<p>When my D went to visit her future high school, Catholic, she came home and said, “It was a really nice campus and I really liked the kids but there were all these Jesuses on a stake everywhere…”</p>
<p>Note: I was brought up in a family that once upon a time was Episcopalian, but only because that’s what New York City High WASPS did, and D’s dad was brought up Catholic and lapsed a long time ago. Guess we faltered on the religious education.</p>
<p>Hmm. Count us in as Christmas pagans. So let’s decorate the Alley with reindeer horns and put sparkly lights on them, thus avoiding the whole tree problem. If we have a creche, it’s just a space for parents exhausted from ED application season to sleep off their virtual over-indulgence.</p>
<p>Ya’ll be careful out there tomorrow. It’s the wild season among drivers…fighting over parking spots, determined to get where they’re going before anyone else does…I could have had about 3 fender benders just crossing the grocery store lot, if I’d wanted to. :eek:</p>
<p>Ah, the joy of the season! Peace and goodwill…on the roads!?! You can always hope. </p>
<p>I’ll raise a Baileys to friends and family everywhere, to carols, fires in fireplaces, crisp air, minced pies and mulled wine, holy places for one and all, wrapped packages, turkeys and hams, beer and pizza, and everywhere the hope of good cheer. Happy Solstice.</p>
<p>Well, I’m tucked in here, just smiling at my SA pals and their wonderful way of sharing and cheering up each and all. I dropped by to let y’all know that I (yes, <em>I</em>) drove Pablo (which is apparently the name of S#1’s VW van, it of the summer almost-cross-country-trip saga) back from the VW repair shop this afternoon. We got 'im started and over there a couple weeks ago, where they ooooh’d and ahhhhh’d over 'im, and then they tuned him up further, fixed a few things S#1 didn’t quite get right last summer, and got the heat working as best they could. Merry Christmas, S#1. When he arrives here tomorrow night, I hope to have a big red bow tied onto its rear engine compartment. (Or maybe we’ll just go pick him up in it!) Next to the others at the shop today, I gotta tell ya… Pablo looked <em>FINEST KIND</em>! It’s those curtains, I think. ;)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, TSFH is… do not choke, please… at this moment at the dining room table in front of his laptop, finishing his remaining apps. He says he wants to have them done before his brother gets here tomorrow. I am speechless, to say the least, and am walking on tippitoes to avoid breaking the spell. (He does get up from time to time to check on Family Guy on the TV, or sort the big change jar of his tips from work for deposit at the bank tomorrow, but he does keep going back, so maybe this time he’ll actually <em>DO</em> them. I’ve promised him a dinner at Outback Steakhouse if he submits tomorrow.) </p>
<p>And (->!heart-warming alert!<-) as I may have hinted earlier, TSFH isn’t counting the days until Christmas this year: he’s counting the days until his brother gets home. Altogether now: AWWWWWWW! </p>
<p>It’s going to be a good holiday, I can just tell. Who’s warming the wassail?</p>
<p>I don’t post in SA frequently because . . . well, I just can’t keep up! But thanks to everyone for the laughs (and luv). Always something to keep one amused. </p>
<p>BhappyMom, thanks for the Santa story. Definitely a keeper.
Congratulations to everyone for acceptances, test scores and students home for the holidays. </p>
<p>Mootmom, congratulations on the applications to TSFH. Mine still has 4 to finish, but only 2 new completely new essays, and he has an acceptance in his pocket, with the possibility of a scholarship. Joy oh Joy! It’s certainly not his 1st choice (deferred), or even his 4th (not enough girls), but said it’s nice to be wanted. Big brother comes home Sunday and the little one is really excited too. He said he’ll finish his apps while his brother sleeps his first 2 days home.
