Christmas Rush
Thanksgiving was awesome. My mom and dad flew up from California and spent a week with me and my family……… not only made lots of food, but made lots and lots of memories. Sometimes I really try to think back to my earliest memories as a kid. I can’t quite remember any earlier than 4 years old. That’s sort of where it stops, sadly. I hear of people that can remember when they were in the womb, but I think that’s a bunch of horseshit… My point, is that I recognize that my kids, at their age, are remembering everything at this point in time. Maybe not everything, but I hope they remember the good times……. the good and meaty stuff. Friday after thanksgiving, we all piled in the van and went to go cut our Christmas tree. Prior to this year, we didn’t get to have a real tree in our house because we used wood to heat the house, and anyone who burns wood in a woodstove knows that dry heat and a real live Christmas tree is a bad combo….. So every year over in the old house, we’d get out our ghetto fake tree. I’m not putting down fake trees, as there are some that are gorgeous and do the trick, but to get a real tree this year, I felt like I was 4 again. The magic of the holidays,,,, that’s really something that always floods back in the memory bank. I seem to remember the big events… i.e. My first day of kindergarten (or the day that my mom thought was the first day and we stood out at the bus stop for an hour until she realized that the next day was) , some of my Christmas play/programs, my birthdays, the first time I was able to hydro-slide behind our ski-boat, building our dirtbike trails up behind our house, building snow-forts in our yard, staying at the table till 10pm when I wouldn’t finish my mom’s meatloaf…………. you know…… the BIG things. And no… it wasn’t all like we were bundled up like the Griswolds and carting the sleigh with hot cocoa in our hands and singing Christmas carols… nothing like that. But it was a beautiful, clear day…. and everyone was in the best mood, no one was crabby. The Christmas Spirit is hittin’ me square between the eyes this year. I’m eating it up. I have more clarity to focus on orders and stamping than I ever have before. It’s refreshing….. And while my parents were here, I was better able to prioritize my work hours, and still manage to make memories…. The feast was delicious. Mom made her very first lemon meringue pie from scratch this year. It turned out fab!! Daddy carved the bird, football was on, my house was clean (thanks to mom), all my laundry was done….. just an all around good week we had. Bout the only thing that was wrong with it, was that we weren’t all together, meaning, my sisters and their families celebrated Thanksgiving down in California. Felt a little guilty about stealing mom and dad away,,, but .. well…. it was my turn.
But it wasn’t until last week did it hit me that my kids are in that stage where they are going to remember. A part of me is scared.. are they going to remember when I flew off the handle and screamed and shouted and sent them to their rooms?? Hope not. Are they going to remember how absent I was around the holidays because I was slaving away in my workshop trying to stay caught up on MGS orders?? Hope not… I just know that they are going to remember last week when we took my folks to go get our Christmas tree. Every adventure is fun with my parents. There are those moments when my mom is trying to get into the van and we have to push her butt up in there, then we all start laughing so hard that we can’t help her…. Or maybe the moment when I whip out the video camera and record my dad and how he would pretend to order a drink at Starbucks……. a “licorice lattatta”…. just good stuff.
One of my Facebook friends recently posted as her status ”There is nothing that can tell your family story better than your Christmas tree”…. Luckily, my mom let us girls take the ornaments that were ours when we left home and got married and settled down. So true… putting the tree up and decorating it left me in a nostalgic coma. I watched Maggie delicately put her ornaments on the tree, she’s 5, so she has maybe 7 or so ornaments to date…. But when she was done putting hers up, she asked if she could help me put mine up. I selfishly thought for a moment,, NO WAY IN HELL, THESE ARE MY ORNAMENTS AND I WILL PUT THEM WHERE I WANT THEM!! For a kid tho’, she’s pretty careful when it comes to stuff that is delicate. Anders on the other hand, not so much. So I did, I let her put some of mine up, naturally they landed on the bottom 3 feet of the tree, and when she was done and had left the room, I sneakily put them up towards the top. Don’t think she didn’t notice tho’…. ;c)
Anyways, I got my nose pierced on Sunday. I know it’s a little radical and everything, my parents are not pleased. My mom said, “Oh no you didn’t”… I did. It’s a very small little stud. You can barely see it. Ive wanted my nose pierced for the longest time. So finally this past weekend, I had two hours to kill between dropping off and picking Maggie up from a birthday party. Eric told me I should use the time to go shopping or do something that I wanted to do w/out the kids, and as I was leaving the party, BAMMM I see a professional piercing place. Yes, it was clean. Took less than 5 mins, hurt like hell, but I couldn’t be happier. BUT,, it is infected. ;c( Everything I’ve read about nose piercings online (no… it’s not my septum) states that it’s pretty typical for nose piercings to get mildly infected. If you have any insight on this… PLEASE email me!! mountaingirlsilver@mac.com with your experience.
Off to eat fried chicken for now. I assembled this morning, finished around 1pm, ran to the post office and fed ex, got a lattatta, filled my bug with gas, came home, headed down to the basement to start tackling orders from the 30th, and then just said screw it… took the rest of the day and shopped online. Spent enough money that I wish I wouldn’t chosen to stamp the 30th…. oh well… I never buy clothes for myself.
night…
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
One of my most memorable holiday moments was when dad tied a rope to the back of the said Subaru we were driving at the time and attached to the rope was a sled. He drove over the slippery ice and compacted snow around our little loop at our Shaver home and whipped us around mercilessly. Man that was a good time.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:13 am
You crack me up. That video of your dad is priceless.