holidays

Irresolute

Shawn and I camped out on the couch last night and watched Serenity (awesome). I was brushing my teeth and checking my email one last time for the night when I heard booms and whistles. I glanced out the window looking for the backfiring car. Who would be making that kind of noise at – I looked at the time on my laptop – 12:00 at night? Oh, right. New Years. I spit out my toothpaste and padded down the hall to the office to give my husband a kiss. So that’s how I rang in the new year, with slight bewilderment and belated recognition.

Out of Context

Every now and then, I hear a random line pop out of someone’s mouth and I think “I’m totally blogging that.” I’ve got a backlog of them now. I’m sharing.

Overheard in the dressing room at the dance studio:
“I’d hug you, but I’m naked.”

Overheard at the bar in a sushi restaurant:
“I don’t eat eggplant. It tastes nasty, the texture is weird, and I don’t eat anything that’s purple.”

Family at the dinner table on Christmas Eve:
“Please pass the wrench.”

Making A List

Here we are on Christmas Eve, and I’m pretty much ready. This week has been a parade of do-to lists, on which I have even written down tasks I had already completed just so I could put a check mark next to it.

To Do:

Make To-Do List

The house is respectably clean. The laundry is done. The kitchen isn’t spotless, but it’s spottable.

Check, check, and check.

The gifts are bagged and tagged. The tinsel, the wrappings, the trimmings, the trappings and all that. Done.

Check.

Intermission

Those few days of November lingering after Thanksgiving are an odd period, aren’t they? Still firmly entrenched in the “The Holidays” but not quite holly and jolly just yet. I’m never quite sure what do to with myself. I don’t go in for the holiday shopping Black Friday bit. I’m not much of a shopper to begin with. I like browsing small shops with few people in them, sure. But I’ve always had an allergy to department stores, and malls make me feel like I need to go home and bathe.

The Prince of Tides

11:30 p.m. on December 22nd:

I’m steadily working away on Christmas projects. Shawn is in the kitchen doing dishes and baking pumpkin bread. (Yes, we still have about 8 uneaten pumpkins hanging out on the porch from Halloween. I was considering getting them santa hats so they would blend, but I’m lazy.)

Shawn and I convene in the hallway to further plot our holiday course.

“When do you want to leave for your folks house?”

“First nap, I’d say.”

So This is Christmas

We ran the gauntlet of holiday parties this past weekend, starting with the office Christmas party on Friday night. I’ve been doing some GIS work for my husband’s office of late, so I could attend this one on a more comfortable footing than usual. Generally, I just smile when Shawn says, “Oh, and have you met my wife?” all the while trying like mad to remember the names of people that I only meet once a year at this party. This year, we camped out at a small table with the other geeks on the Mapping Programming Team, swapping ignorant user tales and sipping good wine.

Bring on the Egg Nog

It’s two days after Thanksgiving and I feel accomplished. Relatives have come and gone for a successful Thanksgiving meal. The leftovers are in the fridge and the house is clean. The remaining potatoes are baking on top of a cottage pie in the oven and the turkey is queued up to become turkey enchiladas.

Cindy Loo Who at Bat

Last year, my family decided that for Christmas, we would all make each other presents. By “my family decided” you might suppose that there was some sort of democratic vote. Not really. Perhaps a treaty reached by the negotiations of elected representatives? Wrong again. It was more of a “council of wise elders” kind of thing. In short, by “my family decided” I mean everyone but me made this decision and then informed me of it.

Lights Out

My house is the only house on the street with its Christmas lights still on. It is not the only house with the lights still up, mind you. It was a very festive neighborhood at Christmastime and if you look extra careful as you drive by in the evening, you’ll see those strings of darkened lights still hanging from the eaves of every other house. But now everyone is pretending they’ve gotten it together and proceeded into the new year by leaving them off. I celebrate my procrastination. At least I’m honest about it.

Turn your lights on.

Not Even a Mouse

It was holly jolly Christmas around here. At least it was mellow and pleasant. We attended a few parties and visited with family. I took every opportunity to drink spiced apple cider before it goes out of season, and I got myself a kiss under the mistletoe.

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