Bittersweet Friends

Winterale. Mulled wine, pumpkin spice lattes, rum and eggnog, gingerbread men, reindeers, mittens–oh mittens! Rosy cheeks, hustle and bustle, It’s a Wonderful Life at 2 a.m.

Christmas has crept up on me again, the sneaky bastard. I have this terrible habit of buying calenders and then not turning the pages until 3 days before the next month arrives. I never know the date. I am stuck back around December 6th, and here it is, not a week left until Christmas A WEEK AFTER CHRISTMAS (thank you wordpress for allowing this procrastinator to save a draft!). This year, my family decided to put a $15 buying limit on gifts, but with a strong suggestion to hand-make presents. I’m thrilled beyond belief at this idea, not because I myself have any shred of creative ideas on what to make people, but rather because I’m secretly hoping that my parents are going to make me things. My parents are the most creative, talented people around, and although I largely took it for granted growing up, as the years pass my awe for them grows. With each new guy I meet who can’t change a tire, doesn’t own a screwdriver, and can’t singlehandedly construct a car  from steel and fiberglass (seriously, he’s doing this), doesn’t whittle tiny gnomes out of driftwood, or  who can’t build a robot out of nothing but string and bubblegum (ok, this wasn’t my dad, but rather MacGyver, but still…) I get increasingly more discouraged. Where are all the people who can DO stuff? Like real, hands-on stuff? This creates an awfully high bar, unfortunately and likely the reason why I’m 31 and still single, but those things are still very impressive, and important! Particularly if my desire to run away to a deserted cabin continues.  And I know, I know – I am just as capable of learning to do these things myself, and I am the slightest bit intimidated by power tools or getting dirty,but there are other things I ALSO would like to learn how to do, like cook properly, handsew quilts, sail a boat, become a beekeeper, tend a lighthouse, tie knots, grow a gigantic garden, crack safes, and solve world peace. You know, the simple things in life.

Christmas was quiet and homey. I love that my folks live here in BC, and that there are members of our extended family who also share the holidays with us. My dad made me a gorgeous jewelry box out of cedar, with lovely red lining – sanded until it’s surface is so smooth it is everything I can do to not sit with it in my lap and pet it like a kitten. My mom gave me an awesome book with all her favorite recipes printed in it, including those passed down from my grandmother who died several years ago. Although I don’t regularly cook (unless you consider opening the yogurt container and spooning it into my mouth while standing at the counter, cooking) I ASPIRE to cook more. I aspire to try to be a little bit more like my parents and learn how to do things the proper (old-fashioned?) way. The non out-of-a-box way. The non just-add-water way, the non confusing-swedish-diagram-deciphering way. I could come up with a gigantic list of things I would like to do this coming year, and I’m sure I will talk about that a little in the coming weeks, but until then I wanted to finish up this Christmas post. I raise my glass to you.

I hope everyone is having amazing holidays – whether they involve trees, candles, fat men, dradles, stockings, reindeer, eggnog lattes, babies in barns, or a combination of all of the above (fat men in stockings?). The best to you in 2010! A new decade begins!