2008-01-07

It was a good Christmas and the first half of the trip (2000 miles all told) was much much better than I had anticipated. Especially when you figure that it started off being delayed a day due to weather. (although it turns out husband didn't think we should have travelled at all and the traveling made him really really grumpy, which I'll get to later--if not today then perhaps a post of its own) We had an easy time at my mom's house, and a pretty good time at SIL and BIL's house. I had been dreading the latter, because of just how germphobic and anal SIL can be sometimes. But when I think that, I tend to forget that she's also a very nice person, and I like her a lot. Fortunately, this trip reminded me of that.
My mom's house is always an interesting time. Husband won't eat leftovers at her house unless he's seen her make them the first time (and I won't unless I know when she made them, which is the point). My mom went a little cookie crazy and made a new batch of cookie every single day we were there. Turns out she was having her own Sister in law moment, and was trying to come up with a drop dead great cookie to bring to pop's family get together. In the end, I ended up with a recipe that everyone seemed to love, and I'll probably make it for the girls' birthday treat.

We came home for a few days, did the Christmas thing. Amy and Emily were amazed at Santa's magic, but Amy kept complaining about the few crumbs he left, which we found hilarious. The girls love the castle that husband and I got for them, and spent the next two days playing with it.

Then on to Chicago, for the MLA convention. I haven't been to MLA in years, so I had forgotten just how boorish English professors, and English prof wannabes can be. If you ever find yourself in a town where the convention is, play this game that husband and I used to play: pick the rudest and/ or most oblivious person in any crowd. Then look for their MLA badge. Invariably they will be wearing one. In our pre-kid days we would sometimes follow obnoxious people that we weren't sure about until we saw them either enter a conference hotel or don a badge, but as I recall that was also in the warmer climes of MLA. The girls did wonderful in the city. They snapped tons of pictures of our hotel room with the digital cameras MIL got them (some I've posted on flickr). We saw the field museum, and the art Institute museum. Both were crowded. At the field, we met up with friends, and ended up spending a little more time there than we planned, and seeing a less of some stuff that I thought the girls might be interested in. Also, we didn't get a mold-a -rama, which made me sad. The art Institute, was a great time. We happened upon "holly days" which meant story times and crafts. So we toured the miniatures, had a story, toured the touch gallery, made a craft then had lunch and met up with husband who was really good at explaining art to the girls. They saw the "dot painting" and decided that it didn't look as easy as they initially thought.

Probably the highlight of the trip for me was... oh wait there were two. First, my Christmas present was a trip to loopy yarns, unaccompanied by children. That was so much fun. I took the bus back tot he hotel, and felt like > Mimi smartypants when a fight broke out on the bus, except I am a hick and was more scared than amused. I bought some seasilk yarn and so am debating what I make. I may name whatever I make (in ravelry) after the crazy bus fight which seemed to consist of "don't call me a motherfucking girl I is older than yo ugly face." repeated about 20 times. How does "motherfuckign ugly lady shawl" sound? Ok maybe not. :)
Item two was getting together with a bunch of friends from college, at Heaven on Seven. A good brunch was had, and better visiting. I'm not sure what else to say about that.

We then hiked over to my brother's house in one of the suburbs of the suburbs. It was at this point that Christmas got a little out of control/greedy. My brother and his wife have such different values from us, and each time we visit that just gets more and more clear. They've remodeled their (new) house and added the wood that my brother's wife swore when they built, that she hated. They've made the basement a toy room/ living room. I suppose one where they can really "live" instead of keeping everything so pristine. They have a 54 inch or some sort of monstrosity TV down there. They made us sleep down there, while the girls slept on the second floor--28 fucking stairs away. I should know, I made that trip three !@#$% times from 11pm to 6am. At least I didn't fall. Then of course we opened about $1000 worth of stuff that we didn't need. Well we did that before sleeping, but man that was a lot of stuff. It didn't stop my nephew C from whining about he hadn't gotten anything he "really" wanted like a Wii or a power strip. I guess my mom wanted to get him a power strip but my brother said no-- and for good reason, the child would burn their house down I'm sure. It was quite overwhelming. Of course then we had to have the "charity" discussion, as my brother's wife is in junior league and she's all proud of all the "good stuff" they do. I'm all for "good stuff" for others, but bemoaning the fact that twice as many kids need winter coats this year as last, while giving equal amounts of cash to people whose economic policies have put those kids there feels maddening.

We came home angry. Husband was very angry at having to travel through snow, ice, wind, fog--you name it we drove through it--so we could "be all together" for the present madness (we don't know who got the girls one of the gifts because they didn't want to sit with us and it was a mad house), and then bring home tons of toys that not only did we not need, but will break in the next week. Partially, it is my fault. I didn't tell my mom how much the girls and I need some sort of movement experience in the winter--and how much a class at the community center would be enjoyed . I didn't give her much guidance at all. Also, we've never sat everyone down and told them how much we dislike having to brave the roads to visit them in December. We've never explicitly stated our goal of raising non greedy kids who think of others. Those are hard conversations to have. But I need to have them (my family --so I need to do the talking--husband has had tough conversations with his family). All in all, we came home from my brother's house feeling not only angry but sad (sad that we have become so different) and convinced we need to have a different Christmas experience next year.

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