Bah Humbug

We got our tree up and all of the gifts are bought and have arrived (I shopped almost exclusively on the internet this year).  Still nothing has been wrapped and it's Christmas eve.  Chad is sickish.  I add the -ish because he has yet to run a fever but has had drainage and a cough nearly all week.  The drainage has given him a sore throat and he sounds really ill.  In fact, he's sleeping now.  I don't even know if he should come with us to Crescent tomorrow since we don't know what he has and I certainly don't want anyone else to come down with it either.  I have a good sized list of things I need to be doing today.  I need to actually wrap the presents, make some toffee bars that will be going with us to Crescent (if Meap and I don't eat them all-- oh I guess I can make two batches!), sort through toys in the playroom and get it picked up so we can add more to the chaos, tons of laundry to wash and put away, and try my hand at Raisin Cream Pie again.

The Raisin Cream Pie is for my Great Uncle Dean.  He turned 91 on the 17th.  He is in an assisted living/nursing home in Guthrie and we went to visit him for their Christmas party on the 22nd since we couldn't make it on the 17th.  My mom would always make him a Raisin Cream Pie for his birthday and I worked on one the 22nd before we left but it turned out terrible.  Since we will be in Crescent tomorrow I thought we might head over there with my redo.  I have been intimidated to go alone over there because the last time we went (when my mom passed away) he seemed more confused and harder to communicate with.  I feel safer going when my Uncle goes because he knows him better and of all the people Uncle Dean would remember, it is certainly my Uncle Steve.  When we were there on Thursday, though, Uncle Dean looked the best I've seen him in the last several times I've been.  I used to go up there with my mom on occasion and even then he was having trouble.  He just looked really good Thursday and though he, of course, has trouble getting around he seemed just as healthy and with it as he was when he'd come to family get-togethers at the farm, 10 years ago.  Uncle Dean is my Grandpa Emil's (Mom's dad) only living sibling and one of the few living relatives on the Mackey side of the family that I have more than an acquaintance relationship with.  I was very close to my grandpa and he reminds me of him so much and I'm so thankful that he is still around.

Well, as I'm sure everyone that has ever read here has noticed, I chase a lot of rabbits.  Most of my writing style is incredibly disorganized and I never stay on topic.  Eh, sorry.

So back to the reason behind this post.  I have a lot to do and no desire to do it.  The only thing I'm looking forward to tomorrow is going to Crescent.  I don't know if I have cabin fever or what but my house is stressing me out right now.  I'm ready for Christmas to be over so that the house can return to normalcy.  That is going to take a fair amount of work considering I know what we got the kids for Christmas and know where it will have to go.  I also know that since I'm already past my half-way point to April we need to get the playroom cleaned out and transitioned into a nursery again.  I feel conflicted about the amount of things the kids got for Christmas, too.  I want them to have certain things and that's why I bought them but I hate that Christmas is so materialistic.  It has really not settled well with me since I realized the other day what the whole Santa/coal thing is really about.  It has nothing to do with being naughty or nice but everything to do with being rich or poor.  Rich=nice and poor=naughty since coal was used for home heating  back in the day and the poor kids would only get such a strict necessity.  We don't do Santa for our kids and now I'm thankful but I see that we also contribute to the same mentality by trying to get them so much for Christmas when we can.  Granted, a lot of what we got Jude was coal (clothes, shoes, socks, etc.) but we splurged for a few other things too.  I mean now that I'm thinking back on everything we got, most of the things we got were little things, just things that I knew they would really like.  I still feel like that it's too much, though.  Being a parent is hard and navigating Christmas sucks.  I'm ready for it to be over.