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Here you have it folks: What you've been waiting for all year long:
A perfectly good chance to giggle your little butts off at me.
And a chance to subject your own loved ones to the same ridicule.
Have at 'er.
Click this link
Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.
And now, I must go inhale my left over cabbage rolls.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.
I likely won't have another moment to blog before Christmas, and will upload some pictures after that. Becky's post really got me thinking today. Peter's grandmother is very sick. She's in the ICU in Wyoming, and will be there through Christmas, which is difficult on their family. If you've met her, even for a few minutes (she was at our wedding) you'll know what an incredible woman she is. In a nutshell, she was a sweet little rich girl, that much to the chagrin of her father, ran away with a missionary boy, and raised five children in India. This woman defines brave to me, and will tell you stories about their life there that would make you sit dumbfounded, in shock that this tiny little woman has seen and been through so much. Please, if you think of it, pray for her, and Peter's family. We need Grandma around a little longer. We were planning to get her in front of a video camera with some tea, sometime very soon, and ask her to just talk. Tell us about India, about Grandpa (who has been gone for 20 years now). Tell us about falling in love, about having a baby in a strange country. Tell us about Grandpa killing the man eating tiger and saving your village and your family (this did actually happen - told you she was special). I need to hear her stories, I need to have my children hear them one day.
I saw some dumb movie once, a long time ago, and though I don't remember the plot at all, I remember one scene, with such clarity:
A family has just lost their entire livelihood. The family business has burned to the ground in a freak fire. They were struggling before, now they're pretty much destitute. As they sit among the rubble together, the single mom puts her arms around her kids and smiles a real smile of true relief and joy, and says, "It's okay. As long as we're all still here and together, it's just been a bad day."
Sometimes I forget that. It's just been a few bad days, and when you look at some times over this last year, not even that. I don't have to deal with a loved one dying days before Christmas. My husband is healthy and happy and we have an incredible relationship that amazes me sometimes. There's a silly song that I love that says, "I'm short on money, but I'm long on time / Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine." That's where we're at. We're okay, we've got a little money, and more debt, but we're young, and we all have each other. My baby sister is a single mom, and has been through a lot of rough times, but all I have to do is look at that baby boy, and the way she is with him, to know that she's going to be okay. You should see little Luke light up when he sees his mom, and the way she does too. It's beautiful and very often makes me tear up with the sheer delight of watching them together. I have good friends, and may get to see an old friend for New Years, that I haven't seen in five years. Life is good. It's really, really good.
So that's it. I hope that all you in Saskatchewan have a wonderful time this Christmas. Eat too much, laugh too much. Play a good game of Balderdash, and please someone keep and blog the best answers (I'm thinking Becky would maybe be sentimental enough to do this?) Help do the dishes afterward, a lot of great conversation happens in the kitchen after a big meal. Enjoy each other and don't think about money, or obligations or being a grown up. Let your kids eat too many sweets, and eat some yourself. For the love of all that is good, please don't diet, wait til January. For all of you who I'm not going to see, and haven't seen in so long, I miss you. Someone remember to give Grandma and Grandpa a big hug from me. Take a lot of pictures, as will I, and we'll see you after the holidays!
Love you all - melanie.
I thought perhaps, since Robyn is no longer blogging, that some of you may like to see some pictures of Lucas, or "baby lu" as we all call him. Sometimes, I can't believe how much I love this little boy. He's happy all the time, even though he's teething. He laughs and lights up when he sees you. It's so neat that he's getting old enough to recognize people he knows. When I walked up to them in the mall he was looking around at everything, but when he saw me, he knew who I was and his face broke out into his little squinty-eyed grin and he reached for me. What a little angel, and what a little goofball. Sorry that some of these are blurry, we had to use Peter's phone for them as our real camera was too far away and we didn't want to miss it.
All I want for Christmas is Luke...
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Baby Lu and me in front of our Christmas tree last night.
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My personal favorite. He sat with that cookie in his mouth like that for a long time, grinning around it.
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Man I love this kid.
Merry Christmas from Baby Lu and his proud Auntie Mellie
Today Peter was sent home early due to the rapidly deteriorating weather. My mom picked me up at the house today at about 11:45 and we went to WalMart, got a couple of things, and then went to the food court and had a quick lunch. When we walked into WalMart, it was raining with a little hail thrown in for good measure. When we finished lunch, about 45 minutes later, the entire parking lot was covered in snow. The streets were already filled with slush. It happened so quickly it was almost eerie. So my mom threw in the towel on shopping, opting instead for getting home while the roads are still safe, and I called Peter and told him that I'd rather he get here sooner than later. He was home by 2:00 and work tomorrow is looking pretty iffy from where we are.
Now, I know all you Saskatchewan toughies will call us wimps, but there is a very strange difference in the weather here. First, the snow is just different. In Alberta, you're taught that if you're spinning out, to lead your tires to snow, snow they can grip, ice they cannot. Not so here. This snow is so dense and wet from the humidity it's just no use. Also, -10 here feels different than -10 in Alberta. This is a wet cold that seeps straight into your bones and makes it always feel 5-10 degrees colder than it is. So I know it's not as bad, but it sure isn't nice either. Plus, Vancouver Island is simply not prepared for weather like this. We have nearly no snowplows, which is why school closes when it snows 3 inches. Busses refuse to drive in it and the amount of snowplows (snowploughs?) make it so that the back roads simply never get done. There aren't any people to salt the roads. On our last big dump of snow, we actually saw that the city of Victoria had hired constuction companies or anyone with a dump truck to work salting roads. They loaded up with salt and then drove 10 feet along the road, stopped, got out and into the bucket of the truck, grabbed a spade and threw salt on the road, climbed back into the truck, drove another 10 feet...Why a spade, you ask? Because the regular shovels that Canadian Tire keeps in stock sell out about three minutes after the snow starts falling. All five of them, gone in a flash. Window scrapers are the same, you just can't buy one anywhere.
