By the time you get this, I will have smelt the cinnamon stuff Mom boils in the kitchen, seen my favorite paper Santa that I made hanging above the stairway as well as that one felt thing that hangs by the fireplace with all the old Christmas cards on it from like 1965. I will have steamrolled Kyle because he's been calling me on for weeks now over the phone and he's meat and been steamrolled by Kaden because he's a huge hunk of meat, delivered cookies or something to all the neighbors (or sat in the car driving slowly while Jen runs back and forth from the car to the houses), played Jack-your-mother-wants-you with Fred Spackman in the basement, and eaten cheeseburgers on Christmas Eve and then sat in the dark listening to that old tape of the birth of Jesus, trying to stay awake or stay still, one of the two. I will have listened to the Jamesons sing at Grandma's, and watched Lee trick everyone out of the best gifts. I will have roller-skated around and done the hokey-pokey while eating barbecue beef sandwiches and wishing roller-skating for 3 hours straight was fun. I will have run up the stairs in order from youngest to oldest (since Ty's not there to convince us otherwise) to see all the presents on Christmas morning, an sat unwrapping for hours and eating candy and getting sick, maybe played Double Dragon all night and beat the game in the wee hours with my little brother. I will have eaten finger sandwiches at Grandma Hayes's, and rice krispie treats in little baggies with miniature candy canes.Makes me almost as homesick now as it did when he first sent it to me. Don't we wish it could all be like that again, even if just for a day or two? oh those were some good times...
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Finals are OVER! Christmas (and then some) here I come!
At exactly 4:52pm, December 13, 2006 (yesterday), I signed in my last test for this semester (a grueling 8-hour battle with Article 9 of the UCC) to Gloria Todd, and my "Christmas break" officially began. My body shook violently in uncontrollable sobs of joy and Gloria gently comforted me with a mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Moral of the story: I feel good. Five semesters down with one to go. Yeah Baby! So, as I was lounging around this morning kicking off my 5-week vacation and trying to let the exams hangover wear off, I picked up an old binder of letters from my mission and came across this old classic from Big Chris. Here's a little excerpt from it:
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7 comments:
Congrats on the FO thing! That was a great letter from Chris---I remember that one. Or maybe I just remember all the good memories of those by-gone days. Yes, it would be fun to go back there for just a day or so. Then I'd want to come back to the present, and pack the WHOLE ENTIRE FAMILY into one itty-bitty living space (our house) and just feel the warmth of having all of you here together again. It's good to have great memories, while we're in the process of making more. I love you all!
I swear I could read that every day and still smile at all the funny things our family did for Christmas. It makes me homesick and I'm not even away.
Smile--I was bawling! My kids don't believe that my life was like that! I wish I could make sure that they have as many great memories and I do. Funny thing is, until someone writes it down, I forget all the little things. Chris, write it ALL down will you--your point of view is so uncanny. I would do it but no one recognize it because no one remembers as well as I do!
i don't know cher, your version always seems to add so much...even if it isn't real. every time i read that i can't help but smile. unfortunately i don't think this homesickness is a curable one for any of us since the separation from those memories has now moved from geographical to temporal. maybe in 50 years when we figure out how to work the matrix we can all plug in...
In 50 years we will all probably think we're back home doing those things. Remember, I'll be 80 and we don't have good genes for avoiding dementia.
Exactly whose genes are we talking about here?
Whose genes huh? See it's starting already! I am so glad you shared that Jess--memories are truly what happiness is made of! I want you all to know that I love you and I too miss being that kid again where everything around us just happened without effort and someone else was taking care of all the details and ensuring that when we got older we had memories that reminded us of great times and all the love we have for each other. Good job mom and dad!
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