Also, glad the VW is ready to go. I have a lot of memories from a VW bus belonging to my high school boyfriend. :eek:</p>
<p>Happy holidays and I’ll raise a tall (and wide) one to you all.</p>
<p>That is an excellent Christmas gift. Got our best gift today: 8th grade S got accepted at the Creative and Performing Arts HS that our D graduated from. He will be in the Drama program (not MT).</p>
<p>D is home for the hols. She goes to school 250 miles away from home, only to start dating a guy there who lives 3 miles away our home here… Small world.</p>
<p>Who needs presents under the tree when we have happy, healthy kids!</p>
<p>An SA toast: “Holiday wishes to all!”</p>
<p>Or as my 8th grader would say “Merry Channuchristmakwaansica!”</p>
<p>Bhappymom, Yes, thanks for the Santa tale! One worth remembering for sure. </p>
<p>Son who is recovering from wisdom teeth removal went to his long time barber, an Iraqi, who is very, very good at hair stuff. My son has been using the local beauty school to cut his hair since he’s been in Wisconsin and well, it’s o.k. but it doesn’t touch Yasin’s talent. So he’s looking good right now and it has just started to rain and the streets are filled with Christmas decor & lights. The traffic is horrendous! My grocer across the street is just out of the hospital with heart and diabetes problems and we were discussing how this has been a bad year for health: my dad’s death, two best friends with cancer, my grocer who is like salt of the earth, wonderful man. I say next year it will be a better year and he gets tears in his eyes. I say, “it’s going to be a wonderful year, 2007.” And yes, who needs anything but happy, healthy people!!!</p>
<p>All the stories of parents rejoicing that their families are together for the holidays reminds me of my best Christmas memory:</p>
<p>My father a ne’r do well who spent much of his time from what I remember lying on the couch reading Micky Spillane novels…suddenly decided one November to clean out the basement. When Christmas arrived and my mother went to get the boxes of Christmas decorations she discovered that they had all been sent to the dump! We were a fairly poor family (although my mother always said "We may be broke, but we’re not poor ) and there wasn’t enough money to replace the decorations and buy each of the 4 kids “a” present…so we had a family discussion and decided to use all the money available for Christmas on buying food and drink (burp…that’s why I hang out in SA…corrupted from an early age ) and then my parents and each of the kids (ages 8,9, 10 & 14) would invite their friends and we would have a Christmas party. It was fantastic (I the 14 year old had had serious doubts about whether my friends would enjoy hanging out with old folks and brats…but they had a blast) we rolled back the carpet, moved the furniture, cranked up the music and everyone ate, drank, danced and had the merriest time. Our tree was a scraggly beast anchored to the wall with a big nail and some string, the decorations had been made by the little kids out of tin foil, and a string of popcorn and cranberries…I found an old flood light from the yard and put it at the bottom of the tree and it made the tinfoil look really good…so every Christmas I remember that magic party and know that it’s the people that make holidays memorable and warm…</p>
<p>Last Christmas my husband and son decided to cut down our own tree from the front of the farm, being men they did not measure it ;), they may have had a moments concern when after cutting it down they couldn’t budge it :D, but no, that is why tractors were invented…but imagine my surprise when I saw the tractor coming down the drive dragging a huge tree :eek: …ahhh but that is another story…</p>
<p>My father has a streak of pioneering in him and one Christmas, hoping to save a few dollars probably, he packed the six of us into the wagon (three in the middle three in the Way Back) and we went out to a Christmas Tree Farm where trudged through the snow, single file, until we found the perfect tree. We all took turns on the saw. Sitting in the middle of his Norman Rockwell scene, my father was puffing with Christmas cheer and pearly bits of wisdom.</p>
<p>We no sooner got that tree through the back door and into the living room when my mother bent over to have a closer look. “Why is this thing dropping needles already? Hells bells! This tree is dead! It’s been spray painted green! Take that fire hazard right back out to the garbage and go get me a proper tree from the nursery please!”</p>
