Do you count Hershey Park as a theme park or just an amusement park? I got to go there on a school trip, but we never went as a family. Nor did we ever go to county or state fairs - I expect because of the cost of rides for 5 kids.
I get along well with my inlaws. I think a part of that stems from me putting a lot of weight in a person’s relationship with their family when dating. My wife is very close to her family and they get along well, and not surprisingly they love me even though my culture is pretty alien to them and my mannerisms baffling.
It kind of helps when there is a language barrier because a lot of potential foot-in-mouth moments (myself or my inlaws) get lost in translation, and if we casually say something stupid my wife can ‘creatively translate’ it to the other party. This really helped with first impressions.
My family’s non-tradition with lobster is for Thanksgiving. When I was 9, my mom and I moved in with her (now-32 years) not-husband (and step-dad to me as far as anyone’s concerned). Because she (we) had just gotten through a messy divorce and horrific loss of newborn preemie twins, Step-Dad decided a traditional Thanksgiving and work in the kitchen for Mom was right out. So we went out for a fancy Thanksgiving Surf & Turf with a few choice friends and relatives invited.
That remained our tradition for about 20 years, until Mom developed an iodine allergy and now can’t be in the room with shellfish. Then they bought a second house in another state and spend a couple Thanksgivings with their new neighbors and I started working holidays, so we haven’t seen each other on Thanksgiving in about 7 years.
I’m gay and I don’t have children. My most important relationships are friends, not family. So every time a politician opens his mouth about ‘family values’ or a TV ad pushes a ‘family car’, ‘family-sized meal’, ‘family day out’, family home’, they aren’t talking to me.
I live in Japan and am married to a Taiwanese woman, but she’s not fluent in English and I know no Chinese so we speak Japanese with each other. Our 3-year-old daughter understands all three languages, but speaks (in order of fluency) Japanese (completely fluent, as far a three-year-olds are); Mandarin (close to fluent); and English (fair). We get to Taiwan much more frequently than we do to the States, and my MIL and SIL have stayed with us for expended periods of time.
Skyping with Grandma in the States is helping Beta-chan develop more English skills, as is reading a lot of books, cooking together and playing games in English. It doesn’t seem to bother she that she has to know three different ways of saying Daddy – four, actually, including the polite and informal forms in Japanese.
We had a piano in my house. Whenever Grandma came to visit, sometimes she would go to the piano and play bawdy saloon songs (well, bawdy for her generation).
I doubt most of the men my age had grandmas who came to their house and played bawdy saloon songs on the family piano.
We’ve chosen not to have kids - I’m 35, he’s 33. Not that atypical yet - many of our friends don’t have children - but I’m bettting that’ll change as we get older.
My sick little brain had this sentence ending " . . . so that the rest of the family could eat lobster over there without endangering Mom."
Because my family would so totally do that rather than give up lobster. LOL!
*My *sweet old orange-haired grandma was openly lesbian, a successful businesswoman, who told me “I learned two things in life: never get married and never have children.” So far I have followed her advice to the letter!
And my grandfather (not the one who was married to Lesbian Granny, the other one) was a Trotskyite.
Oh yeah, my husband and I are childfree by choice as well - it isn’t as atypical as it used to be. People hardly bat an eye now, and we know a fair amount of other people like us.
In my day-to-day life, I work unconventional hours, anywhere from 11am to 8pm or 6pm to 3am. I love these hours, as I don’t have to deal with the 9-5 rush hour congestion either on the road or on CTA. Probably 6 times a year, I have an appointment or other obligation that requires me to join the masses during the conventional work times, and I’m always shocked and appalled and late because the crowds and congestion and insanity take me by surprise every time. My “conventional” obligations are far enough in between for me to just forget how bad it is and to allocate extra time.
Atypical: I’m permanently single by choice. Maybe that makes me a bit odd. Never seen the point of dating (although I did try it for a few years about a decade ago).
