The Holidays are Behind Us

Goodbye Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.
Goodbye New Year's Eve, New Year's DAy.
Goodbye winter break.

Here we are already a week into the new year, kids back to school, everyone back to business as usual. Christmas decorations, for the most part, boxed up and stored away (save some errant wreaths on the barn that will probably remain there for the bulk of the winter till I can get my lazy butt to the pole I need to retrieve them from on high).

We received visitors from as far as sunny LA and as near as snowy NJ. We did our own share of visiting, which included driving through snow-covered roads and everyone pitching in to dig out Grammy and Bob from the two feet of snow that buried them in good.

The kids got a healthy lesson in patience as they had to wait for Dad to get home Christmas morning. For the first time in years he was on call Christmas Eve, so we sadly kissed him goodbye in the evening and warmly welcomed him home Christmas morn.

Fred and I (along with Aunt Mary) got front-row seats to witness the explosion and chaos (and thank-yous and hugs) of Christmas morning. Long-gone are the days of Mattell and Fisher Price. With the new decade we have ushered in the new era of Apple and Hewlett-Packard. And the kids couldn't be more thrilled with all their new games and gadgets. Once the dust and ribbons settled and the last of the torn wrappings were discarded, the house was filled with a humming, clicking silence as the kids settled into their new electronics.

Soon after the new year was rung in, we gathered around the table (alright, I had to drag some of them kicking and screaming to take part in this family tradition) to go through our "Memory Box". As we pulled out old ticket stubs, visitor maps, wrist bands and other tangible reminders of things experienced in twenty-ten, we reminisced and laughed (and grumbled over being forced to partake in this happy family event). At the bottom of the box we pulled out last year's resolutions and had ourselves a good guffaw at some of the goals that had been set. But a fair number had been met, and so we set about crafting some new resolutions.

I won't list mine, for then they surely wouldn't get met. But I will jot down my hopes:
I hope that as the Big Boys turn 16 (in the next couple months) that no one will be killed, maimed, dismembered or in any way traumatized once they hit the roads with either permit or license.
I hope that my eldest will turn in at least one of his homework assignments, that he may pass his current grade.
I hope for a Zen calm to settle into the brains and bones of my rowdy brood.
As a result of the above, I hope for no trips to the ER for broken bones and/or lacerated skulls or for that matter any wounds of any kind.
I hope to find more time for myself to write, and to read, or to sit and stare blankly at a wall, my head devoid of thought.
I hope that as another child of mine passes into her teen years in a few months, marking my third teenage girl and my fifth teen total, that, quite smply, I will survive.

Happy New Year, everyone!