Sarcasm with a side of optimism.

Home Again.

I wasn't feeling alive with Christmas spirit as I got into my car at 5:50am this morning for a quick pilgrimage home for the holiday. My original plan involved sleeping until 8am, until V pointed out that everyone in the free world would be on the NJ turnpike. If you've ever sat on it in bumper to bumper traffic, getting up after 4.5 hours of sleep to drive 4 hours is no big thing.

I had soccer the night before at 10:45pm where we effectively managed to place ourselves out of the playoffs. I don't recall a whole lot aside from our goalie being all pissed off and grouchy, getting hit square in the face twice in the box by players taking shots at close range, and my ankle hurting again. We had enough players, but it turned out to be an exact repeat of the previous week: no offense, no defense. Craig wasn't there for this one. He was already in Atlanta by then.

The ride home was extremely uneventful and boring. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I drove myself home alone because I usually take Greyhound. Everyone on the road had their cars packed with kids, bags, the family dog..you name it. Seems like the yellow lab was the top choice. Despite going south on the beltway and turning around at 50, I still made it home in 3 hours 45 minutes.

After getting everything into the house and walking the dog, there was cleaning to be done to get the house ready for the inevitable bombardment. Mom spent all of yesterday cooking after work into the late night hours. All that cooking, and she still had some food catered in! Yee and the kids arrived at 2:30 and Cow showed up shortly thereafter. Sit-down-at-the-table-time translates into dodging prying questions time. They were pretty good this time. I guess the little ones are a good distraction. I got, "How much did your house cost?" once and "Where's your boyfriend?" about five times. Much better than, "How's your love life?" and "How much money do you make?" Aiee.

We're just about done with dinner, which means that everyone else is finished but Dad is still going. He looked like he was struggling a little so I made the mistake of saying, "You don't have to finish that if you're full!" Yikes. I was already helping clean up the table at that point. Well, in the midst of the clean-up, Mom decides to open a can of worms and ask about Pam. So Come says that she's spending Christmas Eve with her boyfriend's family. Decides to slip in that it's because she feels guilty, and came home crying about it, and oh-by-the-way, the girl who she was working with to process the mortgage got fired.

I'm not stupid. I know what she's trying to do. But I refuse to contribute to this topic because it's not constructive.

Mom calmly says, "It was a business deal. I have no hard feelings toward her as family. She is more than welcome to come to my house."

"Well, you know that. I know that. But it would make the difference if you would CALL her to tell her that."

For the record, I have never fully disclosed all of the details of that botched up deal with my aunt and uncle. Thinking about that whole episode still causes me stress and anxiety. They tried to guilt me into calling when they came to visit during Memorial Day weekend. Oops...it's...December now!

Then Mom says, "I am a very calm and forgiving person. During the course of this business deal, Pam hung up on me several times."

Well, I hope that gave them perspective on their precious little angel. (Psycho.) I wish they would just drop it.

Eight hours later, they finally left. The highlight of the evening was watching the little ones open their presents. Their eyes were so big and bright. I got Andrew a Crayola toy chest full of art supplies, including finger paints. I thought that was pretty good, but then, V goes into her room and comes out with a mini skateboard for him! Dammit. If you haven't figured it out, this is evil gift giving. Of course, she totally forgot to buy him a helmet. He wasn't interested in any item except for a toy train set that his aunt gave him. It was actually pretty cool, and reminded me of those old school Hot Wheels sets whose tracks snap together, and plug into the wall. This Fisher Price version included hilly inclines and a loading station! Later, my quirky metro cousin Jon assembled a perfect 2 foot diameter circle of track, and Andrew sat there for a WHOLE half hour watching the car go round and round. We made bets as to how many revolutions the train would make before he got bored, and we ALL LOST. He's 3.5 years old, so I'm not sure if that's acceptable behavior or not.

I'm not sure if the kids know (or care) that Santa comes tonight. I'm grinning right now remembering past mysterious Christmas Eves. They're going to be one excited bunch tomorrow morning.

posted by v @ 11:04 PM