2017 Christmas #3

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I should show my students

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A Christmas Story (Christmas Continued)

There were grandparents to greet and more presents to open yesterday, and tomorrow we'll head for Yellow Springs for more grandparents (and presents).

For the first time in a while, the kids enjoyed both the nativity pageant and the Christmas Eve candlelight service, but their favorite Christmas story was about my silliness.

Earlier this month, Big A and I found ourselves at the mall (to return some birthday dress shirts at Macy's) and I saw a popup store selling Christmas ornaments that claimed that they could "put ANY name" on purchased ornaments. I was so excited, because of course my kids never find their names on anything. So I babbled on to the very young, very pregnant sales assistant about how this was so exciting for me and then cajoled Big A into looking for ornaments. He gave up about five minutes in because everything was weird and gendered (boy-doctors, girl-nurses level gendered). I should have given up too, but nevertheless, I persisted.

I finally found some generic, non gendered stuff and took it to the counter to pay for it. Four ornaments came up to $60 with tax. And then the very young, very pregnant sales assistant took out a Sharpie to write my kids' names. A Sharpie. I didn't have the heart to back out. At least she had neat handwriting?

We took down Christmas today, 

in preparation for our trip South.

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From For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio W.H. Auden

Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –
Some have got broken – and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week –
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted – quite unsuccessfully –
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away

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Christmas in the afternoon

We didn't get to opening presents until the afternoon

because Big A had worked the night before and needed a nap.

I held the kids at bay with the holiday casserole and mulled cider

and re-watching the second season of Stranger Things.

It turned out beautifully in the end 

(despite sleep deprived crankiness, roof worries, and health anxieties)

At gave me a Criterion copy of Chaplin's The Kid 

the first silent film we'd watched together--crazy to think it's almost a hundred years old

Nu gave me another book Molly's Story to go along with Wonder

Molly is a pupster and  has the sweetest beginning

Big A made my dreams come true

with the Alessi kettle I'd coveted for so long.

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Just one day left

I'm still terrified to go into the basement

so I took a long walk in the snow instead.

On my way back, I constructed a soup 

to make for dinner--it was gumbo-y.

Then like the opposite of a real Santa, I snuck 

a few presents OUT of the kids' present pile--

I had gone overboard as usual.

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MRI

my head brings its own book
my heart sings its own song

This close sky sees everything
is impersonal, is still, strong

I have lived    I am losing
I am living     I am learning

even love cannot shield us from
messages so familiar, of failure

Like a wish polished into prayer
Like a loss, before we call it lost

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Personal note:
Big A had to have an MRI today for numbness today. We're not sure what that means or what lies ahead for us.