Merry Christmas to all!

Well, folks, it's that time of year: I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are going to visit my Mom in Dallas, along with most of the other siblings, for our Christmas celebrations & exertions this year. This will be the first time in many, many years that the Rudows (previously and currently) and Jungs, etc, will be together for a holiday! Yay! We are all very excited.
I would like to say to Amber & Steven & children that you will be MISSED. It's sad that we couldn't work it out for you to attend also, but I know there will be a way some other time if we keep working on it. We will think of you, gossip about you, and drink a toast to you. And you really can't ask for more than that.

In closing, I would like to post here a poem that I re-wrote for my husband last year. The thought began stirring in my brain when I observed all that he does for our family, and with a little concentration & foolishness it came together nicely. I would like to say thank you, my dearest dear, for all the happy Christmases you have given me. We've been through a lot the past year or two, but we're always going to be ok as long as we have each other to love and live for. I love you with all my heart. Merry Christmas!


Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except for Jeff Doss.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
Because Daddy Jeffery had placed them there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of boojie danced in Zoe’s little head.
And mamma in her mismatching nightclothes was down
In her bed while Beauty still puttered around.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
Mom sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window she flew like a flash,
Tore open the curtains and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen grass
Gave the lustre of mid-day to the crack of Dad’s ass.
As he bent over what to her eyes should appear,
But a red lawnmower, shiny and clear.

With a little hand movement, snappy and quick,
He roared that lawn engine and woke up Aunt Nick.
More rapid than eagles his mower-blades came!
Mom gibbered, and shouted, and called him a name!

Did it sway him? Did it stop him? Never! He stood
And as he shouted, I knew he was the true Christmas dude:

"Now Dyson! Now Cascade! Now Windex will fix em!
On Comet! On Clorox! C’mon, Pledge, we’ll Blitz em!
To the end of the yard, and all through the hall,
Now clean away! Mow away! Mop away, all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
The sound of the lawn mower rose to the sky.
And after the lawn, to the duplex he flew,
With his ratty grey pants on, to clean up there too.

And then, in a twinkling, he buzzed all around
Cleaning the windows and cleaning the ground
Cleaning the dishes, around the sponge flew,
Changing the lightbulbs and cleaning Miu’s poo.

He was dressed, as I said, in ratty old sweats,
His T-shirt was stained and his underwear ripped
A bundle of garbage he had flung on his back,
And after he cleaned he was going to unpack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his smile, how easy!
His head how it gleamed, his nose, it was greasy!
His lovely plump lips drawn up like a bow,
But his teeth, they weren’t quite as white as the snow.

The half of a cookie he held tight in his teeth,
As he plugged up the tree and put up the wreath.
He had a nice face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger inside of his nose,
He pulled out a booger as big as a rose!

He sprang to his computer, crunched the numbers he kept,
Making everything perfect while his family slept.
But I heard him exclaim finally, dousing the light,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Hah, Bumhug

So I was feeling a little bah humbug the other day. I think that as I get older this feeling comes to me more frequently...I would say 'for some reason', but I know the reason. Holidays, while fun and something to look forward to all year long, are just a lot of work sometimes. The workload increases exponentially with every extra family member you have, so with every child...etc. I think, too, that it's a product of growing up in Japan, where, despite Amanda's information to the contrary this year, people do not usually celebrate Thanksgiving...ergo Christmas becomes the one big holiday, and maybe even MORE fun. I sometimes feel that Turkey day #1, with all the trimmings, followed less than 6 weeks later by Turkey day #2, with all the trimmings, just becomes an overload of turkey.

I won't get into the presents issue, because it's impossible to raise the discussion without taking both sides of the issue (What a waste of money! Give it all to the starving Armenians! Presents are an expression of love and they make the day very special! Also, I personally demand presents of every loved one and acquaintance that I possess, so let's not be hypocritical, Susanna!) etc etc. But no one can deny that if you have to buy for more than, like, your boyfriend, it can be a little stressful. But I also ADORE shopping over the holidays, when the stores are all lit up and cozy and you can drink Starbucks while you peruse the merchandise, until your husband calls you from home asking Where are you but not in a nice way and you can hear the boys disemboweling each other in the back ground while the baby screams merrily......

Sigh. I'm so confused.

Lets just say I have to stay on top of my mood sometimes, to ensure the proper level of merriment.

But think about this, oh you imagineers (don't sue me, Disney): What if you could check into a hotel over the holidays? A big, huge, sparkly, Christmassy hotel, pre-decorated the way the way you like, with a Christmas tree in the lobby and the promise of a ready-made turkey on Christmas day? What if the stores we love were around the corner, and when you woke up you could purchase your Starbucks in the lobby of this wonderland while the Kenny G Musak of Tidings and Joy played in the background, and what if afterward, toting said Starbucks, you could walk to the mall (in your fabulous shoes) which was right around the corner from the hotel and then you could shop till you dropped and then come home to the hotel and have a massage while your doting husband waited for you in the bar with a cinnamon appletini??? What about them apples? What is a cinnamon appletini? Also, where are my children in all this?

I know. It was a VERY nice daydream. But waking up Christmas morning, when the work is mostly done and the tree is decorated and the kids are all starry-eyed over their decorated house and their painstakingly wrapped presents is pretty great too. Or we could go crash Moms'.