Christmas '07

… from my point of view, was as close to perfect as I’ve ever experienced and it was because my holiday preparations were as far from “perfect” as imaginable -- even for me. I had my husband and children (the prodigals), brother and sister-in-law and a guest of my son’s who couldn’t get to his family’s for the holiday.

My daughter had a flight delay in NY that meant she didn’t arrive until a day later than planned. To say she was disappointed would be an understatement. She practically lives for coming back home and was devastated to lose a day. She doesn’t handle disappointment well (and she’s an actress -- whoa) and, when she called me ranting and sobbing from LaGuardia, I half expected to hear her get tasered by security. She was ready to strangle the Delta agent who she says was got up like Mimi from “Drew Carey” complete with reindeer antlers and lots of blue eye shadow. The poor, festive woman was trying to console her with, “Oh, don’t cry honey. We’ll get you there by Christmas Eve, Christmas day at the latest.” That sent Laura over the edge. “But I only have three days as it is! You ridiculous bitch!” Add to all that, she only had enough cash to get her to the airport (my daughter is brilliant but not exactly practical when it comes to money). She managed to get back to her apartment only by giving a cabbie a check for $60 at around midnight. She had a shuttle booked to pick her up again at 2:30 a.m. for her 6 a.m. flight and spent the 2 and a half hours scraping up change from around the apartment to pay for it. By noon, Christmas Eve, she was home again in her dearly loved Arkansas.

In between cooking, Dan, Laura and I went and saw “Sweeney Todd.” I loved it, every second of it. I got totally lost in it and when it was over had to remind myself where I was and that it was Christmas Eve. On the way home we stopped at the liquor store where my son works, and Laura had us wait outside while she surprised Chase. She slipped in unnoticed, as they were very busy, got a bottle of vermouth and walked up to the counter where Chase was. She set the bottle down and waited for Chase to look up. Dan and I were hanging around on the sidewalk peeking through the window and getting strange looks from departing customers. Chase finally glanced up and was totally surprised. We walked in as he came around to counter to hug her. He came home after work and spent the night. I continued cooking, but not too much, and listening to my family.

Christmas day started late as we were all up very late the night before. We opened gifts by playing Trivial Pursuit which was a fun way to stretch it out. You had to correctly answer a TP question to open a present which meant Dan’s gifts got opened first, mine last. Chase’s friend, John, arrived during the afternoon and I cooked. Christmas came for me when I was loading up the dishwasher (again) and beginning to resent everyone else for not helping. I stopped and looked over at the kitchen table -- at Laura, Chase, and John playing dominoes with the set I’d given Chase, laughing and ribbing each other, Dan in the recliner fiddling with the translator I’d given him and I felt such joy and gratitude to have them all. It didn’t matter what happened after that, how I screwed up (and I did) the day was perfect.

Even when we took Laura to the airport on the 27th, I wasn’t sad. Something told me she wasn’t leaving, even though the Delta website said her flights were on time. Lo and behold her flight out of LR was delayed making it impossible to make her connection in Atlanta. We happily rebooked her for the next morning and she got to have one more night to see friends she thought she wouldn’t. We left her at the airport this morning and she is in Atlanta now and experiencing more delays but she will probably get back to NY tonight.

The year that was:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PuS-dD3sIzw

Organization is not conducive to creativity

Overall, I’m doing better on Christmas this year. I bought the fresh (appropriate size) wreath for my front door on Dec. 7th, my tree is up and decorated and some gifts have been purchased. I know that compared to a lot of folks, I’m way behind. If I am compared to me last year, however, I’m way ahead of the game. Last year, everything was such an ordeal – take, for example, my horrendous 2006 wreath:

December 18, 2006

Know what happens when you wait until Dec. 16th to buy your fresh Christmas wreath? You end up with one of the two remaining ginormous, dried-out wreaths from Lakewood Gardens. Even though they gave it to me for half price, it was still expensive. Installed on the front door, it touches the doorknob. You cannot close the door from the inside because it’s impossible the shove the branches back outside.

So what happens is:

Doorbell
Cursing
Open door
Me: “Well hello, (inconsiderate neighbor bearing gift) do come in. Could you wait here just a second?”
Run to open the kitchen door (the one with sleigh bells attached to the doorknob) and push button to raise garage door.
Zip past assh, er, neighbor to close front wreath from the outside.
Run around to garage scooping up pissed off cat that I forgot was in the garage and is starting to slink towards freedom.
Come in through kitchen door trying to protect face and throat from cat (effing sleigh bells).
Me: Dropping cat, “pant…pant…wheeze…egg nog?”
Asshole: “Nice wreath.”

Gosh, after reading that again, this Christmas seems pretty boring. Come to think of it, my family got a kick out of my incompetence last year. It was such a terrible year that by the time Christmas came around, we’d decided to just embrace the lunacy (but Erni wriggled free).