<p>A classic family moment–minus the Norman Rockwell scene.</p>
<p>Another “tree farm” story. We had been going to tree farms for several years with H and Ds, but one year I decided I wanted a blue spruce - so I found a tree farm about 3 hours north that grew them so off we went. I don’t know why, but I have to look at every tree on the farm - at least once, usually twice, and was having a hard time making up my mind. The family are used to this by now, and soon tire of pointing out the perfect tree - because I’m sure there’s one a bit better - just over there. Anyway, it starts to rain, so I am pressured to choose a tree quickly - which I do, but it is at the opposite end of the farm from the parking lot. Oh well. we drag the tree back and head home in the pouring rain. </p>
<p>Once the tree is up and we start to decorate, we discover something about the lovely blue spruce. the needles are extremely sharp and the girls can’t put ornaments on without getting stuck (very unhappy campers). I put on gardening gloves to finish decorating. Then the tree starts dropping needles like Charlie Brown’s tree if anyone even brushes up against it. We took the tree down the day after Christmas (which I never do), the poor thing had so many bare twigs it was just pitiful. :)</p>
<p>I have some great tree stories. I grew up in the foreign service. The first year we made a tree out of a flag pole and green ribbons that were pinned to the top and then to a circular table top on the bottom. We pinned our ornaments on.</p>
<p>Another year we had no ornaments because the shipping got delayed. We made real popcorn and cranberry strings and homemade playdough ornaments.</p>
<p>Great stories! When I was young I loved reading “Five Little Peppers and How they Grew”–amazed at how creative they were in making things and how scarce even paper was in those days. Nowadays we go up to the store for construction paper, wrapping paper, foil, origami paper…whatever our hearts (and our kids) desire!</p>
<p>mootmom: I had forgotten about the VW bus saga! That was so funny. Glad to hear it’s still kicking around. One day my youngest didn’t have a car handy (other son had it) and so he took my mini-van to pick up his girlfriend for something or other. He was gone about an hour when suddenly I thought - WHAT AM I DOING LOANING HIM THE VAN TO PICK UP HIS GF IN???</p>
<p>Is the internet REALLY slow or is it just me???</p>
<p>Anybody else SICK of being in the kitchen? What the heck - I am just living in there these days. Help.</p>
<p>You should be fine as long as there is no mattress and 8 track player in the van…</p>
<p>I am one of six kids. My parents thought it would be romantic to have us string popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree. They left us unsupervised just long enough to eat all the popcorn and throw the cranberries at the white ceiling, trying to get then to stick…</p>
<p>m&sdad - great story! reminds me of the time my sister begged my parents to let her babysit…they arrived home to find their bed frame broken, the mattress and boxspring akew and big circles on the ceiling…seems my sisters were using the bed as a trampoline and trying to use the bathroom plunger to stick on the ceiling and and see who could hang on longest! …my parents would have been happy with cranberries on the ceiling :rolleyes: :D</p>
<p>Congrats on your son’s acceptance…what I wouldn’t give to have my DS back in GR8!!!</p>
When he arrives here tomorrow night, I hope to have a big red bow tied onto its rear engine compartment. (Or maybe we’ll just go pick him up in it!) Next to the others at the shop today, I gotta tell ya… Pablo looked <em>FINEST KIND</em>! It’s those curtains, I think. ;)</p>
) and then my parents and each of the kids (ages 8,9, 10 & 14) would invite their friends and we would have a Christmas party. It was fantastic (I the 14 year old had had serious doubts about whether my friends would enjoy hanging out with old folks and brats…but they had a blast) we rolled back the carpet, moved the furniture, cranked up the music and everyone ate, drank, danced and had the merriest time. Our tree was a scraggly beast anchored to the wall with a big nail and some string, the decorations had been made by the little kids out of tin foil, and a string of popcorn and cranberries…I found an old flood light from the yard and put it at the bottom of the tree and it made the tinfoil look really good…so every Christmas I remember that magic party and know that it’s the people that make holidays memorable and warm…</p>