They're gone. They just went out the door. (sigh)
Today I have to get back to my spinning for my level 4... This was an early morning and I don't know if my sleep habits have changed as I am getting older but I must say that getting up and staying up this morning is not as easy as it used to be. I always loved to get up in the morning. It was that quiet and peace that I craved... and I always was at my best and most energetic... not so anymore. Now I get up and all I want to do is go back to bed. The bed is extremely soft warm and cuddly... but I'll never get any work done if I end up back in it so I guess I'm off for a shower... that'll wake me up and get me going and maybe a strong cup of jo to wake me up too.
Either way I'm spinning Bison this morning... hopefully it will be great when I'm finished.
This will be a short post this morning as I figure I've already lost some time to Videomatica... which Teapot joined for Christmas so that we could watch movies whenever we wanted. The idea is to order movies from an online rental place and when they come watch them and send them back. Then order more... you can set up a list of movies and have them cued so that they come automatically... We are nothing if we're not avid movie watchers. We just finished The Pacific, (very gruesome but worth watching if you're a WWII buff, Ken Follett's Pillars Of The Earth, (I love medieval history), Sense and Sensibility (The Daughters have been getting into Jane Austin), The Thomas Crown Affair, (best con movie of all time), Sliding Doors (interesting take on duel time type movie), and Possession (I have wanted to see it for a couple of years). That was our movie line up for the Christmas holidays.
But the holidays are over and we are back to a regular schedule... now where's that coffee and Bison. Hmmm... interesting mix... Bison and coffee. Obviously this is a weird combination... but I'm all for it so I'm off... see you in the morning and I wonder if that one will be any easier....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
A Change Of Pace
Tomorrow Teapot and the girls go back to school.... and my work begins again. I will be back and hard at my homework for my Master's Spinning with Olds College. This is the time of the year when I really get down to it and work like a Trojan. (I'm not sure if that is the soldier, the horse, or the condom...) I have been looking at the two spools of Bison that I spun before the Christmas season hit me full in the face and now I'm thinking that a three ply yarn for that would be nice so I will start there with the third single for a 3 ply Bison yarn. That's in the day, by night I will be back at my level 3 homework. And I begin with cotton there. I will put down my knitting needles and take up cards, spinning wheel, charkha, and niddy noddy, and then I will try to get on top of what needs to be done for this June. If I don't see really good progress I may decide to put off doing level 5. This is the first that this idea has actually crossed my lips, but it has been in the back of my mind. I may wait a year and do level 5 in 2012 instead of 2011. Because I want to enjoy this and not feel so much pressure that I begin to lose my desire to finish at all. I did that with Philosophy... I should have taken another semester to finish and didn't. In the end I was so burnt out that I didn't want to do anything with it again at all period. I know that burning out with me comes easily if I lose sight of my goals. It's not that I don't finish... I've never finished the race yet... but I don't want to finish and then hate it so much that I never want to look at it again. I've been on the Olds Website and there is nothing up yet anyway. Perhaps there will be such a spectacular instructor this year that I will want to do courses with that person and not do my level 5.
In the meantime, I have one last Christmas gift to finish... I am knitting a tote bag for a friend who surprised me and gave me an unexpected gift this year. That needs to be finished today... but since I am almost finished that will not be a problem.
At the end of the week is old Christmas day. It is the beginning of the Epiphany season.It is the day when all the Orthadox religions celebrate the birth of Christ (the Ukranians etc..) It is the day when our celebrations come to an end. We hang our Victorian style stockings and go to bed and wait for the magic to happen one last time. Then the next day we cook a turkey and open stockings (after school) and take down the tree while the last of the carols play... when the last decoration goes in the box and the last box is put away we turn off the music and put the Christmas CDs away for another year.... we sweep and clean and try to get rid of Murphy and his dust bunnies that are still hiding under the china cabinet and that's that.
