Hoppie Thanksgiving!

Hoppie? Did you think I misspelled happy?

Nope.

I meant Hoppie Thanksgiving.

In my family we say "hoppie" and it's because my Uncle Richie L. said it really funny one time and we were all teasing him (behind his back of course).

The Uncle Richie I'm talking about is my mom's younger brother as opposed to my other Uncle Richie, my Aunt Libby's husband, and Aunt Libby is my mom's sister and of course Uncle Richie L's sister. Okay. Got that?

So, this Uncle Richie says it funny one time and me and my cousins are all laughing about it and imitating him and you could so tell that Aunt Libby wanted to laugh too but she was being a good sister. My mom had already passed away by this time, and she would have laughed too but would have been just like Aunt Libby was. Saying stop and that little grin just busting to get bigger.

We had also had a field day when he said the word "bequeath" on camera at my cousin Artie's wedding when he was toasting the bride (Theresa) and groom. We rewound that 2 seconds of video so many times we finally got Aunt Libby to laugh, she just couldn't help herself, just like us. I know it's probably one of those things "you have to be there", but I would bet that pretty much everyone out there has a family member who you love or don't love (and we happen to love Uncle Richie L very much) but again, I would bet you have a family member that says something silly, funny, weird or does something silly, funny, gross, whatever and you laugh behind their backs. Well that's "hoppie" for my family. In a couple of hours I'll be heading upstate to my sister's for Thanksgiving Day, my most favorite holiday, and we will all greet each other with "Hoppie Thanksgiving". We also use it as much as we can, Hoppie Birthday, Hoppie Christmas, Hoppie New Year, etc, etc, etc.

Hoppie Thanksgiving all!

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson