My Favorite Tio

Disclaimer: It’s Amy,AGAIN. Being mostly unemployed (I am
doing some work for my dad, but it isn’t much) has left me with plenty of
things to say and plenty of time to say them.  So I hope you don’t mind that I’ve been hijacking my Mom’s blog so much recently.  🙂

 If you’ve been reading this past week, you know that Tio
Timbiriche is here and we are having a blast together. Timbiriche, however, is not my favorite
Tio. He’s my favorite Tio-abuelo . . .
but that’s not important right now.

 Let me tell you a little about my favorite Tio, my mother’s
brother. 

(here’s a picture of him with my Mom)

First of all, I don’t get to
see him very often because he lives in Texas,
but when I do get to see him I am thrilled beyond all reason. He and his wife (one of my favorite Tias –
don’t tell the rest of them) were here in California
for just a couple days back in February. I was so excited to have them, that I made my Mom’s famous Arroz con Pollo de Perez-Puelles.  Since it had been years since we’d seen each
other, they had no idea how Cuban I’d grown up to be . . .

“Would you like a
cafecito?”

“If your cafecito is
anything like your arroz con pollo, I definitely want one!”

I was so lucky to get to spend time with them without the
rest of my big, fat, Cuban family around. I even had the guts to ask him about what leaving Cuba was like for him . . . (it’s
something we as a family don’t really talk about when we’re in a big group, but he did not hesitate in sharing the story with me.)

I always learn so much from him, even if we are together just a short time. 

For example, he has this thing about “gifts.” He told me that a true gift is something that
comes from the heart, something thoughtful, not something you ask for. . .

It is a physical representation of a feeling that words can
no longer express.

(Which means Jonathan really hit the nail on the head with the hat thing.)

This is the same Tio who has had a video camera since they
came into existence. The Christmas
videos I put together every year would be nothing without the priceless footage
that has been provided by my favorite Tio.

This Tio also happens to be the father of my cousin Michael (the one who is getting married to Kimberly in Miami in July) . . . thus
providing what is sure to be a big, fat, Cuban family vacation! YAAAYYY!!!

 Anyway, today is my favorite Tio’s happy birthday and I just
wanted to say: 

Felicidades Tio! Te
quiero mucho!

(See you in a few months!)