With a look to the future, we put all thoughts of the old year away and begin thinking about exams and end of semester for the Daughters, report cards for Teapot and I just tick along doing my thing. When the Daughters stopped believing in Santa we decided that there was something bereft about the end of Christmas and so we decided to enjoy the end of the Christmas season with a celebration too. Meanwhile the daylight gets longer and the long haul of winter begins.
Last year, I had the big j.c. to focus on after Christmas... I had my level 3 homework with all the positive possibilities of that... now I'm worried. Once burned twice shy. This will be a difficult haul over the next four months... I will have to get down to my work and work hard.... and many long hours.
But for today... the puzzle is finished... and glued so I can take that off the table... knitting to be done.... and life starts to get back to normal.
Are you planning new things for a new year?
In the meantime, I have one last Christmas gift to finish... I am knitting a tote bag for a friend who surprised me and gave me an unexpected gift this year. That needs to be finished today... but since I am almost finished that will not be a problem.
At the end of the week is old Christmas day. It is the beginning of the Epiphany season.It is the day when all the Orthadox religions celebrate the birth of Christ (the Ukranians etc..) It is the day when our celebrations come to an end. We hang our Victorian style stockings and go to bed and wait for the magic to happen one last time. Then the next day we cook a turkey and open stockings (after school) and take down the tree while the last of the carols play... when the last decoration goes in the box and the last box is put away we turn off the music and put the Christmas CDs away for another year.... we sweep and clean and try to get rid of Murphy and his dust bunnies that are still hiding under the china cabinet and that's that.
With a look to the future, we put all thoughts of the old year away and begin thinking about exams and end of semester for the Daughters, report cards for Teapot and I just tick along doing my thing. When the Daughters stopped believing in Santa we decided that there was something bereft about the end of Christmas and so we decided to enjoy the end of the Christmas season with a celebration too. Meanwhile the daylight gets longer and the long haul of winter begins.
Last year, I had the big j.c. to focus on after Christmas... I had my level 3 homework with all the positive possibilities of that... now I'm worried. Once burned twice shy. This will be a difficult haul over the next four months... I will have to get down to my work and work hard.... and many long hours.
But for today... the puzzle is finished... and glued so I can take that off the table... knitting to be done.... and life starts to get back to normal.
Are you planning new things for a new year?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Glorious Day Indeed
The weather has decided to turn nice. The Chinook winds blew in yesterday morning in a matter of twenty minutes it changed from -23 to 0 degrees. The wind was blowing the snow off the roof of our house with the wind chimes on "My Deck" twinkling away. All the animals are happy to have the reprieve from the cold temperatures. Dreamer, the horse has been galloping happily around her paddock with tail held high.... and nose to the wind. The sheep are moving around more freely Honeydew and Mishka (llama and pregnant alpaca) are staying close to the feeding trough. Meanwhile the male alpacas have gotten dreadfully lazy. They only move two feet from their feeding trough.... and they have begun to poop where they eat.... right into the trough.. teapot went out the other day and because he was fed up with the dirty bu--ers he spent a good ten minutes chasing them around so that they would have some trails in the snow where they would be able to move freely and poop away from their feed. So much of their feed is wasted when they poop and pee on it.... quite disgusting actually..... We are going to have to get serious and start looking for hay again. I dear say it will be harder to find some at this time of the year but we are down to our last two bales and we will have to find some fairly quickly. At the least by the end of the month. This business of hay shortages is enough to make you want to get out of having animals at all! It will be a hard spring for sure and I'll be glad when the grass starts growing again and we can get these animals out on the grass.
But today the sun is shining and though the sun is low in the sky there is not a cloud to be seen anywhere.
I have been working on a 100 piece puzzle throughout the last week which my sister gave our family for Christmas. It is quite a lovely scene of a log house by the edge of a lake with loons floating along in the water. The Daughters have been helping with it. Teapot hates puzzles and so he ignores it totally. But the girls and I have been having a relaxing time working on our challenge. We are almost finished. There's something nice about working on it since we can only work on it during daylight hours. We sit here in the newly paneled sun room and the sun is shining brightly... it is a lovely room. I'm happy in it. Sun streams through the window calling to me...