Worst of all, and the main reason why, when I see five snowflakes, I want all my family off the roads, in their houses and safe: drivers. Nobody in BC has the slightest clue what to do with snow. They drive like total idiots. They don't think, when trying to pull into traffic, "hey, because it's snowing, I need a bigger space between cars than I used to, since nobody can slam on their brakes when I cut them off". It doesn't occur to these people. Of course, most of them are over 85 and shouldn't be driving in good weather, let alone this...
However, today, I'm glad for the snow. I'm loving it. We've been hit with storm after storm here, and trees are trashing power lines all over. Poor Reagan and Carlie have been out of power for three days, and will not see it on again before the weekend, I'm sure. They're sleeping at my mom and dad's.
But in my little house, we have power, we have a very steep hill that is impossible to climb in a Civic when the weather gets like this. I went grocery shopping yesterday, my Christmas shopping is done. I have no reason to go anywhere. My family is safe, though crowded, in their house. Robyn and Baby Lu are safe, though bored, in their apartment up the street. My husband is home safe, our car is parked. We're officially snowed in together. I have dinner marinating in the fridge, and I'm going to light some candles. I'm going to keep my fireplace on and wrap up in a blanket with my gorgeous husband and just call it a day. No where to go, and the perfect excuse to do nothing at all. Stay up all night, sleep in all morning, and wait for Christmas.
II also have a new blog. I know, I know, I don't need another one, and it's really annoying that you have to sign up for Vox to comment, but you can post music and videos here much more easily than on Blogger. PLUS it's all Christmas-y. I may switch over completely. I love it. Here's the link.
I'm never going to make it. Really, I'm not...This year, is my most organized to date. I was finished my shopping on December 2nd, and had my tree up and decorated that night. I have made Christmas cookies three times so far, and only burned one batch, though surprisingly, the Pillsbury ones (Peter inhaled them anyway). But now I've been ready for Christmas for ten days already. I really just want to give Peter his gift, and see his face. And to lay in bed on Christmas night with him, playing my new DS (I'm so romantic). Today I'm hiding out in my mom's office, under the guise of listening for Luke, who is sleeping across the hall. Poor Ethan and Connor are homeless today, since the power is out at their house and has been for two days. So their mom and dad are moving them to their new apartment, and my mom and I are watching them and baby Lu. It's not too bad, but it is a handful, since two of the boys are little and need to be held, changed, fed, put down for naps, picked up from naps, and the other little boy is suffering a little from cabin fever. Can't say I blame him. I'm beginning to think that Carolyn and every other stay at home mom should get super hero suits and have parades thrown for them every Tuesday. In completely unrelated news, I have put a hole in our new Civic. Crap-O. I had a small accident in the McDonalds parking lot with the town prostitute (true story). She was on the wrong side of the "road" and I was coming up an exit and I hit her tire. I've never been screamed at like that in my life, we put on quite a show for the seniors. Had I not been so upset, I would have realized right away that she was on something (either crack or meth, I wish it had just been pot...I'd have bought her a burger and we'd have had a good giggle). I put a hole the size of a serving plate in our bumper. Peter says you can "barely notice it" which makes us all laugh. Luckily, there's no structural damage, it's only the bumper and it can be replaced. We have been doing a little research, and because Civic's are one of the most popular cars to turn into street racing cars, we can actually get body kit for it for cheaper than the original bumper at a dealership, so we may do that whenever we can afford it. Peter may actually thank me for this eventually. The next day I was nearly killed by an idiot who ran a red light, and I've never been so terrified on the road before then. Somehow we managed not to hit each other, and he sped off before I could get a plate number. I just pulled over and tried to get my heart to keep beating at a somewhat normal pace. I'm now sure that Grandma drives with more abandon than I do. I make Peter drive most places and am so edgy in the car that he can barely stand it. When I drive, it's in the slow lane, 10 kms under speed limit unless I force myself not to, and if you cut in front of me or do anything I deem mildly unsafe, I honk like there's no tomorrow. Honestly, I need to relax, but the moment I think I'm going to be fine, something happens. Two nights ago, another idiot ran a red light in front of Peter and had he not seen it, that stupid woman on her cell phone would have come into my door at about 50 kms an hour. It's almost eerie lately, maybe God is trying to show me how hard he works to keep me safe all the time, but though I'm becoming deeply thankful every time we arrive home safely, I'm also becoming insanely paranoid. There's a straight-jacket and some Prozac wrapped in pretty paper under the tree for me, I'm sure.I'll try and get some pictures of my house all Christmas-y up very soon. It has just become very quiet in the house, and I should go see what's wrong and give my poor mom a hand. And maybe spike her coffee with some Bailey's.I'm also going to call town hall and see about getting those Tuesday parades started.
