carmen overlooking the fantastic pool where I have just spent a good portion of my day enjoying Banana Daiquiris pool side I can honestly say that looking back 365 days there is no way I thought this is how I would be spending my new years 2015.

I spent most of 2013 trying to make up for a poor summer where we put far more money into our business than we ever had as well as some other poor financial decisions. I was pretty much flat broke living pay check to pay check and having to borrow money from my sister just to make it through the tax season. 

We still didn't have a block buster year for our summer business but we did make enough to actually receive a pay check this year. We lost all of the month of June to rain, but when our crowds started to come back in July and August we dealt with far more families than ever before and really started to love what we do again. Even if we had simply broke even or not lost nearly as much as the previous year but still got to deal with these amazing people, it would have been worth it.

But we did make a little money, and after a bad couple years for me, my sister decided it was important that we take a vacation together. My brother, Ryan, had already booked a trip with his girlfriend over the same time period that we were going so we undoubtedly miss him on this trip, but it has been exactly what I think we all needed.

This escape to Mexico has been super relaxing (except for the near death experience on our trip here) and has led to a series of days spent sipping Banana Daiquiris and other frozen cocktails by the pool. Fun fact, when you spend your whole day day drinking, you tend to have pretty early nights. Our biggest worry for tonight is actually making it all the way to midnight! Our latest night so far was last night where Joe and I forced ourselves to stay up until 11:30! It helped that we met some new friends from Texas who were a lot younger than us, but day drinking, it appears, has the same effect on all of us!

This trip was just what the doctor ordered. It's a trip where we get to be together as a family (at least partially) in a situation where we aren't working. We probably spend more time together than any other siblings our age but those hours are almost exclusive to work, this is play, this is relaxation...this is quality family time.

So as this is the last blog of 2014 I'm not really going to delve into what I hope to accomplish in 2015, I just wanted to touch base with you as a recap of the year that was and say that it has been a good year for me as well. I'm not sure where I'm going from here, but I know where I am today...and today, my friends, is a great day.

Happy New Year from all of us at Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons! We hope you have a fantastic night ringing in the new year with the ones you love, and don't forget to have yourself a daiquiri or two to ring it in!

"IT IS WHAT IT IS"

We're flying high over Saint Louis, MO with Americas hottest family, and we're all about to die.

Let's just say we had a bit of an experience with our flight to Cancun Mexico...

My dad and I took off for Minneapolis on Christmas day so that we could spend a day with y sister and brother-in-law at their place before we took off on our trip to Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. The roads were perfect on the way down there and there was pretty much no snow left in Minnesota at this point although we did come across some fog in areas. 

We got to my sister's house without any problems at all and got to spend that night and the next day pretty much just hanging out with a side step to do some shopping early the day after Christmas. We even got that all done early enough where we were able to avoid the large crowds, got the few items we still needed for our trip (although finding swim wear in December in Minnesota proved to be a chore!) and were back to the house by around 9:30am! We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies such as the classic holiday film, Die Hard, and just attempted to get completely into relaxation mode for our flight and trip which we had to get up early for the next day.

Our flight was scheduled to take off at 8:50am and with it being an international flight we wanted to get to the airport by around 6:50am...so of course we got hit with a bit of a winter storm that night. I woke up around 4am to the sound of my sister out shoveling her side walks and went up to see that although we had missed out on a white Christmas, the snow had arrived just in time to possibly cause us some problems to get the heck out of Dodge!

Luckily my sister and her husband recently purchased a Jeep so we weren't too worried about navigating the highways to the airport, but we were a bit worried about other drivers as well as whether or not the plane would be delayed due to the current conditions.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to get checked in then we stopped at one of the airport watering holes to get some cocktails because everyone knows that once you pass through airport security, you are officially on vacation. So we go to this restaurant/bar and it being 7:30 or so in the morning, my dad didn't feel up for a drink, but Steph, Joe, and I ordered mimosas at a busy counter and the girl poured them for us drop them off and said, "$41.13." I figured she must have been talking to the group next to us and when I looked at their tab it was that number so when she came back I said: "I'd like to pay for these drinks please, how much were they?"

Her: "$41.13."

Me: "Holy shit! Well, here you go."

So needless to say, we were getting pretty excited to get out of the airport and to our all inclusive resort! 

We got a notice saying that our plane would be delayed 15 minutes but considering the outside conditions we felt like that wasn't bad at all! We boarded the plane at 8:15am and were now scheduled to depart at 9am. Everyone got loaded up pretty quickly and we were all set to go, we pulled onto the tarmac and then were informed that due to heavy traffic in Cancun as well as the need to do some de-icing we would now not be taking off until a little after 10am...yet we got to stay in the plane...for an hour and 20 minutes...like sardines. Why we needed to get on the plane when we did, I'll never know, but I had a good book with me and I just decided to make the best out of a bad situation.

