Readjusting Christmas Plans

With all of our children in flux, you could have predicted that our Christmas plans would change. We had hoped to go to Florida as a family and spend the week of Christmas with my parents.
As Grace moved out of her apartment after graduating from college, and Tucker moved back home after only one semester at college, the odds were good that something would mess up our plans.
Grace had taken a job but already warned them that she would be gone for Christmas.
Tucker went looking for a job on Monday and got hired. He can't wait until after Christmas though because he is working for UPS. They definitely need his help this week.
So we moved our trip a few days earlier and some of us will be headed to Florida. We'll drive back on Christmas Eve so that we can all spend Christmas together.
That meant that I suddenly had only two days to get together all of the Christmas gifts before we left.
I also needed to get a Christmas tree. I'd planned to skip that step since we were going to be in Florida for Christmas.
So yesterday, the kids and I went to a local hardware store with live trees outside. We walked into the lot, Spencer spotted a tree, held it up and said,"How bout this one?"
Grace and Tucker both nodded. "Looks good."
"Wait! It's the first one you touched!" I protested.
"Yeah, but it looks good," all the kids said.

So we wrapped up that Frasier Fir and tied it to the top of the car. and made it the few blocks home. Spencer and Tucker carefully set it up in its stand. Grace and I added the lights and we all added a few ornaments. By the time Earl got home from work, the tree was sparkling quietly in its corner.
I've been grading papers, trying to finish out the semester, along with shopping for our Christmas dinner, since I won't be back until late Christmas Eve. And I've been trying to get all of the Christmas shopping done.
I probably won't pull it off perfectly, but we should still manage to have a lovely Christmas, with my parents before the actual day, and with all my kids on Christmas Day.
Hope your Christmas prep is going smoothly.

Christmas Time

Things are fairly subdued at our house this week before Christmas, for which I am grateful.
I'm still finishing up one class. Grades have to be in by Saturday. Grace and Spencer have arrived home from college. Tucker is taking mid-term exams this week.
We decided to have 4-year-old Caroline over to bake and decorate cookies one afternoon.

After cutting out the cookies and baking them, let the decorating begin.

No one can concentrate on making a huge mess of yellow icing like a 4-year-old. This cookie, when she was finished, looked like it was attacked by a ketchup and mustard bottle. That's okay though cause we sent it home with her. 

Spencer stayed home that evening and on his phone found an idea for making "colored ice marbles." Put some water and food coloring in a balloon then put it out in the snow to freeze. 

"Let's do it," Grace proclaimed. So my 21-year-old and 20-year-old headed to the kitchen. They quickly learned to put the food coloring in before the water. They ended up with three filled balloons that they put in a snow bank to freeze til the next day. 

But two of the balloons were missing the next morning, leaving only a slightly blue tinted indentation and a yellow-ringed indentation. "Maybe they burst," Grace suggested.

And two blue footprints nearby hint at why they might have burst.

We suspect the outdoor cat, of course, even though this picture looks like an abominable snowman staring out of the snow bank.

Then last night we had a little drama. I was in the kitchen cooking chicken and dumplings, Grace was on the cough, both cats were accounted for and suddenly the Christmas tree toppled onto the floor followed by a tinkling sound as the glass topper broke. Three other bulbs also broke. One of them was our first year of marriage bulb, which I refuse to take as an omen. The other was Spencer's first year bulb, but I think he had two of them. The third may be the real omen -- The Ohio State bulb broke. It does not bode well for them in their bowl game if our tree has anything to say about it.

Hope everyone is having a calm Christmas season wherever you are.  

