But to those who weren’t here in the moment, the gooey marshmallow plops
on the mirror over the fireplace would just look – sticky. The crusty bits on the floor – a little
grody and icky.
Perhaps we should have bottled up the full-on belly laughs
to pull them out on days that could use a little extra chuckle. Wouldn’t that
be awesome? On a too-quiet, oh-so-lonely mid-winter day, just open up a jar of
musicplayingsilverwareondishesclinkingeveryonetalkingatoncepunctuatedwithashtonsammymollypinchedmeletsplayelfontheshelfnowthisiswhatialwayswanted!
Of course, that would be a poor substitute for the actual
experience of being surrounded by the warmth and noise and love of family at
our traditional Christmas brunch.
Today is my morning-after-Christmas-day since I had to work
on Dec. 26. This is the day I get to sleep in and spend a morning in my monkey
pants, lingering over coffee and ginger cookies as I survey the situation in
the living room … it’s not at the too-quiet stage yet. I hear muffled chatter
and giggles upstairs of someone Google-chatting. Ornaments are jingling and
tinkling oh, so gently as Claudette stealthily strategizes how to remove one
from the middle of the tree.
The mirror is clean now. The smooshed marshmallows mostly
scraped off the floor. I may still find a stray bit of ammo a few months down
the road but recovered all I could find. I’m looking forward to four days
moving at a slower pace than the past six weeks or so. Getting caught up on
gifts and cards and connecting with long-distance loved ones. Reading my new
books, trying out recipes, games of Bananagrams, enjoying family time and
napping … all necessary fortification to tackle a new year.
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| We've been making snowflakes at work to send to Newtown. Since schools and others across the nation have been responding to the PTA's appeal with such abundance, it's easy to imagine that they would run out of places to put them. But I like to believe that where love is concerned, there's always room for more. And when it overflows, it just touches the next person and the next and the next ... |
