The Last Day of December 2014

The last of our Christmas/Holiday cards were put in the mail earlier this week. My 2015 holiday letter gave me an opportunity to sit down and write, which is something I’ve missed. Jobs, marriage, housekeeping, and kids tend to keep me from the keyboard and/or pen and paper. Even now, though the boys are not home, I am trying to write a quick introduction, while juggling five dogs, one of which is a puppy, insisting furniture makes a good chew toy.

The moment I sit down to write seems to trigger a beacon of light that shoots a message out to the world like a ‘bat signal’: “People of planet earth. Lenore is sitting down to write. Please, do whatever you can to distract her. The time is now.” Wait. Scratch that. Being that I am re-watching Doctor Who (the 9th and 10th Doctors), I think the message is controlled by the Daleks and quicker to the point: “AGGRAVATE! AGGRAVATE!”

Perhaps 2015 will bring with it more writing moments for me. We’ll see. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the following letter I sent to friends and family.

.:.

A DAY IN DECEMBER 2014

“Can we decorate the tree now?” Joe and Charlie asked in unison.

I looked up from my game of Candy Crush. I had recently entered Licorice Tower and was struggling on Level 382. “What?” I asked. Their heads looked blurry as my eyes slowly adjusted back to the real world.

“Can we decorate the tree now?” Joe asked alone.

“I don’t know – can you?” I replied.

“MOM!” Charlie sighed.

He’d stop calling me “Mommy” earlier in the year. It still felt odd hearing him say “Mom” instead of “Mommy”, but I was getting used to it.

“MAY we decorate the tree now?” He whined.

I nodded, and the boys bounced as they opened the bin filled with their Christmas tree decorations. Charlie wasn’t calling me “Mommy”, but they both still loved decorating the tree, and that made me happy.

As I watched them decorate, I started thinking about 2014. Being that it was already mid-December, I found it harder to ignore the pending New Year. Where had the time gone? What filled our days?

My cell phone chimed, and I glanced at the notification. A cousin ‘liked’ a picture I posted on Facebook. Seeing her ‘like’ reminded me of visiting with her and other family members on her Dad’s deck at the Shore. What a wonderful week we had at the Shore this year. It was different, being at the Shore without Uncle Don, but we spoke of him often – sharing memories in an effort to have him with us. It was nice, too, when we shared memories of Uncle Don and my Dad, who died 20 years ago.

This year we celebrated the 40^th year of the Brown/Christie Games. To pay tribute to the early years, we incorporated a few ‘old’ games into the competition. As we talked about which games to include, we reflected on the ones played by our elders like Skeet Shooting, which made my Dad famous. Well, he was famous in my mind.

Yeah. As I filed through the 2014 snapshots in my mind, I found myself focusing most on the memories made during our summer vacation in Amherst Shore, Nova Scotia. The other snapshots seemed run of the mill ordinary days consisting of me working and yelling, Joe pondering and arguing, Charlie charming and scheming, and Rob deliberating and dozing.

I felt myself tighten, as I thought about the time I spent working, parenting, and . . .

“Mom!”

Yep. Mom. I closed my eyes and nodded. That’s the word I hear repeated throughout the day, every day.

“Mom!”

Once again, I find myself trying to re-adjust my eyes to a blurred reality. I notice the tree is decorated, and . . .

“MOM! Did you hear me? Joe didn’t flush OR wipe the toilet seat!”

.:.

Happiest holiday wishes to you. Wishing you flushed toilets
and dry toilet seats in 2015 and always!