I was forcefully declaring, while power-wrapping last minutes Christmas gifts for Awanas, "... and then tomorrow ... because I am NOT coming home to a messy house!"
Lee, age 5, walked through the kitchen at that moment. He honestly looked perplexed ... "Mama, are we coming back to a different house?"
If you simply must go to Walmart late-late-late at night after the kids are asleep and most of the crowds are gone (although there was a near rioting crowd at Walmart last night at 3:00am for some reason) there is a silver lining to your horrid situation ...
I bought my mother the perfect gift! Thats often a hard thing to do. But this time I KNOW I bought her a gift that will make her cry (in a good way). I found a vintage copy of David Johnson's "I'll Give You The Morning Sun, Although Its Not Mine To Give" which is an out-of-print book of poems written from a parent to a child. Its her all-time favorite book. Someone gave it to her when I was born. She'd sit in the rocker for hours reading it to me.
To top it off, I found a DVD copy of Jack Ezra Keats "The Snowy Day" which is her favorite children's book. The DVD has all the original illustrations with a narrator. PLUS three other stories by JEK and an extensive interview with him. Mother will absolutely flip!
I've decided that the total success of the Christmas Party can not be fully appreciated without a more detailed example of past gatherings. Before I realized these crazed mid-westerners needed some loving help.
The most recent example of a Sunday School gathering was perpetrated by our teacher. He's SO optimistic. He decided to have an autumn cook-out. Not a bad idea in and of itself. The execution was ... different.
We had our SundaySchool party here at our house last night. Yes, I went totally nuts getting organized, extra-child-proofed, cleaned, and cooked. Yes, on a Tuesday night. That way, Travis could come and everyone went home at a reasonable time (before the kids were over-tired). Yes, I used disposables so there was little clean-up. Yes, I am the smartest hostess on Earth because I hired a babysitter!
Ken and I had an odd relationship. He was the oldest best-friend, and I was the newest girl-friend. We had little in common. Except that we both loved my future husband to distraction. We each appreciated that the other could be trusted to act in his best interest. Period. That made us close, in a weird kinda way. That, and a fascination for bad movies.
In our family we usually have a special family dinner, rather low-key. But, we've also arrived at the comprimise that every few years they can have an official birthday party. At ages 7, 10, 13, 16. Ron will turn 7 this month. Hence, Ron's party is next week.
I've discovered that even moderate birthday parties can be ridiculously expensive. And that otherwise sane adults can slip over the edge into madness trying to balance the cost with the desire of their child to invite every single person he's ever met.
I can't imagine the horror of hosting three parties a year, every year. I'd definitely burn-out (both financially and creatively). Fortunately, I do this so rarely that I still get to be excited. And I am SO excited!
... pray for Dean's mother from DeansWorld. Its hard on a family to have any kind of extra-drama during the holidays, even if its an opportunity for change and improvement.
The last house guests are gone this morning. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We laughed, we cried, we ate turkey. Because we certainly couldn't eat beef. I learned that some house-guests can no longer eat beef. AFTER I put a bunch of chili in the freezer. But if thats the worst that happened ... Oh, I also cooked an extra-extra-turkey and forgot about it until the next day. But at least that made the puppies extra-extra-thankful :)
I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. We do live in a nice little town in the midwest almost-near a big city. In fact, everyone loved it SO much that they're all thinking about moving here! Not kidding. ALL of them. Some of them started meeting with a realtor this week. Others are on a 24-month time frame, since he has to finish a contract at work and get his step-daughter out of high-school. The rest are somewhere in between. Life just gets weirder and weirder.
Now that's funny.