Land o'Lessa

We always follow Santa on Norad on Christmas Eve – THIS year, you can follow him on TWITTER too! Oh yeah. You KNOW I’m all over that. Saves the refresh button on my computer, hm?

If only I had the money, the time, and someone else to set it up for me – i’d still TOTALLY do this to my house…

The Perfect Neighbor would just LOVE me, then, hm? (cackles!)

Or maybe even something more traditional…

In other news – the pup got herself a participation ribbon, AND a FOURTH PLACE RIBBON for her swim meet. She got 4th place in the 50 Backstroke, and she was nothing short of GIDDY to come home and show me she got a ribbon for it! Well done, pup! Next meet is on January 10th – thankfully, closer to home in Sister City. Aiming for TWO ribbons this time! (And possibly adding the breaststroke – she’s been working HARD on it, and looks good!)

Happy “Shortest Day of the Year”! Of course, those celebrating clearly do NOT have children on Christmas break, already fighting and bickering and making mama wanna cancel Christmas. Which is in 4 days. And for which I am SO NOT READY YET… Last minute shopper? You betcha. What do YOU want for Christmas?

As foggy as the day he died is due to grief, I can remember the day I met Kevin as clear as if it were just a few minutes ago. (I’d say “yesterday” but I can’t remember breakfast today, so we’ll go with a few minutes – right? right!) It was in high school, and I was best friends, almost the girlfriend of his older brother at the time.

What? It was a really small town back then! Specially when you factor in the fact I also dated their best friend, who later was married to my sister for a while. heh!

Anyway, it was my Senior year, so I was 17, almost 18. I’d only been going to the public high school since the year before, having been raised in little Christian schools all the way through my sophomore year. I learned quickly that all the cliques had been formed in kindergarten, and I just didn’t belong to any of them. I wasn’t a jock, a cheerleader, a preppy, a goth, a metalhead – I was simply the quiet girl who sat in the back of the class trying not to be noticed. Then I discovered that if you hung out with the stoners, they’d absolutely accept you as one of their own. You didn’t even have to smoke! As long as you didn’t care if they did, and didn’t rat them out, you were in.

That’s how I met Bubba and Kevin’s brother, Cory, and was integrated into the Stoners, much to my mother’s chagrin.

While I don’t remember the exact day, I remember everything else. I was headed to my locker before first house, only to find Cory – the tall, lanky, dorky clown (literally) leaning against the one next to mine, with a shorter, buzz cut kid who looked to be about 12 – too young for high school. He was all of 150 pounds of flesh stretched over his 5’10″ height. He was a skinny little shit, wearing a little smirk like he knew everything, and was smarter than the rest, no matter who ‘the rest’ might be. I don’t remember what I was wearing, but he had on a pair of dark wash jeans, construction boots, a light t-shirt, under a black Carhart jacket. And his hair was buzzed short – shorter then military short. Like buzz cut so you don’t have to cut it for 6 weeks, then break out the clippers again, short.

After the hello’s with Cory, I looked at him with a clear “Who the hell is that?” arched brow. He smacked Kevin on the back of the head, told him to say hello, and followed it with “This is my fucked up little brother, Kevin.”

I rolled my eyes, said hi, grabbed my books and left. Little did I know that in just four years, that fucked up little brother and I would be together…

Yes, there are ways to tell that there is but a few days left before Christmas arrives in the House de Lessa. I’m sure these signs are seen all across the land, in various degrees, with the added style of your own unique family thrown in – so I’m sure you’ll recognize these in spirit, at least.

Number Five: The Annual Search for the Ornaments.
I know I put them somewhere special so that we wouldn’t forget where they were this time! They were in the green tub – no, the blue one! No, not THAT one… CRAP. Well, there’s the tree, pre-lighted even. Isn’t it lovely? Stop crying, we’ll find the ornaments! Somewhere… are you SURE we didn’t put them under the house again? No, the Garage? OH YEAH! There they are! Whew. It would have been a lonely Hannah Montana Ornament if we hadn’t found them!

Number Four: “Don’t worry Mom! We’ll clean up the living room and move the couches for you so we can put up the tree! Don’t you worry about a THING!”
Sudden attacks of niceness and sibling cooperation that last approximately .09281 seconds before they’re bickering like always because YOUR FOOT IS ON MY SIDE and HEY that’s MY priceless piece of crumpled paper how DARE you throw it away! MOOOOOOOOOM! Is it wrong to want to wrap them up in ribbon and duct tape and keep them under the tree? FOREVER?

Number Three: I want this, and this, and THIS, and OMG THIS!
Many, many crumpled pieces of paper are horded and EVERY TOY KNOWN TO MAN is written down, added too with every commercial, every trip to the store, every whispered conversation with BFFs, every second of every day – All in hopes that out of the FIVE GAZZILION THINGS wished for, Mom can pick out the one you REALLY want, REALLY REALLY bad…

Number Two: Ninja Present Watch.
Or alternatively ‘practice for future NYE Parties involving lampshades and beer bongs’. This time of year, the kids do seem to think that we don’t notice them lurking around the corners, holding fast to the childhood belief that “I can’t see MOM, so MOM can’t see ME!” all in hopes of discovering that mom DID listen and got that longed for really expensive present. Luckily they soon remember that “Curiosity killed the cat, then Mama took the presents back!”

And, the Number One Way to tell Christmas is Coming? Moments like these:
“Here you go, mom. A bow! That I made! To place upon you, for I am giving you YOU for Christmas! Want to know why? Because I wanted to give you something awesomely TOTALLY PERFECT!”

…awwwwww.

Shameless, the whole lot of them!