Christmas Tree Hopes Dim

We don't have a Christmas tree yet. Things are different this year with two kids at college, one of whom won't be home until next Friday.
We had decided to get the tree Sunday morning with our two boys. Spencer came home from college on Friday. Because of Tucker's high school schedule and Earl's work schedule, this is our last opportunity to get all four of us together to choose a tree until next Friday, Dec. 21.
I told the boys we were going Sunday morning to get a tree. They are forewarned.
Here's where things get tricky. Spencer has yet to come home from a campus party at Ohio State that he attended last night. I last heard from him about 4 a.m. when he assured me they were all fine and he had a safe way to get home. I'm assuming he spent the night some place on campus. The clock is ticking on 10:30. Morning is waning.
I don't want to pick out a tree after noon because it will be crowded, so I have a 12 oclock cut off. Tucker meanwhile is still in bed. He's awake, looking up stuff on his phone, but hesistant to get out of bed where the cat is cuddled up to his knees.
"I'm hungry," he said.
"Well, get up," I replied.
Earl has wandered over to the neighbor's house to help her with drain issues.
Meanwhile, I'm having to adjust the plans that I had ordered in my mind. Picking out a tree, taking photos together, stopping for coffee or breakfast.
Maybe Earl and I should go get the tree just the two of us.
The hardest part is changing my expectations, but I know this is only the beginning of changing traditions.

Here's a tree from a previous year. At least the cat appreciated it. We may have to just settle for a photo this year.
Come to think of it, maybe we could go with pictures of presents too. It looks like this was a banner year for us.

Oh Christmas Tree

We decided, kind of by default, not to get a Christmas tree until Grace came home from college. She arrived home last Thursday.
Friday was a basketball game after school. Saturday was a day-long swim meet. We decided to get our tree after mass on Sunday morning. Then Spencer announced a special Sunday basketball practice at noon.
"Can we get the tree without you?" I asked.
He shrugged. It's hard to know if those shrugs mean, I don't care or I'm so sad that I won't be there to choose a Christmas tree.
We went without him. The YMCA lot only had 13 trees left. We chose one within minutes and tied it to the top of the car.

Earl set the tree in its stand while Grace, Tucker and I moved furniture around to make a place for the tree.
And it stood there, forlorn, free of decorations.
Christmas carolers came to the door that night -- four high school boys, friends of Grace. They came in and made no comment about the bare tree.
I scheduled a decorating time for Monday.
Tucker had swim from 8 to 10 a.m. and Spencer had basketball from 11 to 1. Earl had to leave for work at 3. I declared 2 p.m. tree decorating time.
Earl put the lights on the tree ahead of time and I made a batch of manicotti along with a salad to feed us afterward.
Charlie Brown Christmas music played as we hung ornaments.
Spencer was feeling sick so could only be roused to hang a few ornaments, but at least we were all together for a little while.

It's the Most Wonderful Time...

Yippee!
If you heard cries of joy and saw fireworks in the sky, no doubt you assumed that I had finished grading essays for my five classes. And that would be correct. At 10:02 p.m., I entered the last grades for the main college where I teach. Now, I just need to get through the other two classes, and truly I have very little that I have to do to prepare for class this week. Think of the stress whooshing out of me, at least until I pick up those 27 papers Friday night that must be graded by Sunday.
Even though I've been wading through essays, life didn't stop here. That is why we went yesterday afternoon to pick out a Christmas tree. When we lived in Michigan, we always cut down a tree. Now we just go to the tree lot at the YMCA. The men's group is in charge and they call is the Y's Men trees. Get it?

I had planned to stay home and grade while everyone else picked out the tree, but it became a domino effect. Then Tucker was going to stay home too, and Spencer didn't really care. Earl was feeling sick...
I put down my papers and went along. I loved watching Tucker attempt to shake out the tree.
We left it outside last night during the basketball games and swim meet and then woke up to rain this morning. Today, when it was time to set it up, I'm not going to lie, there was yelling. I find a little yelling with swear words thrown in enhances the Christmas spirit.
The boys moved the coffee table then Grace and Tucker moved a chair so the tree could go in front of the window.
Earl set up the tree in its stand and this evening the kids and I decorated while he was at work.

I had the kids pose with the tree afterwards. Grace and I nearly fell over laughing when we realized that Spencer is unable to sit on his heels. He's that inflexible. Hopefully that is connected to how much he has grown this year and eventually he'll become more flexible than a 90-year-old.
In all sincerity, I hope that I can relax and enjoy my kids a little more now that my grades are turned in. I'm going to make it my New Year's resolution to complain less and laugh more. This weekend was a good start, because the kids made me laugh, maybe even guffaw, at least twice.