Dear Readers,

The day that Ricky Nelson died was also the day that I realized my family was something to be scared of.

My youngest sisters' farmhouse was a place of magic, a place of mystery and a place where a 10 year old boy could learn about the world through the lives of animals. It was also a place of terror, and the source of a story that I think it's probably time to tell.

It's not that I think it's anybody's business, but I do feel that there are some things that I need to shed from my programming. I don't believe that telling this story is going to immediately cleanse me, but I kind of think it might give people a better perspective on who I am.

I'm standing in my sisters' living room, opening a new "Return Of The Jedi" Millenium Falcon model and staring at the TV telling me that Ricky Nelson was no longer sharing our air.

My father, my mother, my brother, my sister, her husband and my niece are in the kitchen. Everyone is waiting for the arrival of my oldest sister, her husband and their son ( my nephew ).

-29 Mainly Clear.

It was a very good day, and the smell of Christmas-y food filled the entire house. It was because of such varied work schedules that we had to combine our Christmas gathering with a New Year's Eve celebration.

The rest arrive:

My niece, my nephew and I are downstairs. We're playing with our new toys and basically working hard at being kids. Upstairs, the adults are chatting, preparing food and drinking.

A crash.

Us three kids look toward the basement ceiling as a glass rolls across the floor. Everything then gets quiet.

We march upstairs, and I take notice of the various bits of chaos scattered around the kitchen.

• My mother has my brother pinned to the floor (he's an adult).
• Everything from the table is scattered on the floor and the table is on it's side.
• My oldest sisters' husband is outside, with his shirt torn off.
• My younger sister is fleeing the house.
• My father is standing there, holding a potato masher. This was the most ridiculous thing for me to notice.
• My other brother-in-law is nowhere to be seen ... for a few moments.

Then he bursts out of the bedroom, pointing a shotgun at all of us.

"Get off me you fat bitch".

I look down, and my brothers' face is going red. My mother refuses to let him stand up.

The shotgun goes off, we all look up and see a massive hole in the bedroom door. It's at this point that the whole thing gets even more scary, or ridiculous.

We're not sure what prompted my brother in law to turn to fire the gun into the bedroom door, but soon he has it pointed back at us. Can it be believed that I still love the guy who was pointing the gun at us?

We're not sure what to do, but my attention goes from my mother - who's still sitting on my brother - and my brother-in-law pointing a gun at us.

He mutters something else, and she decides it's time to let him up. She does this cautiously, and my brother is immediately up from the floor.

He then picks me out of the crowd:

"I bite!"

He screams this weirdness into my face, and vanishes into the living room.

It's now that my oldest sister starts backing us kids out of the door, and into the cold. My parents soon follow. Imagine this ragtag group walking entirely backwards out of the house, not wearing our winter clothes and just socks.

Then imagine us all racing for our respective vehicles.

My father starts the car, we speed down the driveway and up the road my sister is on a horse, galloping toward the neighbors house. We assume to call the police.

My father pulls ahead of her, stops the car and rolls down his window. My sister stops the horse and looks down. She's crying and obviously cold.

"Get in".

She shakes her  head, asks her daughter to get out of our car and they both continue down the road.

Those of us who fled the house all end up back at my childhood apartment, eating frozen fishcakes and vegetables for our Christmas meal. I skip directly to this because the in between parts are a collection of various tidbits from various family members.

Apparently, it all started with my brother slapping  my oldest sister and my father punching my brother in the face. We're still not sure how my one brother-in-law ended up shirtless on the front lawn.

We do know that my gun happy brother-in-law ended up jail, and it was a long time before our family could ever attempt to be in the same room together.

There's a little something that you didn't know about me.

Sharing it was inspired by Jen urging me to get more personal and share what I've been thinking about lately.