Today is a great day... a day for doing things outside... and that is where I'm headed... outdoor for a breath of fresh air.
I hope the sun is shining on you too....
But today the sun is shining and though the sun is low in the sky there is not a cloud to be seen anywhere.
I have been working on a 100 piece puzzle throughout the last week which my sister gave our family for Christmas. It is quite a lovely scene of a log house by the edge of a lake with loons floating along in the water. The Daughters have been helping with it. Teapot hates puzzles and so he ignores it totally. But the girls and I have been having a relaxing time working on our challenge. We are almost finished. There's something nice about working on it since we can only work on it during daylight hours. We sit here in the newly paneled sun room and the sun is shining brightly... it is a lovely room. I'm happy in it. Sun streams through the window calling to me...
Today is a great day... a day for doing things outside... and that is where I'm headed... outdoor for a breath of fresh air.
I hope the sun is shining on you too....
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Year
Ok so I have come to the conclusion that I have no more stories left in me at this time... so I will say it straight out instead of sitting here staring at a blank screen for an hour tapping out inane sentences before finally giving up in desperation and eating chocolate in an effort to overcome any mental block I might have. Somewhere I have read that you should start your year as you mean to go on. 2 seconds after the new year Daughter #2 placed on our relatively new coffee table a still burning sparkler and left a nice big burn in the wood. How do you deal with that when you mean to go on as you start the new year.
This last few days of the old year has been a very large disappointment. We are just 6 hours into the new year and there is a very strong Chinook blowing in this morning. But at 12:01 a.m. my house was in order.... except for the burn. The dishes were washed. The bills were paid. Pretty much everything in the house was clean if not neat. But then there was the burn... not an auspicious beginning to the New Year.
I have to wonder what 2011 will be like... especially after such a lousy ending to the old year.
Let me tell you why the old year ended so badly. Actually it wasn't the end of the world and we certainly have much, for which to be thankful.... still we have had our share of disappointments and bad patches this last year. The most recent downturn began on Christmas Eve when we discovered that my main gift which Teapot had ordered from Sears would not get here at all.... really it was nothing... I wasn't disappointed there were still lots of lovely Christmas gifts under the tree. The other disappointment was that Daughter #1's main gift came the day before Christmas and was too big... and so it had to go back... right away. Now I'll be honest, though they are disappointments... for the givers... neither of the receivers were terribly upset. That's because we do not have, in this house, a big desire for material things. But for the givers there was much disappointment. These things could be dealt with later on and so we put it out of our minds and had a lovely Christmas anyway. Then we looked forward to an anniversary party on the 28th... we had invited many of our friends and we looked forward to celebrating our 19th year together. Two couples came! That was a greater disappointment. We had scrubbed and cooked and gotten ready for a party that just never happened. The electrician and his wife came, (they happen to be an older couple and have done much for us like our electricity renos for no pay), they are a lovely couple and we were happy to have them come and be with us for our nineteenth. Then another couple who are from back home came by in the evening with their two children (who are the same age as our kids) and are like family. They are always reliable for a party. That was it. Not another friend. Zip. None. Nada. We were heartily let down in many we call friends. And so our 19th anniversary passed into ignominy. Still we were not going to let that get us down and we looked forward to New Years Eve when we had invited a couple of friends by for fondue and to help us ring in the new year. After telling us they would love to come, they emailed yesterday to say that they were going shopping and that if they made it at all they would be late?! Like what's that all about? We ended up ringing in the new year on our own... and that's when the table burn happened.
2010 was a strange year... full of unwanted things... like an unwanted jacket commission, (remember that) a break with our church, the moving of one good friend and the death of another, a disappointment in my level 3 marks, unreliable friends, a horrible flair up with my back, and the most worrisome of all, a steady and visible decline in my parents health. If I didn't have a stronger resolution then I guess it would be enough to get me down.
