There is a book that Cole quoted the other day when Tom carried him kicking and screaming from a play date. "Today is a no good, very bad day!" He screamed. Well, today was more or less (mostly more) of my own no good very bad day. I can say this now with some amusement because it had nothing to do with health and was a typical holiday season system overload.
It began when there was no syrup for pancakes. Babu was cooking. Tom was writing. And the kids were complaining. I want so desperately for the holidays to be perfect that pancakes without syrup seemed like a travesty. I ran out the door with a coat over my pajamas.
Adeline handed me some credit cards shortly before I ran out the door. "Thanks," I remember saying and not looking at them. She often goes through my wallet and hands me my cards (if I'm lucky).
No one was eating pancakes when I returned. I helped Cole to make a snowflake with scissors. I failed. He tried not to cry. It looked like a lint filter attacked by a shark. Nevermind.
I ran around trying to complete all of the Christmas tasks I had been too tired to do last week. Lines were long. Sales people were grumpy (hey! You have business. Smile!). I bought Christmas dinner supplies. Wine. Champagne (Mom's in town!). I bought clams instead of oysters (I swear I asked for oysters... and I do remember thinking, "wow. they're cheap. it must be oyster season"). I finally found a pink bike helmet for Adeline but only in size 5. I hope she has a big head.
Mom stayed with the kids. Tom was working. I arrived to get the kids ready for a annual Clyde/Beck party with only minutes to spare (my specialty really). Mom is canceling her credit card because someone bought chocolates at Lulu Rae. Interesting, I bought chocolates at Lulu Rae. I look at the card Adeline handed me from my coat pocket. Oops. Thanks, Mom. And as we're getting in the car, Adeline pops herself in the face with a balloon. Hard. We think it's her eye. Whew. It's not.
We race in our Supermobile the few short blocks that we would love to walk if we just didn't have 3 kids under 5 and arrive at the Beck's... late. We happily hop out of the car and Cole promptly pokes himself in the eye with a native American pointy plant. What are the odds? We think he's now blind in his left eye.
He wasn't. It was a great party. All of the cousins had a blast. (Not such a bad day).
Tom and I prepare to head off to our Danish Christmas party (love that herring and aquavit, Jacob). Adeline comes down with a fever and is only consoled with hugs and a popsicle (suckers). Seriously, she's sick. We cancel our plans which is probably a good thing because Mom is really tired of babysitting at this point and tells us so.
I am also tired and tell Tom all of the things he has done to make this such a bad day, but when pressed I can't really think of any. I cry anyway and complain about the drama everyone else creates. Then I felt better, wrapped some presents, and look forward to tomorrow.
I hear they have days like these even in Australia, except that instead of making snowflakes out of paper for Christmas, they make sand dollars.
Posted by: Lucie | December 25, 2009 at 07:54 PM