What I want my Kids to Remember about their Childhood

After reading the title of this blog, you might think that I am about to get very profound and that what I wish for my children is for them to remember a home filled with love. You might think that I want them to remember that they always felt safe and that we encouraged them to go after their dreams. You would guess that I want them to remember that they could not get away with stuff. That their parents were strict, but at the same time they were tremendously spoiled from time to time. It would be great if the moral lessons of working hard, being fair, polite and to have good manners will stay with them forever.
Yeah, yeah... I of course want them to remember all that good stuff, but that is not what I am talking about.

I come from a big family and when I think about my childhood the thing I remember most of all is simply the chaos of so many people. I remember going on vacation with my immediate family (the 21 of us). Always sitting in extremely long tables at restaurants and loving being part of all the mess. I remember always looking up and wanting to be like my sister Yolanda. (that has not changed, even though nowadays I look down on her, simply because she is shorter than me ;).
I do hope Diego and Isabel remember how great it is to be part of such a big, fun, complicated family when we go visit, but I want my legacy to be more direct and immediate.

I picture Diego, for example, talking to his kids many years from now and saying " the thing I remember most about my childhood is that we were always dancing. My mom was always trying to teach us new latin steps and even though the whole thing was very silly, we had a lot of fun".

I make a very conscious effort of constantly having music around. Sometimes it is salsa/ merengue stuff, very often it is simply whatever is popular in latin pop. Currently we are well versed in High School Musical , Hanna Montana and The Jonas Brothers. As long as we are singing and/or dancing in the car and around the house. Poor Patrick tries to play jazz and classical music but it never lasts for too long because I am always changing it back to what the kids or I want.
So that is it. I hope my children remember a house filled with DANCING!