Recently, I have found myself looking at real estate in Spain. It is an out you know. I never ever indulge in fantasies but recently somehow it has helped to keep my outlook on life positive. Running away makes me think that perhaps something good will come of it all, maybe a little adventure and some new acquaintances.... but here I sit with a burn in my relatively new table and a Daughter who is upset and a Teapot who is also upset at me for my reaction. And in the end who cares about the table... tomorrow I might saw the blasted thing in half and make a headboard out of it. (I thought of that at one point when I stubbed my toe on it a while back!) I lay in bed this morning thinking worrisome thoughts, I thought about my parents... but there's not much I can do there other than continue to help them the best way I can. I thought about the table and while it bother me to look at the burn I can apologize to Daughter #2 for my reaction and help her to understand that the table is not important and that I might just saw it in half.... that will appease Teapot. Then I thought about my bank account this morning, while lying in my sleepless bed, and figured that I might as well deal with the budgeting for January... so up I got, and down I came, and I checked the bank account, and low and behold... money... a little that quite honestly I wasn't expecting till later in the month. It's nice to get a little unexpected bonus. And so begins 2011. One bad thing and one good thing.
Start the year as you would wish to go on. Is my house in order.... is it ever? But I suppose... in the end... life is like that... full of ups and downs... and facing it... well, you just have to.
Have you got your house in order...?
Here's to 2011... may it be better than the year before. Salut!
This last few days of the old year has been a very large disappointment. We are just 6 hours into the new year and there is a very strong Chinook blowing in this morning. But at 12:01 a.m. my house was in order.... except for the burn. The dishes were washed. The bills were paid. Pretty much everything in the house was clean if not neat. But then there was the burn... not an auspicious beginning to the New Year.
I have to wonder what 2011 will be like... especially after such a lousy ending to the old year.
Let me tell you why the old year ended so badly. Actually it wasn't the end of the world and we certainly have much, for which to be thankful.... still we have had our share of disappointments and bad patches this last year. The most recent downturn began on Christmas Eve when we discovered that my main gift which Teapot had ordered from Sears would not get here at all.... really it was nothing... I wasn't disappointed there were still lots of lovely Christmas gifts under the tree. The other disappointment was that Daughter #1's main gift came the day before Christmas and was too big... and so it had to go back... right away. Now I'll be honest, though they are disappointments... for the givers... neither of the receivers were terribly upset. That's because we do not have, in this house, a big desire for material things. But for the givers there was much disappointment. These things could be dealt with later on and so we put it out of our minds and had a lovely Christmas anyway. Then we looked forward to an anniversary party on the 28th... we had invited many of our friends and we looked forward to celebrating our 19th year together. Two couples came! That was a greater disappointment. We had scrubbed and cooked and gotten ready for a party that just never happened. The electrician and his wife came, (they happen to be an older couple and have done much for us like our electricity renos for no pay), they are a lovely couple and we were happy to have them come and be with us for our nineteenth. Then another couple who are from back home came by in the evening with their two children (who are the same age as our kids) and are like family. They are always reliable for a party. That was it. Not another friend. Zip. None. Nada. We were heartily let down in many we call friends. And so our 19th anniversary passed into ignominy. Still we were not going to let that get us down and we looked forward to New Years Eve when we had invited a couple of friends by for fondue and to help us ring in the new year. After telling us they would love to come, they emailed yesterday to say that they were going shopping and that if they made it at all they would be late?! Like what's that all about? We ended up ringing in the new year on our own... and that's when the table burn happened.
2010 was a strange year... full of unwanted things... like an unwanted jacket commission, (remember that) a break with our church, the moving of one good friend and the death of another, a disappointment in my level 3 marks, unreliable friends, a horrible flair up with my back, and the most worrisome of all, a steady and visible decline in my parents health. If I didn't have a stronger resolution then I guess it would be enough to get me down.
