Long December

I think I've spent the better part of the past week feeling completely overwhelmed. As much as I normally love Christmas, there's way too much to do and think about at this time of the year. And since I now have to work during my "vacation" week, I've been feeling a bit low, out-of-sorts, down in the dumps, sorry for myself, etc. I keep reminding myself that I am blessed to be gainfully employed in a down economy and that helps for a while. That and the countless fabulous gifts I received -- way too many to mention! Truly blessed, I am.

Christmas day here was our typical mayhem. The kids awoke at 2:00 a.m. and played not-so-quietly in Son #1's room while attempting to follow explicit directions, "Do not wake us up until 6:30 a.m." They kept chatting, laughing their heads off, and opening the door and peeking in to see if we were awake. We repeatedly feigned sleep. This tactic worked until 4:30 a.m. when they couldn't handle it any longer and came rushing in. Needless to say, they were finished opening gifts before 5:30 a.m. when the rest of the civilized world was still sleeping. Same bewitching hour as last year.

Now that the excitement has died down and the get togethers are officially over, we can attempt to regain some normalcy around here. Play the new Xbox. Put together a million Lego sets. Go snowboarding and sledding. Skateboard in Grannie's huge, unfinished basement.

Just last night, we relaxed over a game of Scrabble. With two boys under the age of ten, Scrabble basically equates to spelling a lot of "bad words," giggling and fielding the resultant questions that you don't expect quite so soon. "Hey mama, what does 'getting laid' mean?" (I told them it was like extreme sex.)

And just this morning, we began reading the Guinness World Records book because Son #2 wanted to show me the biggest boobs in the world. Fascinated and awestruck, Son #1 took out the measuring tape to see for himself just how gigantic they are. "Mom, come here. You gotta see this!" His teacher would be so proud of his practical application.

To quote the Counting Crows, it's been a long December but there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last . . .



To quote my dad, "I need a long winter's nap."