What is wrong with your family?

[figmentPez]

This is a story about failed cookies, but the thread is going to be about happy little quirks in your family. Things you either like or don't mind, but the rest of the world finds puzzling.

Anway, my mom likes malted-milk balls (like Whoppers) but is also kind of picky about which ones. She bought a big bag from the bulk aisle in Whole Foods, only to discover that she didn't like that particular style. My sister attempted to use them up by breaking them into chip-sized pieces and using them in a chocolate-chip peanut butter cookie recipe.

The cookies came out kind of odd. They were a little dry, and even though they had both chocolate chips and the malt ball pieces, they weren't very sweet, and the crunchy bits of malted center were kind of a weird texture. Despite that they were tasty, or I thought so, at least.

My younger sister had taken some with her as a snack, and offered one to her friend. This friend took one bite, exclaimed "What is wrong with your family?" and threw the cookie out the window of the moving car they were riding in.


So, what amusing stories can you share about how your family's traditions, recipes and personality quirks have gotten you strange looks or worse?

 

[General Specific]

See: The Screaming Hyenas

My other grandmother is missing that little bit of conscience that tells you not to say particular things because it will upset people. She just lets whatever is in her head fly and it has alienated a lot of the family. Including my uncle (more on him in a bit) and all of her grandchildren (that'd be my two siblings and myself).

My uncle is now in his 50s and dresses up for Halloween every year. This would be ok for most families, but he is a doctor and he dresses up for work. Fun costumes, too, like William Wallace (Mel Gibson version prior to him going nuts [Mel Gibson, not my uncle]) and Spock (from Star Trek, not the expert on children).

 

[bhamv3]

I have a big family, and we often have family gatherings of over 10 people, or even more. At these gatherings, we'll all get together and sit down in a room, and talk. Sometimes it's every one talking to the group, sometimes it's several individual conversations going on at once.

At some point, though, everyone will just all suddenly fall silent at the same time, without meaning to and without any specific cue. Just sort of like, talk talk talk talk talk SILENCE.

Oftentimes someone will then walk into the room, and ask, "Why have you all stopped talking? You were talking about me, weren't you? WEREN'T YOU?"

 

[LittleSin]

I have a little story that I have vowed to tell on my sisters wedding day.

Blue and I were sitting at the kitchen island while my sister, 15 at the time, attempts to make cookies as a surprise for Dad. She's reading the recipe but not really grasping the concept that a table spoon is different then a regular, cereal spoon or a cup is different then a juice glass. She would get very irate every time Blue or I would try to say anything to help and refuse to listen.

Finally she sees something in the recipe instructions she's not sure about. "It says to grease the pan. What do I use to grease it."

I answer, helpfully, "Just use some wax paper to rub it on."

So BLue and I are chatting and working on our art assignment while April is busily rubbing at the pan. She finally says "This doesn't look very greased at all!"

Blue looks up and asks "How much butter did you use?"

"I was supposed to use butter?!" She had thought the wax paper itself would provide the grease!