Christmas Ten in These Foolish Things

1. Didn’t sleep hardly a wink last night (Christmas Eve) at my parents’ house. Not because of anticipation, but because I feel like their neighborhood is not really all that safe anymore. Sure, it’s out in the boonies on a lake, but this particular area/neighborhood is potentially chock full of meth houses and weirdos. Believe me, I’ve met some of the weirdos. My parents seem to tolerate these folks, but I’m starting to get a little worried for their safety. Every time I visit, there’s some kind of “incident”. This time, it was my dad getting the text of the vandalism taking place on cars in the hood. I pulled my car into their garage for the night (a first - normally I just park in their driveway).

2. The other thing is that since they live in the boonies and on a lake, there are all kinds of “country” sounds that I’m just not used to. You know, like animals other than rodents! Ha. My mom also has these spooky wind chimes that kind of freak me out with they tinkle because they just sound so…scary. Their front porch is creaky and the bedroom where I sleep has a window that looks out onto the front porch, and I kept thinking I heard footsteps. Crazy! I normally can sleep at their house. Not last night!

3. I know it’s kind of disappointing to my parents, but I opted out of going to church with them both last night and today for two reasons: (1) last year, the presentation SUCKED. I mean, it was laughable but you weren’t allowed to laugh. I was almost offended by how BAD this thing was, and (2) remember last year there was a guy who kind of stalked me afterwards and found me on FB and friended me and we went on a weird lunch together? I just didn’t want to see that dude again. Those two reasons combined made me really uncomfortable to go to their church. There are other reasons, but those two reasons were reason enough.

4. Other than no sleep and no church, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were really very nice with my parents. We had lovely dinners, lunches, breakfasts…nice conversations (I kept my Trump issues at bay for the most part…though we shared a couple of jokes about how liberal we were being with our portions!). I love my parents so much, but there are quite a few things that we disagree on - especially my mother and me.

5. Is it bad that I’m just glad that my brother hasn’t been around the last couple of years? Yes, even though he and I are trying to be “closer”, the dude just stresses me out. My dad showed me some videos that he’d sent them from China. They were videos of my brother interacting with his baby, and while they were sweet moments of a dad and his baby girl, just learning how to walk, I found myself getting SO STRESSED OUT watching the video and hearing how LOUD and SHRILL my brother is. Just watching and listening was like nails on a chalkboard to me for some reason. I’m glad he’s not in the US, but I’m sure that is going to change in 2017. Stay tuned.

6. I had asked for a couple of herb kits for Christmas - you know, just like the little pots with seeds for growing an herb garden on the windowsill? Well, my parents ended up getting me this wild hydroponic herb garden growing LED lighted thing called an Aerogarden. Anybody ever used/heard of these? I have to say, I’m actually really excited about it! It’s supposed to be foolproof. I have to say, I don’t have a green thumb whatsoever, but I’m also crazed about throwing a half-bunch of cilantro away because I couldn’t use it in time. So I just thought it would be fun to have some herbs in the windowsill for when I needed cilantro, etc. Well, this thing looks like it should take herb growing to a whole other level…before I’ve even tried my hand at a classic style of windowsill gardening. That’s fine! I’m totally down to try this! My dad was even all, you could grow weed with this if you wanted to… ha!

7. My mom seemed utterly disinterested in the whole gift process just as she has been the past few years. Not sure what’s going on with her on that front because she was perfectly and utterly happy and pleasant with the rest of Christmas - the visiting and chatting and such…and the drinking of eggnog, ha!

8. I love my parents, but I can only take about 24 hours at a time with them.

9. I should sleep very soundly tonight. In fact, I’m nodding off again. That reminds me…I’ve been experimenting with my fitbit with regards to how much sleep I should be getting. I think I’ve found the answer to why I’m passing out most afternoons on the weekends. I mean, it’s plain and simple: I’m not getting enough sleep during the week! I always thought that I can get by with between 5.5 and 6 hours of sleep, simply because that’s how I’ve been existing. But truth be told, I’m absolutely at my best at between 7 and 7.75 hours of sleep! I’m not going to say the typical 8 hours of sleep because (a) it’s too easy - ha! and (b) I think that’s ever so slightly nudging me into the too much sleep zone, which makes me sleepy anyway. It’s a science, for sure…but I think I’m getting there. This means that I need to be in bed and at least close to being asleep by 9:30 on school nights! I can do this because I have been doing it. But I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure this out.

10. It was a wonderful Christmas, and now it’s over and there are a million and one things going on in the world, and it’s time to get back into real life. Just happy to share my very simple little partial-family Christmas with my wonderful, secret online family!

xox,
GS