Recently, I have found myself looking at real estate in Spain. It is an out you know. I never ever indulge in fantasies but recently somehow it has helped to keep my outlook on life positive. Running away makes me think that perhaps something good will come of it all, maybe a little adventure and some new acquaintances.... but here I sit with a burn in my relatively new table and a Daughter who is upset and a Teapot who is also upset at me for my reaction. And in the end who cares about the table... tomorrow I might saw the blasted thing in half and make a headboard out of it. (I thought of that at one point when I stubbed my toe on it a while back!) I lay in bed this morning thinking worrisome thoughts, I thought about my parents... but there's not much I can do there other than continue to help them the best way I can. I thought about the table and while it bother me to look at the burn I can apologize to Daughter #2 for my reaction and help her to understand that the table is not important and that I might just saw it in half.... that will appease Teapot. Then I thought about my bank account this morning, while lying in my sleepless bed, and figured that I might as well deal with the budgeting for January... so up I got, and down I came, and I checked the bank account, and low and behold... money... a little that quite honestly I wasn't expecting till later in the month. It's nice to get a little unexpected bonus. And so begins 2011. One bad thing and one good thing.
Start the year as you would wish to go on. Is my house in order.... is it ever? But I suppose... in the end... life is like that... full of ups and downs... and facing it... well, you just have to.
Have you got your house in order...?
Here's to 2011... may it be better than the year before. Salut!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Not Fair
My intentions last night when I went to bed was to spend a day painting and I don't mean painting walls... I had planned on covering two canvases today. This morning I woke up and to be quite honest I think the over-indulgences of Christmas have finally caught up with me. I feel like a racked moose. Yesterday was a day of over eating and over partying... today I suffer. So I put my feet up and did nothing... I want to say that again.... nothing.... What a fine thing it is when you can say that you have done absolutely nothing... (I really want to say it again but I won't because sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing)... nothing... (OK so I whispered!)
For weeks now I have been planning my nudes for our bedroom.... along with my poem... I was going to start painting it but chickened out along with not feeling up to it. That doesn't mean that I've chickened out on painting the nudes just that I've chickened out on painting them without doing a little more planning. I ordered the canvases a few weeks back and I've had them stored in my bedroom ever since they got here. They are perfect. Two nudes. One Male... one female. Somewhat abstract but not enough that you don't know what it is. I have been downloading nudes from the internet all day... not bad nudes but nude paintings that are not in the slightest disgusting (though I do have to say that I hit on some really bad nude websites that I could only handle for milliseconds before I felt that it was just too much for me... euck!) Anyway, I've been looking at all those nudes with the idea of pushing the ideas that I already have and taking it one step further... now I'm ready to start the preliminary drawings. That's tomorrow's job. I also am starting to get the spinning itch again. I'm seeing my wheel collecting dust and every fibre (no pun intended) in my body says treadle, wool, silk, cotton..... and the buffalo of Level 4 calls me regularly... so that will be soon.
Wow this is a two day post.... I started last night and got so tired that I just couldn't think... so here it is next day and we have spent the morning watching Pacific which is an HBO miniseries on the 2nd World War in the Pacific region... very good, (I'd recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach because they pull no punches with the gore)... We watched Band Of Brothers last year which was the first miniseries on the 2nd World war. We will watch one or two installments each day till school starts again.
But since it is 1 p.m. and I'm still in my pjs I guess I should have at it and get to my painting. Naked women and men here I come.... ; } (that's my kooky face).
I'll try for another story about New Year's tomorrow... last installment on Stories for the Holidays.
For weeks now I have been planning my nudes for our bedroom.... along with my poem... I was going to start painting it but chickened out along with not feeling up to it. That doesn't mean that I've chickened out on painting the nudes just that I've chickened out on painting them without doing a little more planning. I ordered the canvases a few weeks back and I've had them stored in my bedroom ever since they got here. They are perfect. Two nudes. One Male... one female. Somewhat abstract but not enough that you don't know what it is. I have been downloading nudes from the internet all day... not bad nudes but nude paintings that are not in the slightest disgusting (though I do have to say that I hit on some really bad nude websites that I could only handle for milliseconds before I felt that it was just too much for me... euck!) Anyway, I've been looking at all those nudes with the idea of pushing the ideas that I already have and taking it one step further... now I'm ready to start the preliminary drawings. That's tomorrow's job. I also am starting to get the spinning itch again. I'm seeing my wheel collecting dust and every fibre (no pun intended) in my body says treadle, wool, silk, cotton..... and the buffalo of Level 4 calls me regularly... so that will be soon.
