What a White Christmas

Well, once again the restful holiday break is a misnomer. That isn't stated to imply that it is bad, just not necessarily restful.

Christmas Eve was negotiated to be spent here at the house, since it is most likely the last time that Christian will wake up in a house with both his mom and dad present. That is a little sad, huh? Well, we were up in Castle Rock spending time with my parents and sister when snow began to fall...again. Not a terrible fall, but enough to make the roads a little slippery for night driving. We ended up staying in CR. Since no one in my immediate family had finished wrapping presents ( good to know where my procrastination tendencies originate), everyone over 7 was up until at least midnight wrapping gifts. Mom and Dad were quite tired since they had just arrived in CO earlier that day.

Christmas morning came and everyone watched as Christian opened his gizillion gifts. If you've ever seen "The Christmas Story", the present opening scene was relieved in my sister's living room. Once the loot had been revealed, it was time to prepare to go to Christian's "other" grandparent's for a traditional Italian Christmas meal ( which means like 12 courses of food in a 5-6 hour window... slightly exaggerated)

What could have been a highly awkward time turned out to be fairly enjoyable. By the time the gathering was at full swing there were about 12 folks present. Again, Christian received far too many presents for a child hoping to be well adjusted. We ate, and ate and , ate. My parents occassionally snuck out of the "in-laws" house as big gatherings aren't there speed. That and they needed their nicotine fix. But there were no terrible awkward moments of silence or sideways glances. Just a bunch of people with sorted pasts and presents in a house eating together. Could have been much worse.

That day was followed by taking the folks out to sight see. Being a late rising crew by nature, we actually didn't get out to do anything until about 2:30. Then the activities roared with excitement as we stopped at Kohl's for a Pyrex set that was on sale that I needed to get, a pass through Michael's ( Dad's idea) and a gourmet meal at Subway.... with Starbuck's coffee. It's nice to have my parents here. Other's might simply think us strange.... or cheap:-). In all honesty though, I was hoping to eat at a restaurant, but Mom was hungry for a veggie sub. That, and once the idea Subway was uttered, Christian couldn't be persuaded from a ham sandwich.... unless someone had mentioned pizza. It was a good choice.

After all that, we headed to the zoo to see the lighted spectacular thing that they do there every year. I have heard of it, but never been. Although rather cold, it was a fun time. The greater part of the zoo is done up with lights and some of the animals were able to be seen. We even got to feed the giraffes. If you ever want to witness the art of tongue motion, check out a giraffe. But be warned, they have a minor saliva issue. I know there's a great perverted joke waiting to be told.... unfortuately I'm not thinking of it correctly. Something to the affect of dating and french kissing, but perhaps I should just leave it alone.

Wednesday, I picked up my folks so that they could go to little "C's" swim lesson. Ryan, if you read this, I read your present, or at least part of it during this time. Eh, it's ok. I'll get around to mailing it sometime before 2010. We then headed to the grocery store to prepared for the next deluge of snow. Note: when you have the option, "do not" do large shopping orders with your parents....... or at least your mothers. I love my mom, but she can drive me bonkers. Her attention span can get so fragmented it's like a person with short term memory loss. A conversation can go like, " Do you need milk?" "No" "Sure?" "Yes" "Look, paper towels are on sale" "Neat" "I need some bacon" "Do you want me to get it for you?" "Sure, and I'll pick up your milk" "I don't need any milk""Ok, well did you finish your laundry?" Ugh !!!!! My future is bleak if daughters truly become their mothers. Maybe it's just the price of over multi-tasking?

Then comes today. More freaking snow. I think the latest tally is 20+ inches. Great. So I drive into my neighborhood as the snowfall commences and slide right past my street. Wheee!!! I got home and then decide I should try to get a shovel before I can no longer get out of the neighborhood. I get to Home Depot to be told every darn Home Depot around here sold out of shovels by 5pm yesterday. Bastards !!! So I ended up buying some of that de-icer for driveways and sidewalks stuff. We'll see how it works.

I decided not to wait until the driveway is recoated with almost 2 feet of snow before I shovel, so I attacked it every 2-3 hours until about 9pm. My mom called and asked why my husband wasn't doing that. Some explanations aren't worth dwelling on, so I just said he had some important things to do..... like watch TV. Besides, it was my idea anyway. I just want to be able to get out of the driveway sometime this weekend. With him, he'll do it when the snow stops, get 1/2 way down and say he'll do the rest later ( which may or may not happen within a 2 day window). They way I see it, hopefully I saved myself a little work, although with the wind, it may have been in vain.

Right now, I 'm not dreaming of a white Christmas. A white sanded beach maybe, but nothing snow.... unless there's a log cabin, fire place, and maybe a hot tub involved. If that's the case, I 'll renegotiate.

This entry's a little random, but I'm going to blame that on the lateness of the hour and heredity :-)