A Return to Texas — Life of the Mayers

As many of you know, my mom was born and raised in Texas and my dad in New Hampshire, so they split my life between the two. We moved away from Texas on my last day of second grade and never had the time or opportunity to go back. I have always maintained strong and happy memories of my time there, even though I was SO young when we were there and when I left....and have always wanted to go back. When the opportunity arose, I was ALL ABOUT going back, and I have an amazing husband who indulges me, since he hasn't met most of this side of my family, and it is a really small town with nothing terribly exciting to see/do. He was promised a great time with great people, and some amazing BBQ and Mexican food.
Depending on how you look at it, I don't have much family on my mom's side...immediate family anyway, but through marriage and such, we are a part of the largest family in the state of Texas. They rent out stadiums or convention halls for our family reunions. So we went to visit with my mom's sister, Aunt Elaine, and my cousins, the twins Jerry and Terry, and the baby of them, JJ.
Our first night in town, the entire family (13 of us) ventured to Lowake Steakhouse, which is an epic place to consume large quantities of cow...and it has NOT CHANGED A BIT, since I was last there in second grade....we are talking 23 years ago. My cousin JJ spoiled us the following day with a huge BBQ of brisket and German sausage, slaving over the BBQs for more than 12 hours. It's funny, because most of the boys' friends' didn't know there were any cousins on their mother's side (I am the only one), so they were surprised when they met me and that I was white (their dad is Mexican, and had a significant genetic dominance in their appearance), even though my Aunt Elaine is obviously white. For the rest of the weekend, their friends referred to me as "the white one". Good times!