My parents live maybe a mile away from where I work. I go there every day to eat my lunch and any treats my mom might have lying around. Today when I got there, no one was home. I walked in to the empty house. The temperature was just a little chilly in the house and it smelled like holiday. My mom must have had a pumpkin or some sort of holiday sent burning. But it made me excited for all of the holidays coming up and all the of the traditions that make the holidays what they are.
Tasty's donuts purchased each Halloween afternoon . . . some sort of chili or soup bowl for dinner . . . the black witch basket that hold that candy and sees fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters each year (which is good for me) . . . all the wee ones coming by grandma's after they're done trick-or-treating and acting shy in costume . . . chocolate hangovers . . . doorbell ringing every few minutes while I'm usually still putting my costume together . . .
which leads to
Pumpkin pie . . . mom's homemade rolls that Hollie sometimes makes now . . . slush! . . . a giant turkey cooking all day . . . carrot dip . . . dad saying something sentimental about how we have so much to be grateful for while everyone else just wants to eat . . . one brother-in-law that likes the obligatory cranberries . . . Marcie's green bean casserole or Jello mix . . . Emily's broccoli salad (seen at various holidays) . . . football . . . bring out the Little Tikes table for the kidlets . . . kidlets laughing and yelling as loud as they can, none of them concerned with eating . . . lots of food on the floor . . . that white table cloth that only comes out once a year with the fancy salt and pepper shakers . . .
which leads to
A week-long project of getting ALL the Christmas decorations up . . . Norm's every-other-year Christmas lights policy . . . Cadbury Christmas candy . . . Santa's Marching band . . . the train around the tree that nephews watch for hours . . . Grandma's hand-knitted stockings . . . more slush! . . . frantic shopping on Christmas Eve and wanted to shoot every person you come into contact with in public . . . the snowman tree . . . stress . . . Norm's famous scrambled eggs for breakfast . . . seeing all the kidlets hopped-up on toy excitement and not even noticing you've come to see them . . . toffee . . . neighbors delivering so many goodies you think you might pop . . . The Little Match Girl . . . The Carpenters, a Christmas Portrait . . . tired brothers and sisters who stayed up late to help Santa put things together . . . Using Santa's elves as leverage to get kids to do whatever you want them to do . . . and so much more.
How weird is it that I won't be waking up at that house I know so well for Christmas anymore? I'd be lying if I didn't say that it makes me sad to think about it. I know I wasn't there last year for Christmas, but I had only been married a few weeks and that month of my life is all a blur.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
I dreamed a dream
Last night I had a dream that all members of the Rat Pack were alive and well. I knew this because they joined my family for our Fourth of July celebration. And, for some reason, we sat them all down on the couch at the end of the day and made them watch hours of family video footage—much to my dismay because most of the footage highlighted my eight-year awkward stage. This really put a cramp on my style since I have a crush on Dean Martin (zing-a-zing-a-zing-boom). Oh yeah, and there was that other part of my dream where I kept trying to smooch Dean. Minor detail.
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