Yes, there is snow in parts of California. Anyway, I'm up at my in-laws' new desert house, which is Leg 2 of my holiday travels. And what a long, strange journey it has already been.
Bill wanted to stay home and grade some of his finals before coming out to California (side note: he did not accomplish this goal), so Nathan and I headed out by ourselves last Thursday. As flights with Nathan go, this one went really, really well. We had the window and middle seats, and the woman sitting in the aisle seat was a little old lady who colored with Nathan for an hour and a half. Unfortunately the man in front of us was kind of a jerkwad. See, Nathan likes to climb down and sit down where your feet go. I let him as long at the seat belt sign is off, because I figure he's so tucked in down there he can't possibly go flying anywhere. So as he got up to reposition himself back in the seat, he jostled the seat in front of us, which the seat's occupant interpreted as kicking. He turned around and said, "Why don't you put him in the middle seat, because there's nobody sitting in front of it, and he can kick all he wants." He had a nasty tone he was unsuccessfully trying to hide. But whatever, because being in the middle seat put Nathan next to the old lady who enjoyed coloring, and she said he was very well-behaved.
My dad and stepmom picked us up at the airport. We went to Chipotle for dinner. I decided my vacation from Weight Watchers would begin then, and I got the chicken burrito. The one that comes in the tortilla, not the burrito bowl. Anyway, then when we got home, my dad had a flier entitled "Ten Foods You Should Never Eat," and guess what was on there? That's right, the Chipotle chicken burrito.
Ahh, but that was just the beginning of the poor eating choices.
Friday was Dad's House Christmas, because everybody else had plans on the actual Christmas with other branches of the family. (Side note, I have decided that Dad's House Christmas would be a good name for a band.) We all went to an Italian restaurant, which is a key staple of Dad's House Christmas, though the actual restaurant varies from year to year (or sometimes it's take-out). The restaurant was good and bad. Good because I had some kind of white pizza, and then we got this salted caramel budina (pudding) for dessert. I occasionally refer to the foodgasm, and this pudding was definitely foodgasmic. The bad thing about the restaurant is that restaurants are where things usually come to a head regarding my dad and stepmom's unrealistic expectations for Nathan's behavior. If he isn't sitting with his hands folded on the table, they say his behavior is inappropriate for a restaurant, and yell at him using the voice they use to yell at their dogs. In my opinion, if he is quiet and not bothering anybody else in the restaurant, and not performing any kind of eggregious breach of etiquette (e.g. standing on the table), that is successful restaurant behavior for a two-year-old. But the parents view things differently, and I was getting all kinds of insulted about how they viewed my parenting, and ... yay, fun lunch. But there was that pudding.
Repeating the mantra They mean well over and over in my head, I was able to rally and get into a better mood for the gift-opening back at my parents' house. Let me note here that Nathan is at a stage that makes gift-opening both adorable and totally obnoxious. To him, the pleasure is in the opening, and he will just incessantly tear open any box he sees. Then when all his gifts are opened, he gets upset that there is nothing else to open, despite the dazzling array of new toys that were underneath all that wrapping paper. Based on the behavior of my niece and nephews, I predict that this phase will last for approximately 10 more years.
Anyway, Nathan got some cool toys, his favorite being an airplane with a toy power drill to take it apart, and my favorite being his kid's digital camera. And guess what Bill and I got?! An Amazon Kindle! You know what you can do with an Amazon Kindle? You can have any book you want in an instant, for $10! I'm a little bit worried that this will severely diminish my library career, but we'll still patronize the library for children's books and cookbooks.
This is a picture taken with Nathan's new camera. As you can see, it's not going to win anybody any photo contests, but what do you want for a toddler's camera?
After all the festivities, my brother and sister-in-law went home and my dad and stepmom went over to their neighbors' for a party. This is when all the trouble started. My stepmom came home and passed out on the floor. This basically led to a train of events that went as follows: stepmom in hospital for tests --> brother, SIL, Nathan, and I had to go be the family reps at my stepmom's family party Saturday night -->blah, blah, blah family drama about how dad/stepmom sometimes keep us in the dark about serious medical situations -->stepmom stays in hospital all day Sunday but Dad takes Nathan and me to the beach/pier and out for a crepe breakfast -->stepmom gets out of hospital Monday in time for them to drive me to my in-laws' for Leg 2 of the trip (diagnosis: she shouldn't drink).
And while on the pier, we saw Santa. We got a free photo with him, but it may not have been worth it because Santa promised he would bring Nathan a toy that I had not purchased for him. At that point it was December 20, so I went and ordered that gift online, to be sent with $17 express shipping. I guess maybe I didn't have to do that. He could have just gone without the gift. But he had been asking for this particular gift for awhile, and I had just hoped it would be a birthday gift for him instead because it's a little bit large to haul back to Illinois. But then Santa promised he would bring it (this particular Santa having apparently flunked out of Santa 101, wherein you learn that you just promise a child that you will try to bring him a specific gift). So, bottom line, Nathan will be receiving the Cars Dinoco helicopter from Santa at my mom's house Christmas morning.
Here's our picture with Santa:
So, now I'm up in the desert with my in-laws. Bill flew in yesterday, which is nice because now I'm not on solo Nathan duty. Also there isn't much to do in the desert, so all you do is sit around, watch movies, surf the Internet, eat, and drink. It is awesome. I have eaten approximately 10,000 cookies since arriving.
We still have Christmas Eve and Christmas morning here, then we're heading into Leg 3 at my mom's house from Christmas day through the 28th. So, more updates to come ...
1 comment:
That SAnta needs a smack across his jolly cheeks! Glad you were able to still get it, but geez...
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