Countdown to Christmas…Day 20

You know what we haven’t done in the countdown? 

A randoms day. 

Today seems like a good choice for some. Sure hope you agree….so off the top of my head:

Random #1

I am at that place where I can’t remember what I have bought for stockings, if I have enough to make it look fairly even and where the heck I stashed all of it. 

The past two nights I have awakened in the wee hours to mull this conundrum over. 

This morning, I couldn’t bear it any longer so rolled out of bed a tad early for Saturday and began sorting through the bags on a guest room bed, in the closet next to the bed and in all the bags I dumped on the floor mid week after my last binge shopping experience. 

I laid the stockings out and started putting piles on them and yippee skippee…as I look at them they are okay. 

Can any relate the sigh of relief this brings to a mom?

Random #2

Russ and I are of the generation of parents who had to use house phones, newspaper advertisements and word of mouth when you got together with people to figure out where an item on your child’s wish list might be. 

I can remember being on the look out for a Wii game when they were the hot item for a coworker. 

There was the year Cabbage Patch dolls were all the thing and I got a call one morning from a a friend advising me to head to K’s Merchandise Mart as they had gotten a shipment. Yes, I stood in line and purchased one. 

Ugliest doll ever. And shortly after opening it, Rachel flipped it up to cradle it and it smacked her in the forehead. I don’t think she ever developed warm feelings for her adopted child after that.

No Amazon Prime, no Facebook posts. 

We earned our Christmas Magic the hard way. 

Random #3

The first year Rachel was in Girl Scouts, I learned about the Yule log tradition. 

Because I was always a willing and able-bodied volunteer, I got roped into helping execute this experience for her troop. 

A Yule log hunt involves the girls decorating a log, which they did with gusto. 

Then someone (me) hides it somewhere in an outdoor setting (our neighborhood park) and leaves trail markers to find it. 

Since I am directionally challenged and the girls did indeed find it that year, I assume someone else handled the markings.

I know it was cold, and I feel certain there was snow that year. 

I remember a bunch of girls screaming and running around the park. 

There was hot cocoa involved and cookies, more screaming and giggling and a burning of the log that if my memory serves correctly had some help with fire starters and lots of newspaper kindling. 

I only remember one of these in the years that she did scouting but this may be because I inherited the troop the next year and we may have come up with a different activity that involved less screaming and nonflammable props. 

Random #4

In all the Christmases of childhood for me, one gift in particular stands out. 

I remember it well as Santa found us at the small house in Louisville that my grandma and aunt lived in. 

He brought me the Chatty Cathy doll I had asked for. Not only did I have this doll who, when I pulled a string, told me she loved me; he included a case for her and a nice wardrobe. She had play clothes, dress clothes and pajamas. 

Unlike poor Rachel, Cathy never bonked me in the face and I loved her dearly. 

I dressed her for the day or the occasion and put her in her pjs at night for a couple of years. 

Eventually her battery wore out, but even though it came out really slow and kind of creepy, I still knew she was telling me she loved me. 

Random #5

Every year I wanted to give my dad a gift that would grab his attention.

Every year he would open my offering, make a kind of “oh” with his mouth and say something like “Well, how about that.” And then he would thank me and set it aside. 

The only time I saw him give the reaction I was hoping for it was to my sister. She produced a set of tie bars that represented all the awards he had gotten serving in the Air Force. 

He was deeply moved. 

While I wish it had been something I gave him, I treasure that we were able to see him really love a gift. 

He took more joy in seeing us open what he had gotten us. That and putting a bow on his head at some point of the morning seemed to be his favorite part of the whole process. 

Simple pleasures…still makes me laugh.