The Holidays

Luna draws the cutest little stick figures with the BIGGEST bug eyes. Aaron had her draw one on the little pumpkin she picked at the pumpkin patch and he carved it out. I wished so badly that that pumpkin would last forever. Luna still loves Halloween fanatically, to my Halloween hating heart’s dismay. I am holding out hope that she will switch to Christmas like her Mama one day.

One day Rachel mentioned that a co-worker of her’s has a Thanksgiving tradition with his family. They have a full blown Lord of the Rings day. They dress up and make themed foods. It sounded so amazing to us that we did our own smaller version at my house the Saturday after Thanksgiving. And it was so fun!! I marathon Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit every November anyway because they feel really magical to me. Like a pre-Christmas movie. We ate food all day and watched two of the movies back to back. I hope we continue this new tradition for years.

I went to New York with Shelly to visit Abby. She lives in the cutest village outside the city. We ate amazing Italian pizza. We walked around her little village Christmas square after dark. We went to the city on the second day. We saw the 911 memorial. It felt surreal to stand in the street and think about the people who stood there watching the tower fall. I had forgotten so many memories that came flooding back in that moment. Watching the towers falling on tv. Getting frantic phone calls. Holding my grandmother’s hand. I felt a little glimpse into how it must feel as a New Yorker, the bonding of grief as they experienced it all first hand.

We saw the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller center which felt less Home Alone than I had hoped, but still amazing. We ate incredible Japanese food. We saw SO many beautiful buildings and storefronts. And finally we went to the Harry Potter store for me. I was in heaven! I loved it so much. And a huge kawaii store in Times Square! My head was spinning trying to take in all the cute stuff there. But I think, outside of the Harry Potter store obviously, my favorite part was how heavily decorated Abby’s village was for Christmas. It was a Hallmark movie.

We took some vacation time for Christmas and New Years. We got a fresh tree to replace my fake one that’s been up since Nov 1st. We dragged a mattress downstairs by the tree and all slept down there for a few nights (another great tradition that will happen every year now I think!). I got almost no pictures during Christmas other than a few of that morning. But we had such a good time kicking back with firepits, reading Narnia out loud for Luna, wrapping gifts, going for walks, watching movies in our “family bed”, decorating cookies, putting together puzzles (I got 4 puzzles for my bday! I turned 40!). We went to see the lights downtown. We got peppermint hot cocoa from Bakery by the Lake. It was a super fun time. One of my favorite things was how often Luna said “family”. It’s a big deal to her right now that we are all together as a family. A family should sleep together. We should read and color together. We should have family time at the firepit. Dinner time is family time. Church is for families. If she dressed up, she asked,”Does my family like this princess dress?” And frequently,”I love my family”. She was personally affronted when we put the mattress back upstairs,”Oh I see!! You do not love FAMILY!” (she’s a master manipulator)

Also an October Christmas tree story. I love Christmas. I have every decoration up on November 1st. And I started choosing and buying gifts in August. I use a fake tree to start with since I don’t want a dead tree after a few weeks. But this year I asked Aaron to take us up in the mountains to cut a tree for our back patio 3 days before Halloween. So we went up the mountain. And, in the sight of forest rangers sitting in their truck, we chopped down the tree, tied it to the top of our Jeep, and then headed down the mountain back home. The rangers had left to go give someone else a ticket a few minutes earlier. We passed them on the road. The ranger made eye contact with Aaron as he handed a ticket over to the driver of the other car. And then he literally RAN BACK TO HIS TRUCK. Whipped a U-turn. Pulled us over. And nonchalantly began to say things like,”Do you have a permit for this tree. You have damaged public property. You know that can’t be undone. Can’t replant this tree. You’re gonna have to follow us back to the office sir.” So we followed him. Aaron said,”Dang it they’re gonna take this tree from us and dump it.” I was like,”What? Hahahha! There is no way that’s happening! It would make no sense to throw out a perfectly good tree! They’re taking us down there to buy the permit! “Sadly, Aaron was right. We got down to the office. The rangers blocked the driveway with their truck like, I don’t know, we would try to flee to Central America with this Charlie Brown tree and our two babies in the backseat. They walked over to us and said,”So did anyone look at you like you were stupid as you drove off with this tree? Haha! We don’t even sell permits this early! Take the tree off the car, sir. Put it over there by the door.” Luna had her window down this entire time and was crying her head off out the window. “Why are you taking my treeeeeee?? Do you haaaaate Christmas?????” They ignored her cheerfully. At this point I was truly speechless with rage. They handed us a ticket for $215.00. We headed home. Luna cried the entire way, even when we stopped for a chocolate shake at McDonalds. When we got home, my brain finally kicked in and I googled the permits. They had been available to purchase for 3 weeks at that point and I bought one for $5. FIVE DOLLARS. I was no longer speechless with rage. I was FIRED UP, and had Aaron drive me back to their office. He said on the way,”I will NOT go inside there with you”. I was ready for confrontation. Which would have been likely pointless, but I’d have felt better and I was going home with that tree they took. Luna asked,”Are we going to defeat the bad guys?? (I said yes, with money) Don’t worry little happy tree! We are coming to get you!” It was the biggest let down to go to their door only to find it locked. They had closed! And they had already dumped our tree. So we went back up the mountain in the dark and chopped a second tree. Thankfully with that $5 permit, we avoided damaging public property this time. Anyway, our $220 tree is still happily lit up on our back porch. It looks like it’s worth exactly $5 and we all have hard feelings about it.