Monday, December 21, 2015

We're Ready To Roll


The gifts are all wrapped, the food shopping is (mostly) done, two cars have had oil changes, one has been smogged (that's a CA thing), registrations have been paid, the last official party has come and gone, we've strolled Balboa Island (our happy place) after burgers at The Crow Bar and now we're looking at each other like 'now what?'

Not really.  We're actually in this place of 'wow' and 'we made it'...and also in the place of waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I can't seem to stay awake past 8:30am and I'm up, wide eyed and raring to go, at 4:30am.  

I'm seriously jet lagged and I wasn't even on a jet.

My nieces and nephew came for an afternoon of cookie baking and by the end there was flour and sugar everywhere and lots of cookies were baked and sampled.  I'm pretty sure there isn't a better smell in a house than that warm cookie smell.

Or a better tasting one.

=0)

This Christmas has just fallen in place in an easy way and over the years I've let myself just cherish those that happen that way.  Once Matthew flies in on the night of Christmas Day then everything will be complete...but in the meantime, we're sitting pretty.  Tomorrow we're seeing Star Wars - I'm not a huge fan but I'm the mom with all boys and with that there are certain things I fake because I don't want to miss out on all the fun.

It's all worth it.

There was a Christmas a long time ago that sticks out to me.  My due date for my baby was Christmas Day but he had other plans and came in November.  That guy that I like so much was in full time ministry then and we were living pay check to pay check...and if we were lucky there were still a few dollars in our checking account a few days before the next check came.  

But usually there wasn't.

We had decided to not get a tree...we were going to be flying back to NorCal on Christmas Day so it wasn't on the list of necessary expenses.  Besides a new baby we had a sweet 3 year old and Christmas, for the first time in his little life, was becoming a big deal.  We didn't do Santa with our kids - only Jesus, but we did all the traditional Christmas things with them...and he was finally starting to see what the season was all about.

In our checking account was about $20, with a week to go until the next check would come.  A sweet family handed that guy that I like so much a small Christmas check and with it, we chose to buy a Christmas tree.  

Smart?  No.  But it was Christmas.

It wasn't the smartest way to spend the money, but we splurged all $25 of it on a tree anyway.  It was snowing, hard, and the store offered to deliver it to us rather that having us wait around with a newborn and a toddler.   

Matthew was so excited and so were we...the tree was to be delivered by 8:00pm and he was gong to be asleep when it came, but would wake up to a fully lit tree in the morning.

The blizzard came.  The tree did not.

The store called in the morning and apologized...they knew we lived in married student housing at CU Boulder and were checking to see if we would be home the next morning.  The manager of the store delivered it himself and on is way out handed me an envelope...inside was the money back from the tree.

I'm not sure he ever understood what that money meant to us back then and I wish there was a way to thank him...but so much time has passed (that newborn is now 22 and that toddler is 25) that I'm pretty sure we wouldn't find him.

But because of that, years ago, I began paying it forward.  Little things...unexpected things.  We don't have a lot but we have what we need...my hope is other littles will always have a little something magical too.

Sometimes it's fun to give something they want...not just something they need.  Everyone deserves a little splurge now and then.

=0)

This morning we woke to a smell...a not so good smell which isn't all that uncommon in a houseful of boys.  But this smell was quickly identified as a (sorry about this) cat pee smell and it took quite a while to find where it was coming from and lo and behold (and totally ironic) it was found in the boys bathroom.

Welcome to our home.

Not.

% loads of laundry later...not just regular laundry but hot water, extra detergent, extra rinse laundry.

Gross.

That guy that I lie so much is losing patience with our furry friends.  And I don't blame him.

Sigh,

This happened last year, too...I'm thinking our cats are a little mad about the tree or that things are a little out of the norm or that we're just too happy.   Not we 'are' happy but we 'were' happy before this happened because seriously, the smell is SO nasty.

Merry Christmas to us.  I think.



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