Typical: I’m thankful to have had very typical grandmothers. They taught me to sew, knit, crochet, and bake. One was into baking sweetbreads and oatmeal cookies, and the other made xmas cookies and snickerdoodles. It was great.
My brother celebrates holidays with both sets of in-laws! You see, my SIL’s father passed away a few years ago, and her sisters live on opposite sides of the country, so her mom joins us for holidays.
I sleep on a floormat, I write in a diary every day, I walk miles every day, and I’m single by choice.
We’re also childless by choice.
I’ve thought, with my mom dying almost two years ago, what will happen when both sets of parental units pass on. My dad is alive, but we have no holiday traditions with him. His parents are alive, and we go down for holidays, but after they pass, i admit I have no real interest in visiting with his brother and sister-in-law, and I bet his sister-in-law feels the same. Maybe the brothers will get together but I doubt the family will be such a tight-knit group anymore.
Do you go from town to town setting wrongs right? Is there some crime that you didn’t commit involved?
One of my grandmothers was a compulsive hoarder nightmare of a person who lived next door to us but who we would never have dreamed or accepted a truckload of cash to eat at her house. The other was closer to the “Middle America silver haired Gramma” but she had Alzheimer’s from the time I was in First Grade or so. My mother cooked/served/cleaned up after most of the feasts, and I was way past grown before it occurred “doing a mountain of work for several days in addition to her full time job and housekeeping isn’t something she greatly relishes”, so we started going out to eat on Thanksgiving. The food wasn’t as good (because she was a great cook) but I think she enjoyed that much better.
Now is weird. All of the old generation in the family is gone and it’s just me and my brother and sister, three middle aged siblings. I honestly have no problem spending holidays alone- that’s not sour grapes, I’m not anti-social but I like my alone time- but my sister won’t hear of it and since neither of us particularly likes our brother (not a bad sort but very “I me my I me my I me my” self impressed small town rich) we usually spend either Thanksgiving or Christmas together where my sister does the traditional blessing/cursing of Obama and I try to simultaneously digest my food while not getting into a screaming match over her Glenn Beck lover or, worse, let her find out I have a facebook page. (She’s blocked because it’s better that way; she can pretend I’m just “shy around girls” and “kind of naive about politics” if we only see each other a couple of times a year and not in daily contact.)
Hmmm… Not “typical”?
I’m a guy, I know how to crochet and knit and sew, and actually (depending on the mood) enjoy it, but to be completely honest, most of the time I endure doing what I must do in order to fix the rips and tears in clothing.
I work out of my home, and because part of what I do is consulting and part of what I do is at the customer’s site, I have some unusual hours. I’m rarely in bed before 0400 (insomnia also partly to blame), but also rarely still in bed by 0900.
My wife has a minor handicap so I (gladly) help out with the household chores, with one notable exception. I do laundry. Period. My wife doesn’t even know how to operate the washer / dryer combo, and I like it that way! Of course, doing the dishes with her or vacuuming the hallway isn’t a big thing, but I get the feeling that because I do these things for her so she doesn’t have to do it, that makes me a little unusual and atypical.
Other things: we have four children (childless by choice does seem to be the current defacto standard), our marriage is not dissolving and we hope we will be able to celebrate our 50th anniversary together (versus the “You farted in bed, so I’m going to divorce you” easy divorce attitude), we are Christian but not preachy or religious (I personally believe that religion is a man-made institution created solely to control the masses and take their money), and finally, my wife is 5’ even (below the average) and I am 6’4" (above the average).
Oh yeah, one more thing. I am 4th dan black belt in one martial arts style and 2nd dan black belt in two others.
Complete and true, but probably atypical (but still normal for me!) 
We were one of the very few Jewish families in our suburb. My parents didn’t want us to feel left out, so we had a Christmas tree with presents, in addition to Hannukah gifts. I have vague memories of 6-pointed stars and dredels on the tree.
Nothing in my life was typical. Too tired to elaborate too much right now, but between all of the relatives, countries and schools that I was constantly moved to as a kid, I feel like all I want is some normalcy in my life and relationships now.