Home

People say you can't go home again and they are very thankful for that.  I am not one of those people.  I also don't have a very "normal" home that I go home too...  Most people don't have the types of family get togethers that my family does (and probably couldn't handle the weirdness of my family) and that's okay.  They have their families and I have mine and I am very thankful for the one I do have.

This past week was Christmas and when some people think of Christmas, a classical Normal Rockwell painting or a classic Christmas special may describe their family.  Neither one of those could describe my family - mine could almost best be described with the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (although there was no S.W.A.T. team or cat being electrocuted).  Christmas morning consisted of my parents and I running around making sure things were in the oven that needed to be, things were in the cooler, cookies were arranged, bowls filled with chips, dishes washed to make room for new ones in the sink or because all of the spatulas were in the soapy water and one was needed; all while trying to keep the dog from eating things, each trying to get a shower and get dressed before everyone else was supposed to arrive by one pm.  Now I don't know about your family gatherings but for mine, when we say one pm, my parents and I were already here and knew that the first group would arrive between 1:15-1:30, the next between 1:30-1:45 and the last by 2 pm (this is pretty much what happened).

Now my family when we say "everyone," it includes my parents, my older sister (and her new husband and her 8 year old boy and 3.5 year old boy), me, my brother (and his girlfriend) and my youngest brother (and his wife and their 3.5 year old boy) and the dog.  When everyone arrived, we had to all eat, find food that the three little boys would eat (while telling them yes, they had to eat and no, they couldn't just dive into the presents under the tree), keep the dog from helping himself to food off the table or anyone's plates when they weren't looking.

After everyone ate, a "normal" family would peacefully gather in the living room and calmly open gifts - or I'm at least assuming that's what occurs since that's not what happens in my family...  We gathered in the living room and my brothers and parents started to juggle because mom found some great juggling balls while she was Christmas shopping and then one of the 3.5 year old boys decided to juggle too by throwing stuffed snowballs in the air which then resulted in my siblings and I having a snowball fight in the living room (the youngest turned 30 this past year).  When we were having trouble breathing from laughing, the snowballs were cleaned up and the juggling balls were put away (one is still lost...) and mom decided that she wanted a photo of her kids in front of the Christmas tree - one of those posed photos of the kids sitting in front of the tree (once again, the youngest is 30 and is subsequently the one who is 6 foot 5 inches and ended up in my lap and me leaning on my older sister who is 5 foot 3 inches and pregnant and the other brother behind all of us and he's leaning against the couch).  The photos are hilarious but those make for some of the best memories.

Since the little boys could hardly stand it anymore, we let them become mini tornadoes as they tore into their gifts.  After the wrapping paper storm subsided, they began to entertain themselves as the adults began the first annual white elephant gift exchange.  We had agreed on the predetermined amount of $13.64 and then found out the rest of how the exchange was going to work.  Mom had sent out a message that morning with instructions of when we got there, we were to take a sticky note with a number on it (she had them pre-written out 2-12), place it on our gift and put it in a box.  We then took turns rolling a pair of dice to tell us what gift to take (as we were rolling, we had the opportunity to "steal" if we rolled the same number of a gift already selected or roll again - neadless to say, some sibling rivalry and cutthroat-ness ensued).  After everyone had a gift (this took some time because of the cutthroat-ness), we then had to draw what could only be described as sinister fortune cookie slips telling us who to trade gifts with.  Some of the trades included: "trade with a boy," "trade with someone who is left handed" (me), "trade for one with a bow," "trade with someone on Santa's naughy list" (also me), etc.  We then got to open the gifts - some of the things included; a battery operated salt/pepper grinder; a gigantic flask; lottery tickets; a selfie stick; a "things to ponder in the bathroom" book; etc.  We have decided this tradition will continue.  Like I said, my family is weird...

Many other things took place that day that I'm not going to put on here (mostly because it's late and I've already had to write all of this twice because my iPad decided to delete my first post as I was finishing it so this is take two).

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon catching up with a childhood friend and then on Sunday, one of my brothers came over and he, my parents and I had a Wii tournament (more cutthroat-ness ensued).  After he left, my parents and I had a nice long talk in the living room.  We talked about a lot of different things including some of the things I've been dealing with at work and in life in general.  I'm not writing about this just because they read my blog (which they do) but because even though I'm sure they felt like they were just lecturing, I really was listening and taking it all in (and even was trying, at points, to not get overly emotional because who wants to be the 35 year old having a melt down in their parent's living room?).