So 10am arrives and we're headed for take-off, finally. It's a pretty smooth takeoff and we are finally on our way to our all inclusive vacation! about an hour and a half into our flight the captain comes on over the PA system and says: "You may have noticed that we have turned around. We got a crack in our windshield so we are headed back to Minneapolis where we'll try to arrange another plane for you. The second pane is intact and we feel like we'll be fine to make the trip rather than landing in Saint Louis."

Things were starting to register with the passengers and most of us were waiting for him to say, just joking! But it never came. Soon people were starting to get angry that we were turning around and I was sitting there thinking to myself...he did just say that we got a crack in the windshield of our plane right? The thing that is carrying us traveling around 300mph or so however high above the ground? So yeah, we're all going to die today. But, I had that book so I just said, well, I'll read my book and whatever happens happens. The lady a few seats ahead of us was celebrating her 80th birthday by flying all of her family to Mexico for a vacation and after talking to her a bit she just showed us her bracelet witch said, "It is what it is." Which summed up the situation perfectly. 

We probably should have landed in Saint Louis, but by traveling back to Minneapolis (if we made it) we would have a better chance at still getting a plane to take us to Cancun sometime that day. So, I guess they figured it was worth the risk.

We arrived back in Minneapolis safely and as we were departing the plane we got a glimpse into the cockpit where the windshield could certainly be considered to be cracked. I would have listed it more as shattered but whatever, we made it home safe.

Once we got back into the MSP airport I text my brother and buddy and told them: "Well, we're back in MSP." and then went ahead and filled them in on our traveling escapades to that point. The good news was that they had secured another plane for us with a windshield and all the other bells and whistles and they thought we should be able to take off at 2pm. We landed back in MSP around 12:15 so the turnaround was pretty darn impressive!

The flight actually took off at 2:10pm but we had a good flight this go around and made it to Mexico around 6:30pm. We got through customs pretty quick and then got our taxi lined up and got ourselves a couple of cervezas and now we've been drunk for two days....

But the trip to Mexico ended up being pretty exciting and probably a story we'll remember for quite a while, but the thing I'll probably remember most is how some people were complaining about being late for the start of our vacation, and some realizing that there wasn't anything we could do about it other than pray we made it home safe. The birthday girl taught us all a valuable life lesson that day with a simple bracelet that just read, "It is what it is."

A Christmas Story

“So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, a new one just begun.”

So go the lyrics of a holiday classic brought to us by the infamous John Lennon. It’s a magical time of year where we sort of celebrate the birth of “our lord and savior Jesus Christ,” but really it’s a time to just try and act in a manner that may represent what the story of that person is meant to instill in us. To do unto others and all that Jazz.

I personally am not all that religious of a guy, (I know, big shocker to our consistent readers) but I am a man of faith so to speak. I believe in people and their ability to do good, and this time of year is a great time to really show that spirit. Given all of the crazy terrible things going on around the world, I think we could use a little more of the good and a rest from the wicked. We all could use some of that holiday magic where we forgive the wrong that others have done unto us and we use this holiday to show the ones we love how much they mean to us. The idea isn’t about presents, but presence. Being there and showing we care for each other by actually spending some quality time together. The presents we give to each other may be nice but the main point is to prove we know each other, that we’ve been paying attention and that the things we receive may not be as important as the meaning behind them.

As we grow older our wish lists dwindle as we get jobs and purchase the necessities for ourselves throughout the year, but to give the magic of Christmas to a child is something special. I was recently talking about Santa with some of the kids on my bus and one of the 7^th grade girls told me that she knew that Santa wasn’t real during our discussion of when we open presents for Christmas. I then proceeded to tell her about the time that Santa made a trip to our house, right about the time we started to question his existence as well…

Our tradition is to gather the family at the house on Christmas Eve where we have our Christmas tree which has had a growing number of presents throughout the week underneath it (all from each other), than we would go out looking at Christmas lights while one of our parents would stay behind to assist Santa in putting out all the presents that came from him. When we would come back Santa would have been there and we would be amazed at all of the presents that he had left behind!

Some kids love the surprise, and some seek out their presents before opening them. They shake the ones under the tree and wait for an opportune time to search through all of the possible hiding places in the house where Santa/Mom & Dad may have hidden other presents. You hear stories, and maybe even partook in carefully unwrapping presents to discover what they are before Christmas and then carefully rewrapping them in order to not be discovered. My brother may have been one of these individuals…

When I was just about that age where I was starting to question if Santa was real or not, my brother and I were home alone one day and he came to me and said, “Want to see something?”

I being the younger, dumber brother I quickly said, “Sure!”

