christmas - part two

From what I've been told Claudia said to her mother on Christmas Day that their Christmas was "okay" but come next year she expects to be in Canada to celebrate Christmas with her family, rather than in Germany.

My sentiments entirely little girl.

The food was great. The house was festive. Melissa showed up with her gang, Tasha and Bob with their brood. My mom even graced us with her presence - and didn't bitch once. (Okay, she bitched once. She didn't bitch twice due to the fact that her daughter has super powers when fueled with alcohol.) The kids behaved, it was noisy, it was fun, it was Christmas. And every single one of us noticed who was missing. Next year the entire family will be together.

Even if I have to go to Germany myself to get the girls.

Tasha's face when she gets a gift card for The Keg

William Hailie and Kennedy

Julian opening his "I've been asking her since June" Beyblades

Kennedy's Papa. A man with a heart of gold

grandma's broken heart

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

They also say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Hailie, Eloise and Claudia

Tara

Aaron and Tara





Riding the merry go round with Papa



Meeting Snow White

Ellie the Birthday Girl

Claudia, Melissa, William, Kennedy and Hailie

Kennedy

Chaos

Bob, Tasha, Claudia, Tara and William



The picture that says it all. Tara and Melissa

An early Christmas

Papa dancing with his princess

"Grandma .... what does N-O-E-L spell?"
"Noel."
"Yes there is."
"Yes there is what, sweetheart?"
"N-O-E-L. What does it spell?"
"Noel."
"Grandma!!!!!! It's right there!"
"What's right where honey?"
"The L! You keep saying there's no L!!!"

I miss them already.

they're baaaack!

Shortly before Tara and her happy little family moved to Germany, Aaron Who Will Never Be Forgiven had checked the list of conferences Das German University was offering in the upcoming year. Lo and behold, one was being held in December in Toronto Ontario Canada. Needless to say, he booked the conference and they arrived this past Tuesday for a three week stay - the majority of it being with us.

Musings from week one -

- A six hour time changes hurts *a lot* when 3 a.m. rolls around and 2 little girls think it's 9 a.m. because that's what their bodies are telling them it is.

"Grammaaaaaa ...... we're AWAKE!!!!"

So there's grandma in the middle of the night building forts out of blankets, making breakfast, playing banker with change from the old peanut butter jar - and of course, feeding them chocolate chip cookies and pointing them in the direction of their sleeping parents when I couldn't take anymore because I might be a grandma but I'm sure as shit not a stupid grandma.

- Watching the four of them see "English television" for the first time in three months hit me full force as to what life must be like in a country where everyone and everything is in another language - a language you don't know. I said they were akin to crackheads being released from prison after 3 months and finding a pail full of crack.

- Bob and Tasha and their kids come over on Wednesday night. After dinner the kids made Christmas crafts. Stepping on teeny tiny beads for the next year will probably not be fun.

- You need a bare minimum of 14 sippy and or plastic cups ready and available at all times to accomodate two kids under 4 years of age.

- You learn the hard way what the look on your daughter's face was all about when you said let's take the girls to Limeridge Mall, which happens to be the largest mall within a 75 mile radius. In the evening. In December. Two weeks before Christmas.

- You forget what a clean house looks like.

- You forget about your house when two small hands grab your face and say "I love you Grandma."




Dora!! On TV!!! In English!!!!



Christmas Crafts





Eloise and Papa





Enjoying a hot chocolate at Gore Park



a year and a half later ....

- I'm still alive. Go me.
- So is mom. Go her.
- Jay still works straight afternoons. I still work straight days.
- I'm still married. (See above for why)
- My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters are living in Germany for two years while Aaron does his postdoc. I might forgive Aaron for this someday.
- Actually, we all know I won't.
- My son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and grandson now live in Cambridge, over an hour away.
- I still watch Kennedy and Julian - for now.
- Our family farm was sold. Instead of taking the money and buying shoes, lotsa shoes and the Lexus on my bucket list, I gave my share of the farm money to my brother in return for a paid off deed to his house that we've been living in for 8 years. We went from family renter to mortgage free home owner all within 30 seconds. The down side to this means -
- I still buy my shoes from Value Village.
- And I still drive a 13 year old Pontiac.
- We still have a trailer at the nudist resort but are becoming increasingly tired of the fishbowl existance that comes with trailer park living.
- Because of that, we spent half the past summer at the nude beach in Port Burwell. Odds are, we'll be selling the trailer this coming summer and going back to seagulls, waves and beach glass full time.
- I'm still president of the downtown Hamilton neighbourhood association. A few times a month I get to go to meetings and pretend to give a shit about things I really don't give a shit about.

I think that's it.

busily bored

I get up at 4 a.m. - on the count of three, you're all to go "Oh My God, I feel so sorry for you!!" - to pick up Kennedy and Julian. Luckily, I'm very good at rote driving seeing how I'm pretty much sound asleep for both the pick up and delivery back to our place. Last week, ten year old Kennedy got into the car.

"Theresa, there's a spider on my window."


"That's nice honey."


"I don't think you heard me. I said there's a SPIDER on my window."


"I heard you. There's also bird poop on your window."


"Yeah but I'm not afraid of bird poop."


Ten year olds should be outlawed.

**********

Have you ever noticed that foreigners laugh in English? Like, what the hell's that all about?

**********

So after a 16 month and 11 day layoff - not that I counted of course - Jay finally found a job job. (A "job job" is a "holy shit, you're making more money than you did at your old job!!" job as opposed to a job which pays minimum wage and pretty much is all that's offered out there nowadays because we're still in a recession and THEY CAN.) On a whim he dropped his resume off at a company that also works in concrete like his old company did. Apparently concrete workers are a rare breed - who knew? - and as the story goes, they fired a guy a month after Jay did the resume thing and he was called in for an interview and pretty much hired on the spot. Straight afternoons, which works well for us seeing how after a 16 month and 11 day layoff - not that I counted of course - I can't really say we like each other all that much so it all works out quite well in the end.

As for me, I've been busily bored since he started the new job. The "oh wow, I'll be able to put an entry in every night!" plan obviously did not come to fruition. So instead I've been changing my kitchen cupboards around - two weeks later and I'm still grabbing pasta and thinking it should be a coffee cup - and also spending a lot of time over at Tara and Aaron's and then walking home. (Twenty brisk minutes in case anyone wants to be impressed.)

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We opened up the trailer again at ye olde nudist resort for another season. Our first "social event" was my mom's 86th birthday party. Tara and I thought that mom would get a kick out of seeing penises bouncing around all over the place because we're sick and perverted little creatures. The fact that my mom can't wait to go back tells us all just where we get our perverted little creature-ness from. She phoned me two days after her party.

"I'd like to go back one of these weekends."

"Really???"

"I didn't see anything outside of your trailer."


(Translation - "There weren't enough naked men walking past your trailer.")

"Really???"


"I'd like to go for a walk around the park."

(Please read above translation.)

"Um ... but it's about 100 acres mom. You can't walk down three steps."


"But I want to see the whole park."


(Ditto.)

"Well you know, I probably *could* ask Su to drive you around in her golf cart for the day."


"Okay!!!!!!!!!"

I'm quite sure Su won't mind spending her day driving my mother around the park.