After our talk, I have already make one of my resolutions for 2016 - that is to be more kind; to others and to myself.  Being kind to myself includes: not beating myself up for mistakes (realize they are mistakes and not catastrophes and I can learn from/move on from them; know things don't have to be perfect (and that includes my apartment and things I see when I look in the mirror); cutting myself slack and realizing that even I need to take breaks and "me" days (I'm not a super hero no matter if I want to be one or not).

Well, my dear readers, I am going to bring this to a close (for the second time) for this evening and want to leave you with a big thank you (even if just my parents and my grandma are the ones reading) for joining me along my quest and where ever that may lead.  And thank you for letting me come home again (even though we are really weird).  =)

Blessings

I have survived my first week at home and there has only been one major catastrophe...  I was supposed to have dinner with my youngest brother, his wife and son Monday night and I received a call from my brother right before I started to get ready saying they needed to cancel because they were taking their son to the ER.  He had decided to jump off the couch and landed headfirst on the coffee table and he split his eyebrow open.  After several hours and eleven outer stitches (and an unknown number of stitches to repair the inner layers), they got to take him home.  I got to have dinner with them the following night and I helped watch him during the week and he didn't seem phased by the head wound at all - his energy levels were the same and he still climbed/jumped off of stuff even though he kept telling everyone that he was going to be more careful.  It definitely could have ended up being way worse so we are blessed that it wasn't...

Another adventure that we had was we put up my parent's Christmas tree.  Mom, Dad and I started to decorate it while my nephew was napping but we didn't finish before he woke up so of course he wanted to help.  He is three and a half and his decorating style consisted of finding one branch that "worked" for him (mostly meaning that he could reach it and hang an ornament from it) and then hang multiple ornaments from that one branch.  He also didn't want to make it easy for himself - he enjoyed having to stand on his toes in order to hang his ornaments on the tree.  It really is a Christmas miracle that the tree didn't come tumbling down with him "helping."  Oh well...  It's all about family and the memories this time of year...

Because I was traveling for work and then had to travel on three different airplanes to get here (after getting only a few hours of sleep), I have, of course, come down with some sort of bug that just doesn't want to let go.  I have tried a couple different medications and think I may have found a combination that is making me start to feel at least some better.  I have almost completely lost my voice and there are times that I am only able to squeak words out (which of course my Dad thinks is hilarious).  Singing in church today was interesting.  I am normally a soprano but today I was singing everything an octave lower and Dad and I were joking that I was singing bass down with him - I figured it would be better than squeaking though singing the hymns.  Hopefully I will have my soprano singing voice back by Christmas Eve since we will be attending the midnight Christmas service (actually it's the 11 o'clock service that ends at midnight) and I adore singing the soprano part of all of the traditional Christmas hymns.  We'll see if another Christmas miracle will be headed my way or not.

I am hoping that with being sick now, I will have it done and out of the way for the season.  This is approximately the time of year in which I usually get sick and lose my voice but last year it is also about the time I was sick multiple times with massive ear infections, sore throat, coughing up all sorts of wonderfully colored junk so I'm hoping what I have currently is not a precursor to that "fun."  I got my flu shot and am sick with whatever wonderful germs I have been blessed with so I'm definitely hoping that this will be it for this season.  I know that only time will tell but with working for as many years as I have with SO many different children, I figure I should be able to be exposed to the plague and not catch it (NOT that I want to be exposed to the plague...).

I know that there are a great many other things that I could be dealing with right now health wise so I guess I should be grateful that this cold or whatever I'm fighting off is all I'm facing.  I learned this past week that one of the daughters of my landlords just discovered that she has breast cancer so she will be dealing with that.  I saw the news via the church's email and I emailed my landlords right away for more details.  She wrote back with what they are looking into treatment wise (surgery, chemotherapy and possibly more) and that she (my landlady) will be flying cross country to be with their daughter after the first of the year.  She is currently helping out with watching my doggies and even though she is dealing with this news from her daughter, she took the time to tell me that my doggies are being the perfect little gentleman for her.  I was touched by that and am definitely blessed that she and her husband have rented their apartment to me - it has been a blessing from the start and continues to be one with all the help they have offered me and my doggies throughout the years I've lived there so far.

Well my dear readers, I am going to bring this to a close for this evening so I can get some sleep and let the medication that I took just a little bit ago fight these germs off so I can be better for all of the family fun and frivolity this week may have in store (knowing my family, anything could happen!).  I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season!  Thank you for joining me yet again!  =)