Don't Ho-Ho-Hold Out For My Card

I didn’t send out a Christmas card this year.  Again.  It’s been a less than joyous year (understatement) and while we’re all healthy happy and – more importantly -- here, I still feel like we’re eking our way to the finish line of 2011.  I’m certainly not going to mind when it’s O-V-E-R.   

My mom used to always say she didn’t like odd years.  Although I spent the better part of the past 18 years reminding her that each and every one of my children was born in an odd year, this time I think I’m siding with her.

In this odd year I will spend my first Christmas without her and there really are no words to describe just how empty if feels.  My tree is up, my shopping is done and my Old Spice stocking stuffers are ready to go….but it’s going to be different for sure.

I miss her.

So I didn’t send out cards and I didn’t send out a letter….

but if I did…..

(and this is where it kinda gets like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…)

I would probably start by bragging about my son going into the Air Force Reserves before heading to college…but I would definitely leave out the part about the Year of Holy Hell he put us through before getting to boot camp.  (He’s presently there now and won’t be home for Christmas so my family is ridiculously incomplete right now).

I could also write that, despite my personal opinion (not that is was requested by the state of Massachusetts), my daughter is driving.  This is without question an adolescent rite of passage that frankly was more of a Totally Awesome Pissa when I was the actual adolescent.  As a parent sometimes straining to keep my eyes open until curfew, this is a far less celebratory occasion.

There is not a parent alive who hasn’t envisioned eating a roadside mailbox during a teen’s practice drives. It’s not that she’s a bad driver.  She’s just, well, sixteen.  And faultless.  You know, like all her friends. 

Plus, she’s a little unapologetic and a lot defensive when anyone tries to criticize her driving skills.  She’s even resorted to evil.  My husband came home from a business trip and upon putting down his suitcases, immediately remarked to her that there were deep divets in the grass where tires had obviously skimmed over the driveway edge.  Without looking up from her homework she remarked

“Mom’s friends were here last night (pause for dramatic effect)….

and they were drinking WINE.”

Cute, right? Remember those pigtails?

Anyway….back to my letter.  I might have to reveal that my seventh grader obtained his first cell phone this year and (naturally) then discovered the girls that come with it.  I roll my eyes A LOT at all the nonsense this growth spurt brings but I keep my cool so long as his grades are good – and he continues to live the life of a mole, rarely leaving the house.

I probably would wax melancholy that my home is officially Santa-Busted because now even my 10-year-old – my baby – is checking my trunk for Christmas presents.  Wahhhhhh.   Little shit.  At least his older brothers had the decency to go along with the holiday ruse. 

Oh, and Grandpa – our part-time houseguest – good God, there are far too many tales to tell.  Truth:  my husband has made many an incident his Facebook status (there he goes again…trying to be funny like me…)

Actually, I just might have to make Grandpa my very first blog of the New Year.  Who wouldn’t want to hear about (4) Eggo waffles being duly dunked into (1) cup of coffee by 6:09 every single morning (of course causing James – upon smelling the aroma waft up the stairs -- to poke me, roll over and testily mutter,  “Who wakes up so hungry at this hour?)

So sure, there’s a lot of life, and a lot of laughter still going on around here.  Always will be.

I just wish my mom was here chuckling alongside me at all the insanity.

Merry Christmas, friends.

As always, thanks for tuning in.

See y’all next year!

-- Tina