Friday, February 8, 2013

What's happening?

If anyone was paying attention, I never finished my Christmas/Yule series. Life happened. And it was great. We spent time together as a family, we laughed, we cried, we enjoyed ourselves. I had great intentions for writing about it as a means to reflect on all that we did, and then I realized that, in this case, I didn't need to reflect on it. I just needed to live it and let it be.

Winter Festivities: Day 3

Sunday was the day for animals, both the ones we have, the ones who have passed, and the ones in the wild. When Addie got her gift for the day, the kitties got a new laser pointer. Both Addie and the cats adore it. Not only will Addie turn it on and flash it around for the cats, but she will also chase it on the floor right along with the cats. Whatever makes her happy!

Winter Festivities: Day 2

Saturday was just for Addie. During the 12 Days of Christmas, or 13 Days of Yule, there was usually an Innocent's Day where children specifically were celebrated. There was an odd custom of beating the kids this day to save them hardship through the rest of the year. Obviously we weren't going to go that route.

My goal for this day was to break me and Zach away from our routines and get more into the spirit of the season. By the time Friday had rolled around, both of us were super stressed and pent up. Spending a whole day focused on Addie was perfect for releasing the tense emotions.

Since we had woken up really early and still had some errands to take care of, we set out right after watching the sunrise to get it all done. By the time we got to Trader Joes, all the stores were filling up and I was super happy we did everything as early as possible.

Addie continued to not disappoint with her increasing cuteness and apparently her capacity to remember things. No sooner had Zach pulled into the parking lot did Addie recognize we were near Toys R Us and started pointing out the window, going "Toys! Toys!" I just put my head in my hands. Usually Zach will take her in there while I run over to the pet store to get supplies. They had just enough time to browse through a couple aisles and leave. Up until then Addie had not been super interested in it. Now it seems that this semi-monthly journey has become far more dangerous.

Since it was her special day, we did let her go in and pick something out. I had to do a bait and switch routine a couple times to get her latched onto something more age appropriate. Toy producers really know what they're doing, good grief.

Most of the day was spent with Addie dragging us onto the floor. Not so much to play with her, as she just wanted us down with her while she ran around and played near us. Zach and I ended up playing with her new soccer ball more than she did.

At the point dinner was almost done cooking, Addie decided to pull out her adorable arsenal. She took me into her bedroom and motioned to open up her clothes chest, which I did. As she was sorting through her clothes, I went back into the kitchen to clean up, where I turned around to find her presenting me with a dress and panties. So, I put them on her. Once dressed, she then took me to the front door and in her most angelic voice possible said, "Piazza!" She was letting us know she wanted pizza for dinner. We both absolutely cracked up as she continued trying to open the front door and pulling on us to go. Then she started pointing at Zach's keys, which I handed to her just to see what she would do. She gave them to Zach and started yanking on his arm, "Cart! Cart! Piazza!" Instead of the large, delicious cottage pie I made for dinner, we had pepperoni pizza. It was her special day.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Winter Festivities: Day 1

Sunrise at old apartments

Yesterday was the winter solstice. Old myths and traditions surrounding the solstice had something to do with people, or a god I guess, noticing the sun disappearing more each day. Then one day the sun was only up for about 8 hours and everyone just shit themselves thinking the sun was going away for good. So they did something, some kind of ritual, a sacrifice, stuff like that, then stayed up all night waiting for the sun to come back. When it did, they had a big celebration.

Winter Festivities

Christmas '07

It's been another hard year. There have been plenty of good things that have made it more bearable, but things were still pretty intense for pretty much the entire year. I have reached more of a zen point where I cannot possibly care about everything that happens anymore. Not so much apathetic, but that I literally do not have the emotions to give to everything.