A Boy- centric Christmas

If it were a Christmas season "ruled" by boys, the featured foods would be full size candy bars, frozen zingers, and spicy potatoe chips. If the spice is too much for the mouth, the boys would simply spit out the offending snack food onto the carpeted floor. To drink: hot chocolate ans Mt. Dew.

There would be guns, knives, video games, Legos, action figures, and bey blades.

Loud drums, silly songs, and ongoing shouting/sparring followed by giggles and belly laughs.

Stairways and hallways would be the ideal settings for racetracks and Avengers dangling from tape or string.

Christmas break means NO bed time, no dishes, no chores, and no homework.

A cloud of stinky sock smell hangs over the house.

The bloody ear, lip and foot cause only momentary notice.

Because boys rule Christmas.

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Deb & Julia

I found (and borrowed) the latest "Smitten Kitchen" cookbook at the library today! In the spirit of "Julie and Julia" I thought I might write about my family's responses to the recipes.

Triton!

My son will play the role of King Triton in this weekend's local production of "The Little Mermaid Jr." He was asked to return to the stage under the direction of a former teacher, who needed a taller, more mature student to act in the role of the mermaid king. N has a deep, commanding voice. Apparently, some of the smaller children, playing in the roles of Ariel's younger sisters and small fish, stood up quite straight when they first heard him bark out orders. Yesterday was preview day, when the group performed for a revolving audience of classes from various grades in the school district. When his character appeared before the elementary school children several boys yelled, "It's Triton!!!!!" with so much zeal that the crew had to wait to cue the next round of spotlights. I hope that N remembers this chapter of his life and the admiration of his audience for a long time. I hope that he can lean on it during the "lower" times of life. He is planning to enlist in the Marines and I imagine there will be long hours on duty, marching, or on guard, when he might think back to his "merman days." As for me, I've resisted the urge to watch previews or sneak into dress rehearsals. I'm waiting for the curtain to be pulled back tonight so that I can yell (to myself of course), "It's Triton!" In memory of Kenneth Mars, the original voice actor for Disney's "The Little Mermaid."

The Calendar

It's a joy and a luxury to be able to travel, go to lunch with friends (and relatives:), and poke around interesting shops. Taking time off in December is FANTASTIC! I love having time to get ready for Christmas. This year, more than ever, I am enjoying the process of decorating and writing out cards. It's a December calendar filled with possibility...

Home for the Holiday

It has been several years since I haven't worked on Black Friday. It has been many, many years since I traveled for the Thanksgiving Holiday. I can't, in my memory, place a time when we've ever traveled more than an hour to get to a the hosting relative's home. There were the two years when a baby was born at Thanksgiving. This meant that, for those two years alone, I was exempt from bringing a dish to pass. This year's Thanksgiving celebration, then, was quite different from our "usual Thanksgiving routine." We went farther (Pittsburgh) and stayed longer (4 days, 3 nights). It took a HUGE effort to coordinate the trip. I hired a neighbor to feed the farm animals and care for the old dog who stayed home. We found a kennel in PA so that the puppy could travel with us. Six suitcases packed along with the "food for an army." A Thanksgiving holiday of this lenghth and magnitude.... ...not just one big meal but several amazing, leisurely family gatherings around the dinner table. ...time to "go deep" with relatives. I learned that my grandmother was still subscribed to SHAPE magazine at the age of 82. Impressive. We poked through her discarded jewelry and she showed me her thread. I came home with a new box of buttons. ...time for tragedies, like a contact lense that broke itself in two (inside my eyelid). The ride home was painful. The six year old was exceptionally wiggly. I nearly died from a panic attack when we found ourselves in a stowstorm on a crowded highway (with the permit-carrying 16 year old at the wheel). We decided to stretch our legs at a bargain outlet with the puppy tied inside the car (windows down inside). In a matter of minutes he chewed through the brand new hand-made thick nylong lead my uncle made. And he chewed through five out of the six of the seatbelts in the van. The repair will cost hundreds. So much for a bargain! We did it...we took a long holiday road trip, we spent precisous time with relatives, and we created memories and stories that we will tell again and again.

No More Little Ones

When he wakes up tomorrow, he will be six years old.

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The Science Behind Annoyance

I am my own worst enemy. I decided to let the dog out without a leash and he ran away. I bent down to pick something up with a jar of bleu cheese dressing in my hand. It spilled all over the floor. I'm easily annoyed. Annoyed with relatives who go around and around a holiday menu as if it were a space mission. "Can I have a volunteer to pick up the moon rock?" "Only if you really want to pick up the moon rock." "Maybe the other astronaut would rather pick up the moon rock." "Email me back about that moon rock." Oh for goodness sake! The boys burp. And sing (constantly). And they need to show me every confounded Pokemon card and high jump off of the couch. They think I need to watch them feed the fish, hit play on the video game and make a sandwich out of crackers and cheese. It's annoying. I thought this was a matter of my patience running thin or perhaps a heightened stress level. We are entering the holiday season, after all. Then I stumbled upon an amusing article about the science of annoyance. It turns out that "Americans are annoying to the world because we are individualists who think we can and should control our world." Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/annoying-the-science-of-what-bugs-us-2011-5?op=1#ixzz2CmdX1J5c There's a (small) country where annoyance is categorized and ultimately, frowned upon... In that distant culture, people use nuanced vocabulary to describe away the annoyance we let rip in words and action For the Ifaluks "One person's anger (song) entails another's fear (metagu); someone's experiencing grief and frustration creates compassion/love/sadness (fago) in others." Their words express their feelings and have a rich vocabulary to express a variety of states of annoyance. tipmochmoch - annoyance that comes with feeling ill lingeringer - annoyance that builds from a series of minor but unwanted events nguch - annoyance with relatives who do the Ifaluk equivalent of failing to show up for a holiday dinner tang - the frustration that occurs "in the face of personal misfortunes and slights which one is helpless to redress" (Lutz) song - justifiable anger (the authors translate this as "You've done something that pisses me off. I know it, and you know it. But because expressing that annoyance would be inappropriate, I'll let it go, and so will you." In the end, there is a societal mandate to not get pissy with others. To do so is to risk ostracization. God Bless the USA.