Christmas Time and the Living is Easy, But the Travelin' Ain't!

Saturday Night. Christmas Night. All is calm, all is bright? Oy! After close to twelve hours of fighting on again off again with our wireless connection, I am finally snuggled in a flannel sheet clad twin bed next to my dear sweet hubby, also in a flannel clad twin bed in my old bedroom. The child passed out on the living room floor with her new Tangled horse, Maximus. Not the most cuddly of new toys... Last night I had to share said flannel clad bed with my dear sweet 5 year old. The dear child IS A BED HOG!! Tonight, I am exhausted, but of course I'll have trouble going to sleep. The kid was understandably up before dawn showed it's crack. I mean, before the crack of dawn! Yesterday I was a very patient and understanding mother and wife. I tend to freak out a little when we travel. I kinda hoped that we'd be on the road by say, 11am. That did not happen. I even posted on Facebook that I expected us to finally get around to leaving the house around 2pm. According to the clock in my car (which is 6 minutes fast) we left at 2:06pm. We rolled into my parents house around 6pm. Before we left I let my husband check, double check and triple check the house to make sure everything was off. I allowed our child to have a complete meltdown over which outfit she wasn't going to wear. I even made sure I laughed at the situation. Enough to keep me from going over the edge, but not so much to piss off the kid even more... I made chicken sandwiches for the road but forgot the salt and pepper - and napkins. I didn't freak out when it took us 15 minutes to get out of the gas station. I didn't freak out when the dog was whining and the kid was barking while hubby was in the beer store. We had Christmas burritos to look forward to - and I knew there would be champagne. We'll get there when we get there. The crazy kid greeted Oma and Papa wearing her dreaded traveling outfit and her reindeer antlers made in school of construction paper before she ran upstairs to change into her red velvet Christmas dress. The red velvet Christmas dress was made for me when I was Emma's age by my Mom. It is so pretty. There is a little white eyelet frock that goes with it - but Emma never liked that part of it. It looks too much like an apron. So, I have to say - I'm pretty proud of myself and my not freaking out! Saturday was mostly nice. My Father and I played a couple of games of double nines dominoes. Neither of us had played in years and years. I found out (like I really had any doubt) that my Father has no trouble calling me names and cursing at me. I kicked ass in the first hand - total annihilation! And, I did go on to win the game, too. I wonder if that's the reason my Daddy was cursing at me?! The child was pretty much out of control most of the day. I don't like the way she acts when she gets like this, but I completely get it. She's just so excited that she can't contain herself. The kid is in bed with me again tonight. Just since I started writing this, actually. Scott had lugged the sleeping kid up to her nest in Oma and Papa's room. She settled right in and seemed to be fine. Within an hour I heard the pitter patter of sweet little feet. She was headed right down stairs. I stopped her - what was I thinking?! She climbed right into my bed and snuggled in and passed out again. Sleeping this close to her and being as uncomfortable as I was did allow me to sleep lightly enough to hear all her nighttime mumblings. She talks a lot in her sleep. What I like the most is when she giggles in her sleep. She's a good, happy kid. Sunday morning when she had me up before dawn she did tell me that she tried to give me more space so that I would be more comfortable. Sweet girl! Sunday. Not a totally horrible day. Rough start... but, we dusted ourselves off and went on with our day, eventually. Mom made an as always wonderful breakfast. Emma, with her new notepad and pen in hand went around to take our egg orders. I was reminded of SNL's "Cheeseburger" sketch. We each ordered our eggs done differently - so we all got scrambled! Our eggs, that is! Scott and Jazzy and I left soon after. We spent too much time at the over priced and over crowded mall in Ithaca before making our way home. As we were cresting one of the hills before our home we witnessed one of the most beautiful wintry scenes. The trees were all white and frosty. It was still daylight - but not by much, and so cloudy and overcast that is was just grey. But, it all lent itself to the crisp frigid white trees. We saw a pick up pulled into a little driveway in the woods with a bunch of people just hanging out. Some were sitting on the tailgate and a few were just standing around. They waved vigorously to us. You could see that they were happy people. Happy people hanging out with people they love. It didn't matter where they were, it mattered who they were with. I miss my kid, but she'll be enjoying her winter break with with Oma and Papa. After all, I'm sure she could use the break from us! I'm just happy to be back home, mostly...more on that later.