Hi! I Just Realized That Christmas is Only a Week Away

I got started on wrapping gifts yesterday. While being a fan of the beautifully wrapped package, I have no facility for that. My packages always look like they have been wrapped by a 5th grader, no matter what I do. (Hat, please to be adjusting expectations accordingly). I'm sure the fact that I don't much enjoy wrapping presents has something to do with it. Much as I appreciate seeing a box covered in glossy paper and festooned with ribbons and bows, it always seems a little silly. I'll spend 5 minutes wrapping something, only to have someone rip, shred and tear through it in 10 seconds. I am tempted, every year, to employ a technique Dame Judi resorted to: she sewed up six burlap bags in Christmas colors and filled them with unwrapped gifts. We'd sit on the floor, bags tightly closed in our eager little fists, taking turns digging in, without looking mind you, to pull out our gifts. I so totally understand why she started doing that. I just have to wrap gifts for 2 people and a handful of friends; but it's still just a glorified chore.

The chore part is the actual wrapping. The glory of it, which is what keeps me going year after year, is imagining the delight of the recipients. (Well, The Spouse not so much. He is one of those people who opens a gift and says, "Oh, that's nice. Thank you". Very hard to get a hearty "OH! WOW! FANTASTIC!" from him. It's not that he's not grateful but after 16 years I still don't think I've ever given him anything that made him plotz with amazement. And let's face it, isn't thrilling and amazing someone kinda the point? I digress). I know The Child is going to love her "big" present. I'm pretty sure The Hat will love her "big" present. And there are all sorts of little treats and surprises as well that will elicit some "yippees" and giggles. No one is getting underwear, which is always a good thing. So I enjoyed wrapping up presents and thinking about the joy and laughter of Christmas morning, because that's the point; not the fact that I can't seem to line up the ends of the paper (it looks like rows of Christmas ribbon) to match or make perfectly sharp corners.

---

I've lost about 10 pounds this week. 10 pounds of worry and concern, that is. My mind has been too much occupied with financial considerations and all the high school hooha. But I'm on the other side now. We signed papers last night to refinance the house; we didn't have a sub-prime loan or anything but with an interest-only equity line and some credit cards and me not working until the new year, it was all getting a little fraught. Especially when every time I turned on NPR there was another story about how bad things are going in the economy. I wanted to consolidate everything into something safe, fixed and low interest and now we have, freeing some nice handfuls of cash month to month in the process. So that's a load off. Mundane, but a load off.

As for high school, The Child had a pleasant enough time at Second Choice High yesterday but she came away sure that First Choice is indeed first choice. I asked if she'd be OK with SCH in the event that she didn't get into FCH and she said, "Oh, yeah", which was a relief (one doesn't want to hate one's back-up). Never mind that I now feel fairly certain that she'll be accepted to FCH. The email from our priest saying he'd sent "glowing letters of recommendation" on her behalf helped. (He's kind of a big deal in the archdiocese. Just saying). The fact that all of you have your fingers crossed helped. Seeing her enthusiasm and determination, that really helped.

She was so cute when I picked her up yesterday. She said, "I've made a list!" and pulled out some note paper (note paper, btw, emblazoned with a logo for FCH) on which she'd noted pros and cons of both schools, complete with scoring system. It ranged from the sensible (smaller classes at FCH) to the silly (awesome pizza bagels at FCH) but it was fundamentally thoughtful. It went to what she values, what she's looking for and I found myself more than a little amazed.

I mean, here we've been in charge of her decisions for nearly 14 years and we still fundamentally are for the next 4 but she's now arrived at that place in her life where she truly is thinking for herself, weighing her options, judging what she values and wants. It was a blessed thing to see because that is, after all, the point of parenting. Our job is to teach her to think for herself so that we don't have to hold her hand all her life. First Choice has been on Papa's and my radar for years but now she owns that, for all her own reasons. Realizing that yesterday was right up there with watching her take her first faltering steps. She really is growing up.

And now I must away. I've gotta cram for my emissions test, finish wrapping presents and bake the annual eggnog cakes for the faculty and staff. I've decided to gift everyone this year, not just The Child's teachers, because I'm feeling just a little varklempt about this being our last Christmas at St. G and I want to show my appreciation to all the hard-working angels at the school. I can't give them all a million dollars, so brandied eggnog fluffiness will have to do.