It's Bragging Time!
Last week, everything just sort of fell into place. It was Christmas, which is the holiday I wait all year for. My parents were here and my children ADORE them. I got to have a day date with my husband. I won my fantasy football league’s superbowl my rookie year. And I got totally spoiled by my family for Christmas.
I love Christmas. I love everything that goes along with it. I love buying presents for the people I love. I love buying my children presents most of all. I love the cooking and the baking. I love picking out a perfect tree and then decorating it as a family. I love the anticipation of Christmas Eve and playing Santa. I love opening presents on Christmas morning and seeing the kids’ faces when they see what Santa brought. I love baking my Grandmother’s cinnamon rolls every year for Christmas breakfast.
The kids loved everything they got this year, and they got spoiled rotten as usual. My parents and husband loved everything I got them. And I got all sorts of fun new toys. My darling hubby got me a Nintendo DS (mostly because I love the brain teaser puzzle games they have, but also because it’s just really fun). My mom got me an iPod Touch, which just blew me away, and she had said darling hubby load it with all of my favorite music and pictures. My in-laws gave us money, which is always welcome and most needed right about now. It was just a really surprising and wonderful day for gifts.
As cheesy as it sounds, I just kept thinking the whole day that all I had to do was live the best life I could and it would all eventually come back to me. And it wasn’t even about the tangible gifts. It was more about the fact that the people who gave them to me did so because they knew that I would genuinely love them. That they would make me laugh and give me moments of fun when the days fell into drudgery. It was just such a thoughtful Christmas and it was amazing. And to top it all off, I absolutely and completely nailed my Grandmother’s cinnamon rolls! I’ve been working with a pinch of this, pinch of that recipe for three years trying to piece them together and I finally nailed them!
It’s been such a wonderful experience for me to be able to see my parents through my children’s eyes. Because the vision is so similar to how I used to see them when I was young. And I miss that vision. The ability to see your parents as kin to superheroes, able to answer any question and conquer any boo-boo. Because it’s been too easy as of late to look at them through the jaded, in need of some therapy eyes that I’ve developed. My parents are good people. And they tried really hard to raise me well and with love. Most of the time they succeeded, but time has allowed those times when they allowed their humanness to creep in and sully that well to grow and be lit from behind so that I can see them all too well. And it is such a gift to get a bit of that child vision back when playing on the floor or being shown new things is enough for hero status.
My parents also gave my husband and me a day date!! And it was awesome to sit in a restaurant during the day and actually be able to read the entire menu instead of ordering the first thing that looked like it might taste good. And to be able to have a real conversation instead of stilted sentences punctuated with “Don’t eat the crayons!” or “No you may not dump that glass of water out to water the plants!” And to be able to see a movie! I miss movies. It was lovely and gave us a chance to reconnect, even if for but a few hours.
And I freaking won my fantasy football league’s Superbowl!!! I still can’t believe it. I totally came back from certain 5th place and won the whole thing. As a rookie. It was just so much fun to get back into football that way and with that level of passion. My dad raised me on football and I used to really love sitting with him while he explained the game to me. So it was a chance to get some of that feeling back and it gave me something to focus on that had absolutely nothing to do with my children! And I was good at it and that was a gift in and of itself these days when I find myself feeling not so very good at very much.
It was just really a wonderful week. It was a week to brag about.
I love Christmas. I love everything that goes along with it. I love buying presents for the people I love. I love buying my children presents most of all. I love the cooking and the baking. I love picking out a perfect tree and then decorating it as a family. I love the anticipation of Christmas Eve and playing Santa. I love opening presents on Christmas morning and seeing the kids’ faces when they see what Santa brought. I love baking my Grandmother’s cinnamon rolls every year for Christmas breakfast.
The kids loved everything they got this year, and they got spoiled rotten as usual. My parents and husband loved everything I got them. And I got all sorts of fun new toys. My darling hubby got me a Nintendo DS (mostly because I love the brain teaser puzzle games they have, but also because it’s just really fun). My mom got me an iPod Touch, which just blew me away, and she had said darling hubby load it with all of my favorite music and pictures. My in-laws gave us money, which is always welcome and most needed right about now. It was just a really surprising and wonderful day for gifts.
As cheesy as it sounds, I just kept thinking the whole day that all I had to do was live the best life I could and it would all eventually come back to me. And it wasn’t even about the tangible gifts. It was more about the fact that the people who gave them to me did so because they knew that I would genuinely love them. That they would make me laugh and give me moments of fun when the days fell into drudgery. It was just such a thoughtful Christmas and it was amazing. And to top it all off, I absolutely and completely nailed my Grandmother’s cinnamon rolls! I’ve been working with a pinch of this, pinch of that recipe for three years trying to piece them together and I finally nailed them!
It’s been such a wonderful experience for me to be able to see my parents through my children’s eyes. Because the vision is so similar to how I used to see them when I was young. And I miss that vision. The ability to see your parents as kin to superheroes, able to answer any question and conquer any boo-boo. Because it’s been too easy as of late to look at them through the jaded, in need of some therapy eyes that I’ve developed. My parents are good people. And they tried really hard to raise me well and with love. Most of the time they succeeded, but time has allowed those times when they allowed their humanness to creep in and sully that well to grow and be lit from behind so that I can see them all too well. And it is such a gift to get a bit of that child vision back when playing on the floor or being shown new things is enough for hero status.
My parents also gave my husband and me a day date!! And it was awesome to sit in a restaurant during the day and actually be able to read the entire menu instead of ordering the first thing that looked like it might taste good. And to be able to have a real conversation instead of stilted sentences punctuated with “Don’t eat the crayons!” or “No you may not dump that glass of water out to water the plants!” And to be able to see a movie! I miss movies. It was lovely and gave us a chance to reconnect, even if for but a few hours.
And I freaking won my fantasy football league’s Superbowl!!! I still can’t believe it. I totally came back from certain 5th place and won the whole thing. As a rookie. It was just so much fun to get back into football that way and with that level of passion. My dad raised me on football and I used to really love sitting with him while he explained the game to me. So it was a chance to get some of that feeling back and it gave me something to focus on that had absolutely nothing to do with my children! And I was good at it and that was a gift in and of itself these days when I find myself feeling not so very good at very much.
It was just really a wonderful week. It was a week to brag about.
posted by at 9:23 AM
2 Comments:
*likes the sound of smiles
Sounds like you got what you wanted and needed. Thanks for sharing... and happy new year to you and yours
Post a Comment
<< Home