Mid-Holiday Epiphany

It's midway between the end of Hanukkah/Christmas and New Year's Eve/Z's birthday. The 'rents have left for Pittsburgh to visit my brother and sister-in-law, and N's sister and her family won't be here for another 24 hrs., so we're betwixt-
&-between in the guest department as well. We've sent out all the holiday cards, but haven't gotten around to writing the thank you letters yet.

In other words, it's a time of reflection and assessment. I don't get many of these in my current lifestyle - when they do sneak in here & there, they tend to come around 2 in the morning. I am afraid to take advantage of these o.dark.early times, as too much reflection then keeps me from getting back to sleep.

What assessments so far?

The best card of the season, well, that's easy. It came from Brendan, one of my online students last fall, and made both R & me laugh like loons. I tried to upload an image of it, but my scanning skills proved unequal to the task. It shows Santa in a large group picture, with the caption "Due to a bizarre scheduling error, Santa spends Christmas Eve at the Borgenstein Chanukah Celebration." At first (before I read the caption), I looked through the family portrait to find Brendan - whom I'd never met in person. He'd described himself as having a shaved head and several earrings, but the only person remotely fitting such a description looked to be about 4 months old. Brendan's posts seemed to have been written by a somewhat older author, so I guess that the photo was not of his clan.

The most evil gift of the season, that's also easy. This seemingly innocuous little box: was a gift to N from Z's godparents. One simply turns it on & sets it in a dark place, and soon after that, it begins to emit a high-pitched, mosquito-like buzzing.

I think it may be time to fill out some "please send me all kinds of junk" forms in the name of their cat, Spot. Again.

The most highly anticipated visit of the season is definitely tomorrow's visit from N's half-sister. N can't wait to see her, and the rest of us are quite fond of her as well. I've promised to take photos for their birthmother. Considering that the girls live many states apart, we've been pretty fortunate in how often they've been able to visit with each other.

The most angst-producing event of the season is Z's upcoming green-belt test. She is tied in knots about it. I am a little nervous, too, but more about her casual comment this morning that "I get weapons once I'm a green!" Oh, do tell! Supposedly, they only train with the weapons, and don't actually spar with them, but the temptation has got to be there, don't you think? She starts out with something akin to nunchakus.

Oh, joy.

It's taken me three hours to decide where to put this blog, and get it up and running. Only because of myriad interruptions. Each of the four other (human) household members wants me for something. It's nice to be wanted, I suppose, though there have been times lately when I've wished I could have a trial membership in the Untouchables.

~Namaste