Every year we start December with that same feeling you have waiting in line for a roller coaster.
As we stand in the snaking line, listening to the riders screaming from the ride, we try to remember, why did we want to come back for more?
Where were the twists and dips and stressful parts to watch out for? Standing in line, we honestly can’t remember why this roller coaster was so fun.
Why last year, when we finished December, we said, “THAT WAS CRAZY!”
Here’s what it is, December has some real high points. Some top-of-the-world moments with family and friends.
But, as any roller coaster rider knows: whatever goes up, must come down.
FIrst and foremost, that’s been our health.
‘Tis the season for runny noses, sore throats, cough, and the flu. Some combination of all of those has struck our house in a viral spiral that’s knocked us flat. The hacking cough, the fevers, the whiny kids…just like a dramatic roller coaster dip, it kind of came out of the blue.
Except it didn’t, of course. Classmates have been absent all week with the same symptoms. Every time a salesperson handed my my credit card, they also seemed to cough all over it. I sat next to a sickie at a meeting last week who blew his nose no less than twenty times.
The Christmas Crud was going around and it wasn’t long before it took us down.
As I write this from my sick bed, I can tell you that doing the holiday hustle is much harder this way. The high of our super productive Christmas season has fallen, it seems.
Another high, the excitement of finding the perfect gift for everyone on my list, has also plummeted to the icky December 21 doldrums of wondering if these gifts are enough.
We only get our kids three gifts, and they all seem a little blah this year. It’s everything they asked for, everything they’re expecting to get. The presents I bought in November now seem a little stale. I’m tempted to order a Wii or some big surprise gift for the family, just to have a sparkly Christmas morning.
The downside of that would be that we would have a Wii.
And we’re already dealing with enough ups and downs of December.
x4.
Yesterday was the last day before Christmas Break.
The kids walk out of school higher than a hippie. Carrying loads of gifts and treats and ice cream cones decorated to look like Christmas trees and amped up on sugar, they ran to the minivan…
…to. start. seventeen. days. of. nothing.
These kids, who are used to eight hours a day of stimulation and recess and basketball practice burst into our house on Friday afternoon to do….nothing?
If you’ve seen this quick plummet of spirits and activity level, you know, the Kid Christmas Break Transition is ugly.
Even Santa himself coming to our house to roast marshmallows for the kids could not compare with the joy of the last day of school before break.
Mom’s idea of making foam ornaments?
Yeah. Let’s call it a new low for kids in the transition.
They were not having it.
BUT we do have the high of Christmas Day coming soon!
Yeaaa!
Except, as we all know, whatever goes up, must come down.
