The Mini Van Soap Box

I love this time of year. I really do. I love the shopping and the decorating. I love the baking and going into debt. Picking out the just the right present for someone...something I know they aren't expecting or something they would never think to get for themselves.

I love fires going in the fireplace and staying up late on Christmas Eve with my family. Singing by candlelight at Church and seeing friends that I hadn't made time for all year.

Maybe it's the fact that we took a vacation, and so everything "holiday" related hit me square in the face the second I touched down at IAD....but I'm in a funk. I look in the mirror and hate everything that is looking back at me. I swear the sun has not shown itself in 7 days. And my kid has been possessed by some smart ass little elf for the last week.

She'll say "NO"...and then laugh like a mad lunatic. I kid you not.

We ordered some drinks at Starbucks and I ordered a strawberry cream thing for her - with no whip. No reason to give her more sugar. They, of course, gave it to us with whip. So, my husband tried to suck it off the top real quick before he gave it to her. He spent the next 15 minutes trying to get whipped cream out of his nose. That's the hardest I've laughed all week.

So, I'm standing in the kitchen right now making 10 different banana breads for her teachers. Yes, 10. Then they will be individually wrapped and placed in their Christmas goodie bags with the other stuff. I haven't wrapped a single thing and I'm trying to figure out when I'm going to do it - so she won't know they are from us.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. Right?

So, time to take some stock in what I've got.

We've got our health...Cliche, sure. But it's true. All of us.

While although we struggle, the repo man is not knocking on my door to take our cars away. We've got
friends and family that we know would do anything for us, and us for them.

This last year I've seen friends fall in love and marry. I've seen a friend who had previously lost a child, finally have a beautiful baby girl.

I've seen a friend of the family give up part of his liver to save the life of a man he had never met.

Also, this last year, I got ya'll. I've enjoyed writing here more than you'll know. I would like to think I've made some connections...That if/when I see you, we'll be able to instantly hang.

Those are the things that I need to see when I look in the mirror.