Doctors, Presents and Memories ...Oh My!

I will start by saying that I have an appointment this morning with the hand surgeon. This pain has become unbearable. I can function but I am not sleeping and it ruins my day. I am hoping they can schedule surgery asap but I'm not sure if that will happen. I will settle for pain numbing drugs though. Last night was really bad. I think it's a nerve pain as I can move my finger into different positions and the pain will stop, temporarily. Plus, Advil, my wonder drug does nothing. I am not posting this for sympathy, just sharing my misery and suffering 3 sleeps before Christmas. However, if you are feeling a bit sorry for me, monetary gifts would surely take the pain away. LOL.

I think of myself as being pretty skilled in the art of working with paper. Not top of the line skilled but I feel I have the ability to tear, crinkle, ink, cut and do many different things with paper and end up with some nice looking items. So why is it that I cannot wrap a gift if my life depended on it? It's just paper, folding and taping, but a three year old could give me a run for my money. My husband can wrap a mean gift and could totally make some fine cash wrapping presents at the mall. Not me. I wrapped everything that needed to be wrapped yesterday and strategically placed the bows and ribbon in places to cover up the lumps and folds that shouldn't have been there. Oh well I guess, it's all just getting ripped off in the end!

I've been feeling very nostalgic this year, if you hadn't noticed. I've been reading other blogs with Christmas related items and it got me thinking about my childhood and what memories were most dominant. It had to be Christmas eve. Sure I remember the tissue paper candy canes we made in school, were you would take a little 1" tissue square, twist it around the eraser end of your pencil, dab it in glue and stick it to the cardboard cane. Repeat this step 13,659 times until it actually looked like a candy cane. But Christmas eve was truly the most memorable.

It would start with the 5pm Christmas eve service at church. Piling into the car in our Sunday best and off to watch the mini reenactment of Jesus being born and sing religious carols for an hour. Then we would pile back into the car and go visit Sid and Lil. They were like our adopted Grandparents. Since all our relatives lived back east, they were the perfect fit. Lil would serve goodies and everyone would sit in the den and chat. They had a kid free living room and at some point I would sneak off and go sit on the couch and stare at their Christmas Tree. It was so different then ours with so many ornaments to see. My favorite ornament was an ornate ball with a little bird inside that chirped. Lil would let me turn it on, but after a few minutes of this persisted chirping, I would hear the inevitable "Turn that thing off!" yelled from my mother in the next room.

It's funny how clear these memories are and how much they mean to me now. At the time, as much as I enjoyed this visit, it was only a little while before us kids got antsy because, well Santa was coming and the sooner we got home and to bed, the sooner we could unwrap presents! The adults seemed to have no concept of this and we were repeatedly told to "Stop fidgeting", "Sit quietly" and "Behave!". Then that joyous moment when we heard the words "Well, I guess would should really be going.." would come, the excitement would grow. It was never that easy though. They would continue to talk downstairs while putting shoes on, then 20 min later when we actually made it out the door into the cold night air, they would talk another 10 before getting in the car. Ahhhhhhhhh! This was pure torture. Eventually we would make it home and mom would make a little tray of crackers and such and we would gather around the fireplace, anticipating that ONE gift we were aloud to open before bed. This gift made the evening and wait worth it. One gift, one sneak peak at what was to come. It felt almost like we were getting away with something. Opening a gift early...teehehe. Mom would sift through the gifts as she got to chose which one. "Here, you can open this one". Oh the joy, the pure, sweet joy, an early present! Off comes the bow, off comes the paper..oh, oh, oh, what could it be? I would open the box and....Pajamas! Just like the year before, and the year before that. Would we never learn?

Sigh.