Wow this is a two day post.... I started last night and got so tired that I just couldn't think... so here it is next day and we have spent the morning watching Pacific which is an HBO miniseries on the 2nd World War in the Pacific region... very good, (I'd recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach because they pull no punches with the gore)... We watched Band Of Brothers last year which was the first miniseries on the 2nd World war. We will watch one or two installments each day till school starts again.
But since it is 1 p.m. and I'm still in my pjs I guess I should have at it and get to my painting. Naked women and men here I come.... ; } (that's my kooky face).
I'll try for another story about New Year's tomorrow... last installment on Stories for the Holidays.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Another Christmas Story All About The Jolly Guy Himself
Once upon a time.... there was a little girl who became known in later years as Frankie to some, and Ye Olde Batt to others. (OK, so now you know that this story is about me.)
This little girl was on the verge of becoming a young lady, but was fighting it as hard as she could.... she still believed that there was a Santa... well sort of... she was really not sure whether there was a Santa Claus or not... but she really really wished there was.
Several times she asked her mother if Santa would come this year and each time her mother would say, "Oh yes, of course, Santa always comes to good girls!" Her mother wasn't getting it. She was hoping that her mother would give her a definitive answer but she was too scared to come right out and ask.
All the week before Christmas, when school closed for the holidays, the little girl was very excited... Christmas was the best. But then she got to thinking about her Santa Claus dilemma and her excitement would wane a little... would he come or not. Maybe if she stopped believing in Santa then he wouldn't come anymore. Finally, she went to her older sister and asked her if she thought that Santa would be there that year. Her older sister just ignored her, which she did on a regular basis anyway.
A few days before Christmas, her Father came home with a brand new stereo. It was the best Christmas gift ever. They had never had a new stereo before... just an old record player. But lots of people were getting new stereos.... and it even had an 8 track player!!! (Now that dates me doesn't it!) The very first 8 track they bought and played on that stereo was a Christmas one.... and it always had a special feeling to hear those Christmas songs ever after. With such a smashingly awesome Christmas gift, that came a few days before Christmas,.... it could only mean that Christmas that year was going to be the best ever..... if she could only believe in Santa, that is....
Christmas Eve day came and the little girl got ready to go out to her Aunt's and Uncle's homes to go visiting like they always did. They were visiting her third Uncle's house around about midnight, when someone yelled to come and look out the window. She flew to the window with all the others and there driving down the street was a truck with Santa in the back..... the little girl listened to everyone getting excited. Her Aunts and Uncles were telling the little cousins that the Jolly Old Guy would soon be there for sure. A short while later her mother and father bundled them all up and drove home to their own quiet house.
The little girl was getting into her pajamas when her mother came into her bedroom to tell her that she had better hurry because Santa would be there soon. Her mother tucked her into her bed and gave her a kiss and turned out the light. The little girl lay there thinking about the man she had seen at her Uncle's house, in the back of the truck because that was certainly what he had been... just a man... not Santa at all. Santa would be way more magical than what she had seen. Santa was special... that was for sure... while the man in the back of the truck was just sad.... he didn't have anything magical about him at all. As a matter of a fact, the little girl thought that he might have been drunk. But if she didn't believe in Santa then she had the feeling, in her heart, that something horrible would happen. Like something inside of her would die away and she would never get it back. So the little girl made up her mind that she would believe, and that was that.... she would put the whole thing out of her mind and believe with all her heart.
