I'm sitting here in my new pen-ga-win jammies listening to the boys discussing the virtures of a new PS2 game one of them got. I love it when they get along.

After being so unbelievably sick the past TWO November and Decembers I'm amazed that I've made it this far without anything more than a mild sneezing attack or two ...

Until today. Crap.

I got up this morning with the all too familiar fuzzy headed feeling. It's like my body is awake but my brain hasn't quite gotten the hang of that concept.

My eyes feel funny, tired and stinging. My throat is a bit sore and I'll be damned if I can figure out how to breathe through my nose without it feeling as if I'm inhaling vaporized sulfuric acid.

So I'm trying to fight this by pushing Vit C, mega amounts of liquids, lots of Cold-Eze, Tylenol PM and *gasp* rest!

Yep, I've decided that this time around I'm going to try out something new ... actually resting when I feel like it instead of pushing myself. So, if you are someone who I talk with regularly on either the phone or on some messenger service and you don't hear/see me much in the next few days, please don't worry. It's just cuz more than likely I'm zonked out in bed or on the couch.

I don't feel Bad, I just don't feel Not Bad either.

Because I don't feel Not Bad I'm not going into a big ol' long description of Christmas. Basically Christmas was like it normally is - I've already written about it - and there's just a few snippets of things that I want to remember.

* For the past 12 Christmases my X's mom has stolen at least a part of "Santa's" thunder by getting one or the other of the boys something from the list of "Don't buy these for the boys because they're Santa gifts" that I make known to the Grandparents. This year wasn't an exception.

She bought Kimo *THE* PS2 game that he just had to have less he die a horrible death from not receiving it. The problem was, I had already bought the game three weeks ago. Did I share that info with her at the time? Hell no. Why? Because the game was on The List and she should have known better.

When I found out two days before Christmas that she had bought it I was livid. See, the boys always celebrate Christmas with her on Christmas Eve Morning.

I went back and forth with the idea of taking back the one I bought and getting him his 2nd choice but in the end, because of really not wanting to fight those crowds any more, I decided to just keep it - convincing myself that Kimo could always use a back up copy because he's so hard on games.

Christmas Eve morning X mother in law calls, talking in a quiet but panicked voice. Seems there was one small problem. She bought the GameCube version of the game and Kimo was majorly disappointed. NOTHING sucks worse than getting exactly what you want, but not being able to use it, yanno, especially when you are a little kid. They had called around and of course no one had the game any longer. It's a new, very popular game and so it went fast when it hit the shelves.

Ten minutes later Kimo calls, his poor lil voice quivering. "Moooommmmm? Can you pleeeeeeeaaaaassssseeeee go buy me my game? Mammaw got the Game Cube version of it and it won't work!"

I advised him to wait until Christmas because we didn't know what Santa was going to bring. It was at this point he cracked, losing all semblance of patience and calm, "MOM! I've told and told everyone all week ... There IS NO Santa! I dunno WHY ya'll won't believe me!"

This is when it dawned on me that not only was I going to get the chance to pull a Christmas miracle out of my hat for my son, but that Santa was going to finally get the chance to come out like a hero this year. :)

* Fast forward to Christmas Eve night, after spending a few hours at my Mom and Dad's with the kids and my brother & sis in law - We came home at Kimo's insistence because he had Magic Reindeer Food to sprinkle around the front yard for the reindeer. See, he hadn't completely given up all hope. It's amazing watching that belief spark, then flicker, then fan itself into full blown flames.

Kimo, Gomez and I were walking around the front yard as Kimo was sprinkling the magic reindeer food (birdseed) around. Gomez was coaching Kimo to "do it like if you were feeding chickens" which of course confused Kimo to no end, as Kimo is 100% city kid and has never seeded chickens before in his life. The irony in that is that Gomez has done it exactly twice in his own life. LOL

So Kimo is meticulously sprinkling this food out with all the care and precision a 7 year old can muster while Gomez and I are standing there with chattering teeth cuz we're about to freeze. Suddenly Gomez looks up and says "WHOA! Did you SEE that??", which causes Kimo to jerk his head up and search the sky, hollering "What? What??" Gomez babbles excitedly (give that kid an Oscar) "I think just saw the lights from Santa's sleigh zip by!"

Now by this time Kimo is dancing in place. His feet are trying to get him into the house, but his mind is still stuck with the "gotta sprinkle reindeer food" thought. He solves the problem by taking the baggie and just dumping the remaining food into a pile, then closing his eyes and turning around once, while making a wish (per the instructions on the bag of food) then hauling butt inside, screaming at us "HURRY! WE GOTTA JUMP IN BED RIGHTTHISVERYMINUTE!"

He's shucking shoes and clothes as he jets towards the bedroom. He sprints past the tv, which is set to the local news station. They mention that up next is "Tracking Santa" and Kimo does a complete 180 spin, coming back and staring wide eyed at the tv.

Apparently the fact that the all knowing NEWS is featuring Santa cements in Kimo's mind that Santa is in fact real. I mean, gawd, everyone KNOWS that everything you see on the NEWS is real, right? (well, it is when you are seven anyway)

Once they showed Santa passing under the Arch in St. Louis and headed towards Little Rock, Kimo was a full fledged believer once again and he immediately went on full alert, ordering Gomez to "get the cookies! we gotta leave cookies!"

I'm standing there watching this amazing flurry of action and emotion from my son, who not 12 hours before was 100% convinced that Santa didn't exist, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

(shuddup, it was an amazing moment for me)

Five minutes later the cookies and Mtn Dew were put out -- WHAT?? Santa NEEDS serious caffeine in the wee hours yanno -- and the kidlets were in bed.

Two hours later, at midnight-thirty, they were finally asleep, huddled up in Gomez's bed.

Three hours later, at 3.30 am, they were both awake.

Groan.

I managed to get them back to sleep about 4.30 and they stayed that way until they woke me up again at 7.00 to open presents.

Needless to say, I had one ecstatic seven year old that morning. Gomez was also thrilled beyond words because he got *THE* had to have game from his list as well.

* Christmas morning at Mom and Dad's was pretty much the same as it always is. Lots of laughter due to funny and thoughtful gifts being given. I wasn't very surprised when both the kids came to me about an hour after we finished lunch and asked if we could go home cuz they were sleepy. They looked very tired and I figured they'd nap.

Wrong.

Once we got home and they had the PS2 games back in their clutches any thoughts of naps went right out of their heads.

I, on the other hand, slept hard.

* One last thought - Why does my bonehead brother seem to insist that boiled shrimp is a must during Thanksgiving and Christmas? I mean, I know we rarely go through the whole fancy dinner china, traditional turkey with stuffing, and too many forks to count thing but really .... shrimp as a side dish with ham??

He's odd. I used to get upset when I was little because I thought I was adopted (I was the only green-eyed blonde in a family of brown-eyed raven haired people). Sometimes now though, when I consider my brother, I wish it were true. *g*

Ok folks, my brain has just totally shut down on me and I'm thinking a nap sounds really good.

Hope your Christmas was everything you wanted it to be. :)

Until next time~

bisa

Yes, Kimo, there IS a Santa. My drained bank account proves it.


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Words and Images � bisa-pet