He then led me into my parent’s bedroom where he opened up their closet to reveal a plethora of items which we had asked for throughout the year, all waiting to be wrapped, and all of which were more than likely coming from Santa. He also showed me a toy drum set which I had requested from Santa which was being hidden in our garage…at which point our parents returned and found us.

They were furious that we would go snooping around like that and told us that all of the presents were being returned to the store, they even went as far as to load everything back up in the car while we sat there watching, tears filling my face and drenching my shirt. Christmas was ruined.

I now knew that there was no Santa and that I would no longer be getting all of the great toys that I had just moments before discovered. I cried and cried, blamed my brother for everything, told my parents that I hadn’t wanted to go snooping, and as could be predicted completely threw my brother under the bus.

But they were holding firm. There would be no presents except the few we already had under the tree, which in our eyes (after seeing the haul we were going to get) was practically nothing.

Despite knowing that we would not be getting all of those awesome presents, my brother and I were now in make up mode and were on our absolute best behavior for the remainder of the Christmas season. We knew we had messed up and Christmas being our mom’s favorite time of year, we felt like we had almost cheated her out of something as well (It being better to give rather than receive was far beyond our rationale at that age). So we were good, probably better than we had been all year, not because we felt like we could still redeem ourselves enough to save our Christmas, but because we felt bad about what we had done.

So Christmas Eve came and we piled in the car with my dad and two sisters and my mom stayed home to finish the Christmas meal and hang out just in case Santa arrived (which we knew wouldn’t happen because we had been bad, and also because we now knew that there was no Santa, just mom and dad).

We were gone for quite a while checking out all of the beautiful lights our community had put up on their houses to help put them in the Christmas mood, or to make the season special for their families or neighbors, or just because they loved the season. We drove all over the place and for the first time for a long time we weren’t complaining about trying to get back because we knew that there weren’t going to be any of the crazy things we had asked for for Christmas, there was just going to be a few small presents as well as some quality family time. Maybe we would eat and put together a puzzle, or play a hard core game of Yahtzee…and that was going to be enough. We wanted to make the day special for our parents because we knew we had ruined their Christmas and because we were beginning to finally see all of the amazing things they do to make our lives better…I mean, who comes up with a magical person who delivers presents just to make their kids believe that there is magic in this world of ours?

We finished our drive and parked our car in the driveway, not rushing to be the first one in the house as normal, but just slowly walking in talking about what was our favorite display and excited about getting to tell our mom about all of the beautiful lights.

As we entered the house and looked up from our landing, we were shocked to see a large man with a big white beard dressed all in red and white standing at the top of our stairs! Santa hadn’t just been to our house, but he was still there!

We were like the little kids who happen upon Santa away from his typical haunts (the mall photo opt, or ringing the bell for the Salvation Army), we were in awe and very timid. We also figured we were about to get a lecture about how bad we had been that year…which was pretty much what happened.

But he being Santa, and seeing everything in all, he also talked to us about how he had been really impressed with our turn around and wanted us to keep being the good boys he knew we could be. He said that our parents had asked him to talk to us specifically because they thought that we were beginning to believe that he didn’t exist and thought that it would be a shame if we stopped seeing the magic of the season.

As you would imagine we praised everything he was saying, told him we would be the good little boys he knew we could be, promised to not go snooping around in places we shouldn’t be and probably a ton of other things which we inevitably failed to hold to.

Santa wished us all a very Merry Christmas, told us he had parked his sleigh on our back deck and that maybe next year we could see it and pet the reindeer and away he went. I still remember hearing the hooves of the reindeer on our deck as he took off to his next stop.

We then went out to the Christmas tree which was now surrounded by presents, including all of the things we had seen our parents load up to return to the store, Santa had really come through in the end!

So I told this story to the little 7^th grade girl on my bus and although she had been very sure that Santa did not exist I could see now that she was starting to question it a bit. I have never been known to lie to the kids on my bus, so why would I be lying to her now?

Christmas is a magical time of year, not necessarily because of all the things that we receive but because of all that we can give and because hopefully we are able to share it with loved ones. It doesn’t matter what you have under the tree, but who’s there to share the season with you.

As I look back at our Christmas seasons past I think of how hard our parents worked to instill the magic of Christmas upon us all. No matter the circumstances our parents made it a special occasion for us and because of the kind of people they are and were, they had friends that would help out along the way.

When I think of Christmas and its meaning now, I think of the Christmas where we were flat broke and we weren’t going to be able to have any presents at all, but my mom’s best friend Lil Bridgeford, went out and bought us all gifts because she knew how important the holiday was to our mom.

I think about all of the sacrifices my parents made for us, how my mom absolutely loved Christmas, the lights, the decorations, the exchanging of gifts and just getting to spend the holiday with the people she loved and I know that I was very lucky to get to spend my first 22 Christmas seasons with someone like her who always made sure we believed in the magic of Christmas and the goodness of people.

