Despite the best of intentions to blog over the holidays, I see I failed miserably. Oh well.
The holidays at our house aren't the high stress affairs that most people despise but seem to find themselves unable to avoid. This is probably because MBH refuses to have anything to do with Christmas or any of the ever increasing number of "holidays" that are foisted upon us at the end of the year. Normally, I will do a minor decking of the halls; decorate a small artificial tree with my favourite ornaments, put a seasonal (read: non descript) wreath on our door, and put out my favourite pieces of my Dickens Village. This year, I decided to not even do that. Partly because I just didn't really get into the whole spirit of the season and partly because I knew that I was going home to Northern Michigan on the 26th to visit my mom and dad and didn't want to have to pack up the decking material. I knew my Mom would have the cottage, where my brother and I would stay (oh boy), and their house decorated to the hilt and she didn't disappoint us. Northwest Airlines could have landed a 747 using our house as a beacon to the airport. I'm pretty sure the local Ace Hardware didn't have any lights left based upon what my dad had put up on the house. The Griswold’s have nothing on my folks.
Minus the hassle of flying during winter from one delay susceptible airport (BOS) to an even more delay susceptible airport (TVC), it was one of the best holidays I've had in many years. Basically because for the first time in about seven years, my brother and I were both at home in Michigan at the same time and, despite neither of us were traveling with our respective better halves, I was looking forward to catching up with him and hanging out. Normally our trips home in Michigan don't coincide. This year we made an extra special effort to make it a whole family affair seeing how after 25 years of living in Florida during the winter my grandparents have returned to live in Michigan full time. With the exception of one set of cousins, all the cousins were together for the first time since we all turned "legal drinking age" and we sure had fun drinking together for the first time!! The best part though was seeing my grandfather surrounded by his family. He has had to move back to Michigan to be close to the family due to health reasons and having just had to watch his wife of 20 years need to go to a nursing home it was important that he have a really wonderful holiday. I will cherish this Christmas for the rest of my life. My trip home has raised a few questions though: Is it too late, at 38, to return your brother for a full refund?(just joking here) How is it, despite our best efforts, we do become our mothers? Why does it seem the tree is smaller than I remember? And what happened to all the really cool presents like the Barbie Ski Lodge and the Weeble House?
