You’ve oft heard me call my home my “Slice of Paradise”, how my favorite spot on Earth is stading outside my front window looking in. Today was a day that magnified that feeling and took it to an entirely new level. Not because of what was under the tree, though, dude…Santa was sooo good to me, but in how it lifted me up. You see, Ms. Shankabitch broke lose of her bonds sometime in the middle of my restless night and has been trying her best to wreak havoc on my Christmas all damn day.
Unsucessfully…
I knew she was loose nearly as soon as my feet hit the floor so I took the hour before the rest of the family woke to read my Bible and my Bible Study. I also baked some pumpkin bread and did my best to relax. My attempts at relaxing only exacerbated my foul mood. Then the man woke.
Kelly called first thing this morning and took great delight in being put on speaker phone and screaming “MERRY CHRISTMAS! NOW GET THE HELL UP!!!” at a Pixie still sound asleep well past any respectible time to wake on a Christmas morning. I will admit to getting a giggle out of that.
While opening presents my mood only darkened. The chaos, clutter, trash and Christmas fodder strewn about set my OCD off on a tangent and it took every ounce of self control I had to keep from yelling, screaming and being an all around Shankabitch. I was determined though, not to let her win. So I shut up and prayed.
By the time noon rolled around, fresh from my hot shower, the family arrived. By this time I was flying around my kitchen on a boom, muttering to myself trying to get Christmas brunch in the oven all while 6 people were trying to talk to me at once and some smart ass with a death wish yelled “When we eatin?” I caught this on the air waves just as the quiche I was pouring overflowed the pie shell and ooozed out all over the cookie sheet and my beloved sister in law says “Gee…looks like something I’d do.” and before I could shut up and pray, it escaped my lips “Small comfort that”. The hurt look on her face said it all.
STOP….Rewind…spill
I quietly explain to my sister in law that I’m in a dark space and I’m extremely sorry it oozed out onto her.
for the rest of the day, my loving family hugged me, coddled me, loved me, thanked me, moaned over the goodness that was my quiche, and promptly feel asleep on my couch letting me take pot shots at them with my new prime 50mm f1.8 lens, speedlite and mini-softbox, of them napping and drooling.
Then, they let me bail on the family tradition playing cards and I climbed into my hamsterless nest and caught up on about a 1/4 of the sleep I lost the night before. THEN they let me bail on going to the other brother’s house in lieu of staying home in an empty and quiet house. Oh the joy!
Yes, I live in paradise. Where the natives are kind. Where they meet evil with kisses, and snideness with patience.
As I sit here in the stillness, beside a sleeping hamster, my happy pills FINALLY kicking in I’m at a loss for words. How do you describe being given peace as a gift? How can you explain to someone how grace and love can be boxed up and delivered to you shaped like a small grey haired woman in a festive shirt? Or express how acceptance can travel over sound waves in a deep grumbley laugh? How can I tell you how my frayed nerves were soothed by the ointment of laying in bed listening to happy, content, competitive, card sharks play Uno?
I supose I just did huh?
Merry Christmas my loyal stalkers
Wave to the Wind ~
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