Next thing the little girl knew she was waking up and it was the middle of the night and she had to go to the bathroom and pee really badly. She lay there a few minutes trying to decide on what to do next. Should she get up and go pee or would that scare Santa away.... Maybe Santa wouldn't come if she were out of bed roaming around the house. This was a serious dilemma because she had never woken up before on Christmas Eve and needed to pee in the middle of the night. It was only 3 a.m. and her mother and father, not to mention her older sister, would never want her to get up at this hour in the morning. Finally she decided that she would hold her pee and not go to the bathroom. 3 hours till 6 a.m. would not be dreadful. She could manage that!
That lasted about ten minutes before she decided, if she didn't go to pee she would burst.
Now her problem was how to get to the bathroom without anyone hearing her and especially Santa (if he were in the house) since he must have special hearing if he was magical.... would he hear her if she got up and moved around? Very slowly she began to slide out of bed an inch at a time. Santa was so magical that, if he was in the house, then he might even hear her blankets being thrown back... so she moved like a slug inching along a little by little. By the time she was in a standing position it had taken her ten whole minutes and she still had to get down the hall to the toilet. I won't bore you at this point with her creeping technique but suffice it to say that she was on the verge of having her bladder move out in disgust with the amount of fluid it was expected to hold, by the time she got to where she needed to be. It was while she was sitting on the well,... you know, when it dawned on her that Santa might already have been there and gone again... and that she could probably go and have a peak to see whether or not there were any gifts under the Christmas tree. Again she moved very slowly down the hall.... just in case! By the time she was ready to peak into the living room, where the tree was standing, it was well past 4 a.m.
At the end of the hallway, there was a turn to the right to go into the kitchen and a turn to the left to go into the living room. She was ready to peak to the left and so she leaned very slowly to the left and stopped dead in her tracks. All the breath went out of her chest. There bending over their brand new stereo was Santa himself and he was just as she had always imagined him. She stood up so fast that she almost gave herself a bad case of whiplash. Scurrying back the way she came, she dove into her bedroom and under the covers before you could say 'Rudolph'. There she lay, with the blankets up to her nose, and eyes as wide as saucers. She could hardly breathe and the adrenaline was raging through her body so that she could have wrestled an elephant and not missed a beat. Santa had been there and he had been the real one because you could see right through him. He wasn't like a drunk old man in the back of a truck he was real... he was real... he was really real....!!!!
It took several more years, before TV and all the other normal things in this life managed to wipe that belief out of her mind. But she never... ever forgot that image of that surreal Santa bending over the new stereo having a good look at it. And in her heart Santa always was as real as snow flakes, he was as real as a horse dancing in the snow on Christmas morning. He was as real as tears on a mother's face when her heart is breaking as she tells her children that she bought their gifts for them and that it had never been Santa Claus.
May you always have the belief of a child in your heart this Christmas and always.
This little girl was on the verge of becoming a young lady, but was fighting it as hard as she could.... she still believed that there was a Santa... well sort of... she was really not sure whether there was a Santa Claus or not... but she really really wished there was.
Several times she asked her mother if Santa would come this year and each time her mother would say, "Oh yes, of course, Santa always comes to good girls!" Her mother wasn't getting it. She was hoping that her mother would give her a definitive answer but she was too scared to come right out and ask.
All the week before Christmas, when school closed for the holidays, the little girl was very excited... Christmas was the best. But then she got to thinking about her Santa Claus dilemma and her excitement would wane a little... would he come or not. Maybe if she stopped believing in Santa then he wouldn't come anymore. Finally, she went to her older sister and asked her if she thought that Santa would be there that year. Her older sister just ignored her, which she did on a regular basis anyway.
A few days before Christmas, her Father came home with a brand new stereo. It was the best Christmas gift ever. They had never had a new stereo before... just an old record player. But lots of people were getting new stereos.... and it even had an 8 track player!!! (Now that dates me doesn't it!) The very first 8 track they bought and played on that stereo was a Christmas one.... and it always had a special feeling to hear those Christmas songs ever after. With such a smashingly awesome Christmas gift, that came a few days before Christmas,.... it could only mean that Christmas that year was going to be the best ever..... if she could only believe in Santa, that is....
