Reba McEntire Shares Her Favorite Christmas Memory With Brother Pake

Reba McEntire has three siblings, sisters Susie and Alice and brother Pake. Like most kids, they were big fans of Christmas, though Pake may have had his sisters beat. Speaking to her record label, McEntire shared her recollections of the holidays growing up in Oklahoma, naming Pake’s Christmas morning tradition as one of her funniest memories.

“The funniest thing I can always remember about Christmastime is my older brother Pake, when we were kids at home, he’d always be the first one to jump out of bed and run down the hall, and he’d just run down the hall with his underwear on,” she recalled. “And he’d say, ‘If y’all don’t hurry up and get up and get in here, I’m opening all the presents by myself.’ But he knew it was a standing rule we all had to be in there before anybody could open up a present, but I can still see Pake running down the hall.”

Another one of McEntire’s favorite Christmas memories involves her son, Shelby, who is now a professional race car driver. According to his mom, he’s always been a fan of automobiles, especially one present he received.

“I’ll never forget one (Christmas) morning I woke up and I was laying on my left side and I felt something, and I opened up my eyes, and Shelby was three inches away from my face. He said, ‘Mom, you’re not gonna beweive what Santy Claus weft for me,’” McEntire shared. “And so, he said, ‘You’ve got to come here.’ I got up out of bed and went in there and there was this little tractor trailer set that he had just fallen in love with at the store. He’s seen it, and he said, ‘I can’t beweive he bought this for me.’ He was so cute.”

The singer hasn’t yet shared any 2020 holiday plans with fans, though she could potentially spend Christmas with new boyfriend Rex Linn. The couple reconnected in January before making things official later this year, making their red carpet debut at the CMA Awards in November.

“We had dinner with Rex, was it in January?” she recalled during an October episode of her podcast, Living & Learning With Reba McEntire. “And then February on it was the COVID pandemic and we were talking, texting, FaceTime. And that’s a really good way to get to know people… It’s good to have a person to talk to, laugh with, get into subjects about what’s going on. Discussions about our past, our family, funny stories, him being an actor, me being an actress. And he’s very into my music. I’m very into his career. It’s just great getting to talk to somebody who I find very interesting, very funny, very smart, and is interested in me, too.”