Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Slap Upside the Head


Every year it's the same damn thing, and it's my own fault.

I have an overactive imagination. I always envisioned lovely homey scenes of my daughters helping me make Christmas cookies, deck the halls, and generally get ready for our Christmas Eve dinner with guests, our traditional Christmas morning waffles and whipped cream and strawberries, and the semi-annual car trek to New York to see their Italian family.

Perhaps I read too much. I always envisioned scenes of Ma Ingalls, cooking and cleaning happily alongside Laura, Mary, Carrie, and Grace. Or those lovely March sisters lovingly assisting their beloved Marmie with all things Christmas.

Instead I get indifference to the cookies, requests to turn down the choral music so they can turn up the iTunes, snotty looks, grunts, and other nonverbal communication. I never read that Jo March and her sisters fought over the computer and who had to dust. And Laura certainly never told Ma Ingalls to just "chill" or "get over it!". Reality hurts.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Same thing here... I can't wait til it is there turn!

Sheleta said...

I am so glad God blessed mewith a boy. When he came out with a "tad pole", I nearly cried out Hallelujah! Those teenaged girls are something else, ain't they? And you thought they'd be interested in baking. Unless it's boys or Hanna Montana--it ain't THAT IMPORTANT! Ha ha ha ha! Girl they didn't show us what was going on in those commercial breaks--those Ingall girls were worse than the Hilton Sisters and more bratty than Hugh Heffner's Girls Next Door Playboy bunnies! In the commercial breaks, they were stabbing each other in the kitchen, putting laxatives in the cookies and doing meth!

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. Yeah. That. I gave up any active pursuit of holiday family goodness a long time ago because I always felt that I failed at it. I'd find myself wondering why I wasn't enjoying it like I thought I should.

They won't be teenagers forever. It will never the fantasy, but it can still be fun!

Kireliols said...

I have decided that Christmas is no longer my favorite holiday. I have the same condition-imagining that my family would gather round the kitchen, rolling out cookies and having a wonderful time listening to Boston Pops or Philidelphia Brass...and this year I bought those damn tickets to the Nutcracker...Husband brought home a Wii the night before- NOBODY wanted to go to the ballet- I have lowered my expectations and that has helped- I think it's okay if I don't make every Norwegian treat, or even any as is the case this year.

Halloween won't let you down, it is all about the candy and it doesn't even try to hide it under some Currier & Ives facade.

tshsmom said...

Do what I did one year-don't bake if they don't help-worked like a charm!

Merry Christmas to you and yours Mnmom!

Anonymous said...

Why do you think Mary went blind? Laura beaned her with the button hook because Mary used the last corn cob in the outhouse. It could be worse. You could be stuck in the 1800's with teenage girls and NO TAMPONS. Think about it.

MommyLisa said...

Try envisioning this...

Teenage step-daughter brings her boyfriend to YOUR parents house and they crawl all over and paw each other ALL DAMN NIGHT.

I am the step-mom, what am I supposed to say? I mean he is KISSING her in the ear and neck on the couch NEXT to her father???

That is definitely NOT my child. I wanted to barf. I realize it is out in the open, but from what I recall the girls that made out in the open did not have that good of a reputation in school.

Anonymous said...

This stinks (well, not the part about having cookies on hand), but rest assured that the girls *will* remember all this in 10 or 15 years - when it matters. They might not remember how much work you put into it, or how *ahem* adolescent they were, but they will remember how your house seemed like a holiday home.

laurie said...

that's the edition of "Little Women" that i had. i wanted those skirts!!

merry christmas!

themom said...

I can sympathize with ya on this one. Same issues here. Hope you had a great Christmas...and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Anonymous said...

Christmas Slap Upside the Head
___________________
Julie
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