Christmas Eve day came and the little girl got ready to go out to her Aunt's and Uncle's homes to go visiting like they always did. They were visiting her third Uncle's house around about midnight, when someone yelled to come and look out the window. She flew to the window with all the others and there driving down the street was a truck with Santa in the back..... the little girl listened to everyone getting excited. Her Aunts and Uncles were telling the little cousins that the Jolly Old Guy would soon be there for sure. A short while later her mother and father bundled them all up and drove home to their own quiet house.
The little girl was getting into her pajamas when her mother came into her bedroom to tell her that she had better hurry because Santa would be there soon. Her mother tucked her into her bed and gave her a kiss and turned out the light. The little girl lay there thinking about the man she had seen at her Uncle's house, in the back of the truck because that was certainly what he had been... just a man... not Santa at all. Santa would be way more magical than what she had seen. Santa was special... that was for sure... while the man in the back of the truck was just sad.... he didn't have anything magical about him at all. As a matter of a fact, the little girl thought that he might have been drunk. But if she didn't believe in Santa then she had the feeling, in her heart, that something horrible would happen. Like something inside of her would die away and she would never get it back. So the little girl made up her mind that she would believe, and that was that.... she would put the whole thing out of her mind and believe with all her heart.
Next thing the little girl knew she was waking up and it was the middle of the night and she had to go to the bathroom and pee really badly. She lay there a few minutes trying to decide on what to do next. Should she get up and go pee or would that scare Santa away.... Maybe Santa wouldn't come if she were out of bed roaming around the house. This was a serious dilemma because she had never woken up before on Christmas Eve and needed to pee in the middle of the night. It was only 3 a.m. and her mother and father, not to mention her older sister, would never want her to get up at this hour in the morning. Finally she decided that she would hold her pee and not go to the bathroom. 3 hours till 6 a.m. would not be dreadful. She could manage that!
That lasted about ten minutes before she decided, if she didn't go to pee she would burst.
Now her problem was how to get to the bathroom without anyone hearing her and especially Santa (if he were in the house) since he must have special hearing if he was magical.... would he hear her if she got up and moved around? Very slowly she began to slide out of bed an inch at a time. Santa was so magical that, if he was in the house, then he might even hear her blankets being thrown back... so she moved like a slug inching along a little by little. By the time she was in a standing position it had taken her ten whole minutes and she still had to get down the hall to the toilet. I won't bore you at this point with her creeping technique but suffice it to say that she was on the verge of having her bladder move out in disgust with the amount of fluid it was expected to hold, by the time she got to where she needed to be. It was while she was sitting on the well,... you know, when it dawned on her that Santa might already have been there and gone again... and that she could probably go and have a peak to see whether or not there were any gifts under the Christmas tree. Again she moved very slowly down the hall.... just in case! By the time she was ready to peak into the living room, where the tree was standing, it was well past 4 a.m.
At the end of the hallway, there was a turn to the right to go into the kitchen and a turn to the left to go into the living room. She was ready to peak to the left and so she leaned very slowly to the left and stopped dead in her tracks. All the breath went out of her chest. There bending over their brand new stereo was Santa himself and he was just as she had always imagined him. She stood up so fast that she almost gave herself a bad case of whiplash. Scurrying back the way she came, she dove into her bedroom and under the covers before you could say 'Rudolph'. There she lay, with the blankets up to her nose, and eyes as wide as saucers. She could hardly breathe and the adrenaline was raging through her body so that she could have wrestled an elephant and not missed a beat. Santa had been there and he had been the real one because you could see right through him. He wasn't like a drunk old man in the back of a truck he was real... he was real... he was really real....!!!!
It took several more years, before TV and all the other normal things in this life managed to wipe that belief out of her mind. But she never... ever forgot that image of that surreal Santa bending over the new stereo having a good look at it. And in her heart Santa always was as real as snow flakes, he was as real as a horse dancing in the snow on Christmas morning. He was as real as tears on a mother's face when her heart is breaking as she tells her children that she bought their gifts for them and that it had never been Santa Claus.
May you always have the belief of a child in your heart this Christmas and always.
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