I think at some point my parents told us who played Santa that day for them and how they had made it seem like the sleigh was taking off from our deck, but for the life of me I can’t remember that part of the story. Maybe I just choose not to, maybe to this day I still believe in the magic of Christmas, and maybe you should too.

 

Merry Christmas from all of us at Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons!

 

 

Some Thoughts on Ferguson

 

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been following all of the events surrounding the shootings in Ferguson and other areas of the country. We saw videos, heard opinions one way and the other and have seen protests not turning ugly, but beginning that way and staying that way. We’ve seen people saying that these incidents were race related and others search out and post information about white people being shot by black officers, further expanding the race divide on the issue. We’ve also seen officers standing up for their fellow officers and whites and blacks jumping their “race line” and defending their opposite race.

The issues have gotten the masses talking about the racial divide and how race issues are almost as bad as they’ve always been, at least in some areas of the country, which is quite a bold if not uneducated determination considering our very tumultuous history, but something is certainly wrong with our current situation.

I did not grow up in a very diverse community. Our school attempted, for a while, to run a foreign exchange program to assist us in learning more about cultures foreign from our own, and help us to dispel some of the prejudices that you may be more prone to, growing up in a single culture area.

The program was great in theory and it definitely led to some lifetime friendships and accomplished the proclaimed goal of exposing all of us (the kids and adults from my town as well as the exchange students) to different ways of life, but ultimately the large scale program failed.

Why?

Because eventually the foreign exchange students grouped together as one unit and the kids from my area as another. They were no longer one harmonious group learning from each other, but they were two groups who focused too much on their differences and not enough on their similarities. The two groups who started as open minded and eager to learn and interact with each other formed prejudices. It may have been a few individuals who turned the groups (which more times than not, proves to be the case) or it could have been baggage passed down from previous generations. But whatever the case there was an igniting incident which led to what can best be described as an all-out melee in our school cafeteria one lunch hour. This led to several other group against group fights and ultimately to the end of what had been a very successful program.

We were lucky enough to still have some families who recognized the importance of learning from each other who still would recruit and welcome in a few foreign exchange students each year, but our large scale program eventually failed all do to a few individuals who incited the masses.

This brings me back to Ferguson. My personal opinion, take it or leave it, is that for the most part we’re dealing with misplaced anger. Too quickly we jump on the race, religion, sex, nationality, or whatever convenient band wagon. We take isolated incidents and turn them into causes. We blow incidents out of proportion and turn a whole group of people against another group of people instead of looking at the specific incident and individuals. Maybe the young man who was shot was completely innocent or completely to blame. Maybe the officer acted exactly as he should and did his job to the letter of the law, or maybe he murdered an innocent man…but the incident involved those two individuals. It certainly affected their families and loved ones, but it was an incident involving not groups, but individuals.

 Too often we group ourselves together, be it by your favorite sports team, the school you attend, the neighborhood you live in, the church you attend, your gender, your race or your nationality. We group ourselves together and forget about ourselves as individuals. When we do this we tend to take isolated incidents and latch onto them as something concerning the whole group. Nobody’s better at establishing “group think” than the people who represent us in government. These individuals are generally the first ones to tell us that these incidents aren’t group but individual related, unless it affects their party line, at which point they of course choose sides and tell you the opposite side is dead wrong…and there’s something wrong with that.

These people and their actions are portrayed in front of us (via television, radio, and multiple other sources) more than any others, and the example they set for everyone is to toe that party line, which can then lead to mean; race, religion, country or whatever line. Do what’s best for the group, damn the consequences and the individual.

So we get Republicans telling us what the Democrats idolize is wrong and vice versa. Not that John Smith made a valid point or that they disagree with that individual, but that he represents his party, so they’re wrong….which in turn leads to; all cops are killers of innocent men, all white people hate black people, all black people break laws, loot and burn down buildings…and quite frankly, that’s bullshit and I, for one, won’t accept it.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” is the essence of prejudice and it’s something we may all be guilty of but it needs to stop. Stop grouping individuals and as individuals we need to stop doing it to ourselves as well. We may fall into these sub categories on the surface, but we’re all still very unique people with our own views, opinions, and beliefs. We are not our gender, race, religion, country, political party or any other singularity. We are complex and unique and each one of us is responsible for ourselves and our actions.

”The biggest mistake of people is that they think they do not deserve the good and bad things from their lives.” – Paulo Coelho

My heart goes out to all of the individuals involved in these incidences and I truly hope that you can find some peace.

Don’t look for the differences between you and your fellow man, for you may only find hate. Look for the similarities and hopefully we can find love.