The Kid has a double ear infection with a sinus infection thrown in for good measure. He's actually feeling a good bit better today.
Feeling well enough to dye some eggs.
So despite the boxes and the fever and the chaos, we are celebrating spring and easter and new beginnings, passover and coming through trials into something better.
and flowers
and just a little touch of romance.
And I finished a sock!
The Kid helped me with the sock photo.
We had a wonderful Christmas.
The Kid had a stomach virus earlier in the week 
and thanks to Zofran, we avoided a holiday trip to the emergency room.
He was all better in time for our annual Christmas Eve shopping trip. 
Here, he plots his shopping strategy with Lefty.
Having my mother here made the holidays really special for all of us, but especially for The Kid.
We had balmy weather on Christmas Eve, 
balmy enough for sandals. (Meanwhile my sister in Oregon was literally up to her ass in snow.)
On Christmas morning, The Kid, who recently learned the truth about Santa Claus, dressed up as Santa to deliver a few gifts to me. He wanted to be sure that I still believed in the magic of Christmas. And yes, he is officially the sweetest child in the history of the world.
We opened our presents with much hoopla 
and hugging and had a delicious Christmas dinner.
I stayed relatively calm throughout, despite the fact that several meals we had planned and none of the baking happened because the Kid was so sick. I had a few shrill, stressed out moments but for the most part I was relaxed and happy. The handmade gifts we gave were well received and I already have some great ideas for next year. I did go over budget, but not by nearly as much as I have in years past. I enjoyed the changes we made to how we Christmas this year. Somehow I know next year will be even better.
Coming up next, someone has a birthday…
We lost Santa yesterday evening, driving between the karate school and picking up Lefty.
The Kid had been asking questions for a couple of weeks. His advancing understanding of the laws of physics (thank you, gravity) had him debunking the flying reindeer and sleigh but I sensed a real desire in him to keep believing so I hemmed and hawed my way through most of his questions, answering a lot of them with, "What do you think?"
But yesterday, as we were walking into karate class, he asked the question, point-blank. We agreed to talk about it after class and off my boy skipped, to punch and kick for 45 minutes.
Secretly, I hoped he would forget.
He didn't. As soon as class was over, he came running up to me and said, "Now can we talk about my question?"
So, as we drove past the christmas lights in the early dark, I talked about the spirit of giving and hope and miracles and love and I answered his point-blank question with the grown up truth.
He cried a little. I cried a little. I reached into the back seat and we held hands for a few blocks.
It is a hard thing for both of us, to let go of this little symbol of his early childhood, his little kid-ness.
He rallied and we continued on with our evening. Homework was done. Dinner was prepared and eaten and that moment in the dark car began to recede.
It is a moment I hope I will always remember, how we held hands and stepped into the future, into his growing up, together.
I brined the turkey in a cooler and The Kid enjoyed using it as a chair until it was time to cook.
My morning began with cake baking. Unfortunately, I forgot the recipe I was using called for 9 inch cake pans. I used my 8 inch pans, overfilled them and we had a chocolate-cake-cooking-over-the-edge-of-the-pan disaster in the bottom of the oven at nine o'clock in the morning. It looked like this.
My beloved and much appreciated husband helped me remove the disastrous cake blob from the bottom of the oven.
He also fine tuned the flush of the toilet, all on the same day.
For the centerpiece, we took some mini pumpkins left over from Halloween and wrote the things we were thankful for on them.
The Kid added some legos as the finishing touch because really, what centerpiece is complete without legos?
Our dinner was wonderful, but my turkey sandwich today was magnificent - I think that may be my very favorite part.
That being said, I did feel like I spent most of my day in the kitchen. I hope to scale down and simplify Christmas dinner so I can spend more time playing, less time cooking. Wish me luck.
How was your holiday?
and then he ate his very first piece of pumpkin pie.
I hit the wall this weekend – the holiday wall where my vague ideas and free-rambling gift lists meet doing the math.
Historically, we spend too much at Christmas. January and February are usually unpleasantly lean. I am determined to avoid this in 2008. While I don't expect the beginning of 2009 to be worry free, I'd rather not be sweating bullets at the end of each month.
I always begin with the best of intentions but then time slips away and it's suddenly the last minute. I get caught up in the manic holiday hustle and I overspend.
I'm going in this year with a clear head, and a small, tidy and reasonable gift list. I'm going to be realistic about what we can spend while keeping my eyes open for bargains. (Anyone know where I can get a saxophone for $100??)
I'm going to make some things on my own. I'm going to make some things with The Kid's help. I'm going to mail packages on time so I don't have to express mail things at the very last minute.
I am going to keep my heart and brain connected and shop earlier, with more creativity and fewer dollar signs. I'm going to trust that people know I love them, that I have nothing to prove.
I want this to be the best Christmas yet and I know that has nothing to do with how many gifts are under the tree, or how much we spent.
I'm saying it out loud. This year I'm all about less debt, more love.
I started another post about my trip to the mall this morning but it started to sound like an old person's rant and I was afraid I'd have to stop in the middle and shake my walker at those pesky kids and yell at them to "get off my lawn."
Let me begin by saying, we very rarely go to the mall. If we do go, we do a surgical strike. We make a beeline for the one store we need to patronize, find what we need and get the hell out of there. Today was a mission to Williams Sonoma to procure brining spices for my turkey. They put together a nice mix and it saves me the trouble of running around trying to find juniper berries and star anise when I only need them once a year.
I had forgotten how shiny everything is at the mall. I kind of squinted at all the "sparkliness" (if this is not a word – it should be) like perhaps I'd been hiding out in a cave for the last week. And the smells, when did the mall become such an intensely perfumed place? Perimenopause has blessed me with a very strong sense of smell (kind of like when you're pregnant and you can't be in the same room with a open jar of peanut butter) and the smells in the mall nearly did me in.
I was in and out in fourteen minutes flat – and that included a minute or two of fondling fancy cookware.
We make a different kind of trip to the mall near Christmas, sometimes on Christmas Eve (gasp). This is when The Kid picks out his traditional gift for us, pajamas. We do a little more window shopping and let ourselves get caught up in that whole, breath-holding-anticipation feeling of the final day before Christmas. Lefty gets a cup of fancy coffee and The Kid gets a bag of fancy candy and we walk through and soak up that weird consumer holiday vibe for a little while. Then we come home and have a nap.
I want to have a simpler, less stressful Christmas this year but we'll probably keep that last minute mall trip tradition. It's a part of who we are as a family and essential in some strange kind of way to how we see ourselves as a family: the three of us moving through the crowds, holding hand and laughing – looking forward to what comes next.
Posts
All Comments
