I went to my first funeral for one of my students. I pray to God it's the last one. He was 5. He beat cancer twice. The third time snuck up on him and took him almost before anyone knew something was wrong. The family went from decorating for Christmas and waiting for Santa to shock and grief in 2-3 days.
My husband and I are really not into Christmas this year. My November funk has spilled over into December despite my best efforts. I have been sick (finally feeling (mostly) better) and now he has it. We still don't have decorations on the tree (lights! lights! 1 strand of lights! are out on our prelit tree and we can't figure out why) and I have not made any cards (I always hand make them). I also think the years of celebrating without a child have caught up to us. We thought *this* was our year-and can't forget it. I have tried to reverse this thinking I-am doing the 12 days of Christmas for my husband-a gift a day for 12 days before Christmas. I think he is enjoying it a little. The tree will be finished (I am going to turn that part to the window-really, it's not that noticeable--just 1 layer of lights) and presents will be wrapped. Christmas cards, however, may be New Years cards this year. Or sent telepathically.
We have finished our final required class for foster care, which included a bunch of weekly classes, CPR/First Aid and a Crisis class--the last one was not scheduled until now. We passed our home inspection and went over the home study. We submitted 2 inches of paperwork and clearances. We have one (surprise!-just when I checked off the last requirement they whip this out) thing left. We both need to write a paragraph about something. The instructions were vague. Autobiographical in nature. 1 page-no more. (fyi-the 20+ page home study is ALL autobiographical so this requirement mystifies us). I would have preferred a little more guidance...
We bought a crib, a carseat (for a child 5-100lbs to cover all bases) and a stroller. The crib and carseat was a requirement. It was really hard putting together the crib and also seeing it there now-empty-without knowing if it will ever actually be used. The carseat sits in its box, covered by miscellaneous items in the garage. At least we didn't have to install it for the inspection.
I submitted my (required) Christmas list to my husband on time. It is 12/23 at 1am and he has not started yet (except to "buy me" the salt water fish he wanted too). Most of my things needed ordered (thank you Michelle for the wonderful what to get the amateur photographer gift posts here, here, here and here. I may or may not have just printed off these lists and substituted Nikon compatible stuff. Oh-he got a kick out of my "revised" list (see this post).
In the spirit of optimism and ending this mood-I asked my husband how we were going to handle Santa next year. All the important questions like Does Santa wrap?, How many gifts does Santa bring? Fortunately, I knew these questions could be a little controversial and was prepared for the husband's possible reaction. *His head exploded* when he found out Santa didn't wrap at my house....and further explosions happened when I mentioned that Santa wraps in special paper at some houses. Apparently, Santa wrapped and used whatever was available at his house and he liked it. I guess Santa will be wrapping here....but I'm still thinking he will use his own paper. And he will bring as many presents as he wants....at least we agreed on something :)
Off to work on those damn lights!
The car seat and crib WILL get used. Mark my words. :-)
ReplyDelete