If she said we partied, then I'm pretty sure we partied. I really don't remember...I remember we departed from our bodies.

post holiday blog

Well the big day came and went and overall the holiday season this year has been one of the best in recent memory, if only because all I really wanted this December was time spent at home and I got lots of it.

The kids are in a really fun in-between age in their magical holiday beliefs and it's interesting to listen to them both assert their logic over the crazy things adults tell them and, at the same time, hedge their bets just in case it's all true.
Owen decided that the elves, of all things, were the least plausible part of the whole concoction and told us that he saw through our story, he knew that Santa makes all the toys himself. The last couple weeks have been full of stuff like that, the kids have these moments that are just so damn cute you have to laugh at them, give them a big hug and remember that all this is still pretty fantastic to them - and that makes the rest of it pretty damn worthwhile.

This is what helps me settle calmly into middle age and the quieter things instead of missing the "fun" of the keg-party we used to look forward to every Xmas day. Nothing says Merry Chistmas like not having to wonder if someone's going to get wasted enough to pull a gun over a cigarette or slash their wrists open. Quiet middle age certainly has its appeal.

oh, and we got snow.
Leading up to the whole thing there's the usual hype, the usual bitching about the hype and the usual preparing for the stupidity that is snowfall in Minnesota. Got my scraper, bookmarked the City of Minneapolis Parking Rules page, left plenty of extra time to get everywhere to do anything, no matter how close. Check, check and double check.
In the middle of all that it's really easy to be a grumpy adult about the whole thing - until you wake up with 2 little kids that are excited to get outside and just PLAY in it. They don't care about the cold, they don't care if they get wet, they don't think about shoveling or anything else. And it was a nice reminder.
I got on a sweater and flannel pants (didn't even need a coat, it was actually the warmest you're ever going to get on a nice, snowy day) and boots to shovel the sidewalk and was fully prepared to just grumble about all this white crap until the boys got waist-deep in it, got pulled down to the mailbox in the sled by mom (it's like we live in a Norman Rockwell painting sometimes) and were just having fun.
It's good to get a reminder not to be such a curmudgeon and to enjoy it. It'll be -30 and potentially fatal to play outside soon enough. I don't really care if it takes me a little longer to get places, since it's the holidays and I don't really have anywhere to be anyhow. Sledding and snowballs and snowforts ensued. Life is good.

Winter here is always funny.
I know it's a matter of regional pride that we bundle up and endure what, on paper, sounds like the last place you'd ever want to choose to live. When I see places like northern Alaska or the Arctic in movies and catch myself thinking "how the hell do people LIVE there?" I also wonder if that's what we look like to the rest of the country. Like a bunch of insane idiots that have just tuned out the fact that we're standing in the middle of something that would pass for a mediaval version of Hell on the right day. But no, we can't tune it out, the shock on people's faces when we casually tell them it's going to be -40 with a -75 windchill is our only real reward.
That's right. We're crazy....and you should really be afraid of our hobos.
When the zombies and robots come and the bombs fall we will be protected by an wall of indestructible panhandlers.
Seriously, I'm going to make billions as soon as I can figure out how to weaponize those people..... ahem.

Anyway.

The tree is now packed up and put away with the rest of the decorations, the new toys have been assimilated into the house and almost everything is assembled correctly - the family is taking a little trip over New Year's Eve that the wife has been dreaming about and, even though the thought of being away from home usually fills me with dread these days, I'm excited to depart for a bit and keep this stretch of concentrated family time going in a warmer setting.