This must be a new low in blogging: blogging about topics that happened a year ago. But you know how sometimes there's special times or memories that you just don't want to forget? Holidays especially. Here are some things that I found in a blog draft (or actually a self-addressed email draft) from last Christmas. YES, THAT MEANS XMAS 2007.
Once in a while, usually while driving through our new town or while unpacking at our new house, I stop and think about what has happened in the last year. A year ago, we were still just getting the word out to our local friends that we intended to move. But nothing had really happened except for our exploratory trip to Boston. We hadn't even decided whether Boston or DC at this point last year. And here we are a year later, not just moved, but moved into our permanent home. D&D didn't believe we would do it this fast and therefore planned on a holiday without us. Sometimes I can't believe that we finally did it.
But back to 2007...
Part of what made Xmas 2007 special was time with my brother and sister-in-law. Since they've lived in Asia now for upwards of 4 or 5 years, opportunities to hang out with them are few and far between. And it's nice to hang out with them because they don't have kids and therefore, to me, are inherently more interesting to talk to. Well, and they ARE more interesting than my usual crowd of moms or engineers. They're journalists who at their very core are inquisitive and are versed in a range of topics. Okay, well, at least that describes my Pulitzer prize winning and Olympic torch bearing sister-in-law. My brother is still my brother. :-)
Xmas 2007 will remain in my memory as the Wii Christmas. No, we didn't buy or receive a Wii (and based on our addiction that vacation, we probably never should get one) but my brother actually brought his from Asia! Even Tobey and Eli were addicted -- they'd wake up in the morning and especially if it was Tom or Andrew who was up with them in the morning, within half an hour, they'd all be in the basement playing Mario's Beijing Olympics on the Wii. Tobey got the hang of javelin, fencing and bowling. He also got the hang of the hammer throw which he demonstrated with one of his stick shaped toys when we got home (!). Eli would often parrot whatever the Wii said -- nothing funnier than hearing a 2.5 year old say with an evil tone, "Maaaario!". We made Mii's of everyone and even got my dad to play golf. And were introduced to other wacky games Andrew had like bunnies that danced to the beat or trying to hide from a boss while you goofed off at work.
But by far the event that made this the Wii Christmas was the late night tennis matches between us and Andrew. Yes, that is "us" (plural) and Andrew (singular). It was clear he was the Wii veteran and us the rookies because playing tennis he was sitting in a chair just flicking his wrist while Tom and I were just short of running the length of my parents' cavernous basement reenacting real tennis. He'd easily beat us 2 against 1 playing LEFT handed as Tom and I would use our daylight Wii time obsessively trying to perfect the timing of the power serve. Just when we'd get to the point of almost beating him then he'd up his game playing right handed and when we got closer even still, then he played true doubles with our visiting cousin as his doubles partner. Night after night we'd challenge them until 2AM in the morning, laughing and yelling in the basement, breaking for Klondike bars, while the rest of the family slumbered two flights of stairs away. Finally, the night came when Tom and I actually beat Andrew and Chris and just to make sure, we played a couple more hours to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Probably after 20 matches or so, we could claim 3 as victorious.
And boy were we sore.
Other memories from Christmas a year ago: we spent Christmas with Tom's parents in Pittsburgh. The best gift they gave us was the gift of sleeping in each morning. The boys would wake up and thank goodness they'd just wander downstairs where they'd usually find Nai-Nai or Yeh-Yeh more than willing to give them breakfast. There were days we slept in until 8:45! Ahhh, I'm excited just thinking about it since in a couple weeks we're going back! We also waited with anticipation the arrival of the Christmas card from one of my friends from MIT/church in Boston. His life is insane -- 4, or is it 5?, kids, no kidding each year we get a card there's always a baby announcement in there, he works full time, he does a night program MBA or PhD...or both...and he preaches part time at his church, all while enjoying time with his dozen of children while supporting his wife who homeschools them all. We used to feel pretty lame after reading his letter until two years ago when we realized that he's not normal and life is not a competition. And now we like reading his Christmas letter to laugh at ourselves and embrace our slacker lifestyle.
The last "full circle" moment from last year's Christmas to this year's is Life. I'm not being philosophical, I mean Life, the board game. For those with the same opportunity as we do to go to your parents home and dig up old "vintage" classic stuff from your childhood, you'll understand the thrill of finding a board game that you haven't seen in 30 years and getting to play it with your own kids. Tobey's a little young (and we always played while Eli napped) but he knows enough of how to play a board game that we played it with him. It was hilarious and unexpectedly a great way to springboard conversation about, well, life! For one thing, I chose not to go to college, much to Tom's dismay. "Don't follow Mommy's example, Tobey", was Tom's fatherly advice. Turns out that we made about the same amount of salary, college educated or not, giving Tobey a lesson that there are different kinds of smart and one can make it in life even without the treasured diploma. See if I still feel the same in 13 years when Tobey announces he's skipping college to be a painter (his latest "what I wanna be when I grow up" is a painter, and I'm not talking an artist painter, I'm talking a painter of walls, like the guys who have been coming to our house everyday for two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving). Life was also a good way to introduce Tobey to money and the larger money amounts, most of which just flew over his 4 year old head. Jump ahead to 2008 and I just bought our own game of Life. I guess something about being holed up in a house on a cold day conjures up memories of wanting to play Life.
Thinking back of 2007's Christmas memories in DC and Pittsburgh really grounds me. So much has happened to us this year but I can remember all of those memories like it happened yesterday. Finally, as I look back at my list of things to blog about from a year ago, it's kind of funny to see some things not change all that much. I marked down that on 1/21 I packed my first box after weeks of procrastinating. Now I look at my big pile of boxes to UNpack and I feel like procrastinating all over again. I also wrote that I was excited to "purge" a lot of stuff as I packed, not wanting to take too much extra junk with us to our new life in Boston. Now I am still excited to purge a lot of stuff, which begs the question, just how much completely useless junk did we have if there enough for me to want to purge twice?? I have "school conundrum" jotted down, which I think back then meant whether to register Tobey for Yew Chung kindergarten not knowing if his school would return my deposit when we moved away. Now I face a different school conundrum of whether/when to tell the district we moved at the risk of them forcing Tobey to switch schools midway through the school year.
It's weird to think that things can change and yet stay the same at the same time. Our whole environment has changed and yet looking back a year, especially at Christmas time, there are some things that surprisingly and thankfully ground us and stay the same.
