Sunday, December 27, 2015

HOLIDAY SNAP SHOTS


Once upon a time, when I was a single mom, I didn't have a camera and sure as heck couldn't afford one SOOOOOOOOO I pretended to have one. I would curl my fingers and look through the tunnel they made and say "snap-snap" and that was my photo moment. The kids and I both liked it and it turned into a game for our family at large. I would ask for their snapshots of the day by counting to three and saying "snap" and they would have to share whatever image came into their mind. These "snaps" seem to seal the moment just like a photo.

Here are some of mine from the discombobulated Christmas of 2015:

1-2-3 Here's an odd one. (Never can tell)  It's Issa's cute crossed feet while she sits on the potty chair and I on the edge of the tub as we talk. So relaxed and sweet.

1-2-3 The last glance before bed of Santa stockings on the dining room table
filled and stretched and waiting while all was glimmer and cozy haze. (Knowing chaos would come)

1-2-3 Three kids tumbling in a super large red Target gift bag laughing the kind of laugh before someone gets hurt. (No one did--a Christmas miracle)

1-2-3 Issa following her younger cousin (18 months) around the house reading to her THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD in gibberish obviously being the teacher and elder while Flori toddled furiously away from her lesson.

And to be truthful, I have lots of images of stacked dirty dishes, lost puzzle pieces on the floor, stray socks and random lost pieces of Star Wars toys--the darn red arrows that were lost and found and lost and found and lost and found.

Count to three and share an image. 

Monday, December 21, 2015

OH THE GIFTS I'VE BEEN GIVEN!!!!


(I guess I'm still in Dr Seuss mode with my titles!)

I've had strong indicators that this might be a discombobulated holiday.
Not disorganized, just topsy-turvy. Old traditions going by the wayside.
Changing rituals and people. It will be the first Christmas without some kid or grand kid under our roof. All good and right changes but I wondered if I would be kind of blue.

Not so much. Slightly invigorated, helped mostly by what I have already been given. Big fat gifts.

—I had a story book day with my granddaughter who lives close. I knew I was going to babysit and I knew it would be a day of chores. (I don't always entertain like an enlightened day care) I had stuff to get done. It was a rainy, dreary day. I dreaded the car seat routine and the bargaining I was in for.
So not what happened.

—We went to the UPS store. Long lines. I had a big shopping bag that I emptied of packages and in she went. The worker was excruciatingly slow and the system fraught with mistakes. But Issa hunkered down in the empty bag and when anyone came in to join the line, she popped up with arms spread wide and yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"  It was incredible to see faces go from tense to soft as she did it and to see the immediate conviviality of the line. She was like a kid from a fifties Christmas movie the whole day long ending with belting out a song in The True Value Hardware Store that my mom sang to me and I sing to Issa. Never knew it has registered with her. There she was singing it word perfect, "I Love You a Bushel and A Peck"  

—Another gift not to be taken for granted is when I broke a 20 or more year tradition with my friend Eileen. She and her daughter have always come for Christmas Eve. I said, "I can't do it this year for all kinds of reasons." She lovingly accepted that. Big gift.

—Yet another big fat gift. I just had an annual brunch with the first two women I had as colleagues when I first moved to Maine,Joanne and Lynn. They hired me. We were a team of women who supported one another easily, foibles and all. We only get together once a year and then gab straight for three hours and not much of it reminiscing, We are a present tense friendship. This was our 31st year of getting together.  We are loyal and come when things are good and when they are tough. A gift.

—Here's an odd unexpected gift. I have had reason to make many complex phone calls whether to fix an Internet connection, change a stove hood, figure out confused finances or order a gift AND I have had nothing but pleasant, helpful, laugh filled conversations. Stunningly different from the usual. I'll take that as a big,fat gift also.

Best gift? I know when I'm receiving a gift.
  
PS-- my husband brought me coffee in bed and turned the light in my eyes to wake me to get this posted after a week of no Internet. Gifts galore!! I growled just a  little as he did what I had asked. 






Monday, December 7, 2015

GRINCH GRINCH GRINCH!!! JOY JOY JOY!!


     
I was going to write about how I’ve been so Grinchy
about Christmas lately, AND how now, I’m beginning to get the joy.

BUT then our router got goofy (as in which tangle of wires goes where)  and I got goofier thinking I could fix it and crawled under the table holding all the wires of stuff ( DVD player, Digital Photo Frame, turn table, computer, CD player stacked on turn table, a lamp---the usual.  No success and as a bi-product, I learned that I’m not as flexible as I thought and I took pathetic measures to get up and down and around. 

So now, I feel tired and stiff and have no Internet.
And I hate to miss a deadline even when it’s self-imposed.

OK. Back to joy.  Mutter mutter mutter.  No one eats sugar anymore anyway.  No use making Christmas cookies.
Mutter, mutter.  Families are too complex (at least mine) too spread geographically, too many grandparents, too much travel, too little being there.  Mutter, mutter. Too many celebrations in December.  Skimming with a smile and a drink. Mutter, mutter, mutter.  Gluttony of food and presents.  Indulgence and guilt.  Mutter, mutter, mutter. Can’t find a good old fashioned Christmas tree with space for ornaments. Only well groomed trees. Mutter, mutter, mutter.

There. I feel better already. Nothing like a good complaint session to clear the air. My daughters and I used to take turns complaining and do a kind of round robin until we felt good and finished. (I may have shared this before but it is good holiday behavior. Pick your complaint parent now.)  Good complaining can’t be one sided or it's an iconic pit party. My two daughters and I would start out slow and polite and end up shouting our heavy duty complaints. One time we even put it to song and sang it from the front porch. We always ended up light hearted and laughing at/with life. If this sounds sweet and Hallmark like, you've got it wrong. Think wicked.

So Jingle Bells. Holly Jolly. Joy to the World. My Grinch is defeated.  Nothing like good complaining to bring back joy.
And I mean it. A counter-intuitive truth.