Friday, November 29, 2013

Looking toward Yule

The kids woke early today despite later bed hours last night.  Today was the day we would remove all traces of Harvest and fall celebrations and begin to ready our home and hearts for Yule.  Except I sort of woke feeling like death.  My cold which has up to now been light, had decided to become this icky resident of my chest and has also pretty much robbed me of vocalization.  Seriously, not being able to talk is up there with prime torture methods for me.  Sheesh!

But by 7 I was up and they were breakfasted and we were all ready on the way to undecorating from fall.  My Mom and G were also due to come down at some unspecified time.  Mom always expects something nice to eat when she arrives. Not a problem if you know "when" that arrival will be.  I sort of had to wing it and started apple scones about 9:30.  They only had 4 more minutes left to bake when the grandparents pulled in, so I did pretty well.  They polished off scones, coffee and tea, chatted. (yup that was great for my larygitis. . . especially since G is hard of hearing and one must really project for him to hear you )  The kids were thrilled to see them.  My mom gets the kids special ornaments each year to put on the tree.  It was important to her that they be there today as she knew we put our tree up early.  I love her commitment to our kids and to making traditions and memories with them.

KC is especially enarmoured of all things Christmas.  He absolutely adores all aspects of the holiday.  The gift making. The giving. The singing. The dancing. The decorations.  He can not get enough of it.  Today while we were decorating our dining room, he said he was thinking of his birth mom Y.  I said that made sense to me and that maybe it was time for him to think about writing her a letter or card and deciding on some pictures that we would send.  I said that usually when I find myself thinking about someone, I find that it is when I need to reach out and let them know that they have been on my mind and in my heart. He seemed at ease from that.  I can literally see the tension in his body relax as the conversation progresses. So I will follow up with him this weekend to make sure he has what he needs to do this and see if he needs or wants any help from me.  However though the conversation went well, he was edgy and prone to arguing and crying over other things most of the day.  This wasn't solely due to thinking about Y. I know he was also exhausted. It has been a busy few days and he puts his heart and soul into entertaining.  Lissa sort of goes with the flow and just pulls back when she starts feeling tired.  KC doesn't do that and depletes his energies more.

 Things basically were okay till late in the day. Mom and G had gone, the majority of the decorating had happened, and he just became a pill.  The first squabble I said I thought he seemed very tired as we don't do thus and so. So I would help him by changing his bedtime to 7:15.  A few more tears were shed for effect and he stopped.  K and I were too tired to cook and decided to order Chinese food. Another fit ensued.  How could we pick such a horrid supper?  Drama.  Apparently at this point I again pointed out how tired he was and offered to help by changing his bedtime to 7 p.m.  The thing is, I don't really remember that.  But by evening I could barely talk and wasn't all there myself. So after supper when he socked Robbie, I went in, guns blazing.  He told me it was an accident.  I disagreed.  He apologized to his brother. I acknowledged that this was a great way to start mending things. . . and said that he must be very tired and needed to go to bed at 7.  At which point he turned to me with big teary eyes and said "you ALLREADY said 7, I have to go to bed at 6:45!!!"  And we both started laughing and talked about how I am tired and a little sick as well and gee, lets just get to bed and do tomorrow better. Because really, we are about caring for each other.  And we hugged and he went to bed. And I think, went right to sleep.  It is 9:30. I am probably not far from bed either!

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