My Real Life

December 27, 2011

Just Like That

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:49 am
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The build-up to Christmas can be excruciating.

Particularly for children.

Five more days, four, three two…

Am I on the naughty list or the nice one?

Will Santa bring me what I want?

In the days before Christmas, children are like kernels of corn in a pot full of boiling oil.

Shivering, shaking, trembling, just about to pop.

And then it comes.

In our house, at least, Christmas Eve bedtime is one of the easiest ones of the year, and that’s saying a lot because we don’t have many bedtime woes in our house.

Yet, on Christmas Eve, it’s like they’ve given in to the inevitable.

Santa’s on his way and what will be will be.

They close their eyes and sugarplums dance and all is well with the world.

They wake in the morning and it’s Christmas and dreams are fulfilled and life is good.

But don’t blink, because just like that, Christmas is over.

It’s always been amazing to me that something for which we have so much anticipation just ends so very, very quickly.

I’ve always thought Christmas should last for a few days, so the event matches the build-up.

But it doesn’t.

So, now we spend our days playing with our toys and trying to unwind and rid ourselves of the remaining tension of the build-up.

Because even though Monkey in the Middle declared this “The Best Christmas Ever,” they are already talk about next Christmas.

And so it begins.

December 9, 2011

Five Question Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 8:56 pm
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1. What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
Eh…I’m not really a cookie girl.
However…
Erin’s Mom used to make chocolate chip cookies that were uncommonly delicious and that I have never been able to duplicate.
Also, I was born in LaFayette, NY, and we used to always drive back to visit and stay with our friends, The Watsons.  They used to bake, and when I say bake I mean BAKE and every single one of their cookies were better than anything you could ever buy in a store.
So, holiday cookies?
No favorites.
All time cookies?
Erin’s Mom’s and The Watson’s.
Both should have their own brand.
2. What’s your favorite holiday movie & why?
White Christmas.
I love it, I love it, I love it.
When the soldiers all sing to send off the general, the song “Sisters,” the gorgeous dresses that Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen wear.
I love this movie.
3. Is there a gift that you bought for your kids that you wish you hadnt after they opened it?
Matthew’s first drum.
And, now we’re thinking of getting him an actual drum set for his birthday.
Thanks for the reminder.
4. What is the messiest room in your house right at this moment?
The office.
The basement ate up the money we were going to use on getting office furniture like a desk, shelves, etc.  So, we still have things in boxes, the computers and printer on a folding table, piles on the floor.
I try to stay out of there.
It makes me itch.
5. What is the furthest you have driven for the holidays?
There were a few Christmas’s in my youth where we drove out to Ohio to visit my Grandparents for the holidays.
Usually they came here, but every few years, we’d drive out there.
My favorite Christmas of my childhood took place in Ohio.
I got a typewriter.
A real typewriter.
I have such warm memories of laying on my grandparents floor in the backroom just looking at my typewriter, then typing page after page of stories and poems for days on end.
I loved that typewriter so much and loved being at my Grandma’s house for Christmas.

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