Zac's back to the holidays in 2000 words or less

Poor Zac is having chronic back issues. He slept on the couch Friday night. He seems to forget that although he is only 33, his body is much older and can’t always take the body contortions needed in order to get a fitful rest on the couch. We are having races on who will get hips, knees and ankles replaced first. Due to my incorrectly healed broken hip at 16, I call dibs on hip replacement first. Zac can have knees.

As soon as we arrived at Mom’s house, she very kindly gave him a muscle relaxer to ease the pain while we opened Hanukah gifts and went out for a Hanukah Mexican meal. He took two and then in pure journalistic style, followed it with a bourbon. A hefty one. I know this b/c I was the pourer of said hefty bourbon. To make a long story short… he spent the rest of the evening in a vague fog. Limping his way through the evening and informing Mom and Steve not to engage him b/c, like an injured animal, he might lash out. The rest of the evening was very calm for Zac. He received a lovely Mont Blanc pen and a $75 gift card to Borders. Wonderful gifts for a budding writer!

For Isaac, the evening proved far more exciting. The second we rang the doorbell he was pulling open the door and screaming how excited he was that we had finally arrived. Our hearts were touched at the thought that our only son was so happy to see us after a night away. However, it turned out, us being there meant that the gift bonanza was about to begin. He quickly pointed out each gift, who it was for and what it was. There were only 2 out of around 10 that he didn’t know. Somehow, Mom and Steve were able to keep a select few secrets. A good thing since those two turned out to be his favorites.

Hanukah is phase 1 of the dreaded holiday season. This year, it falls at the end of the first week of December. Woo freakin’ hoo. My holidays start early. I really dislike Christmas. Hanukah is hardly a blip on my radar, but I don’t really like it either. I don’t mean to be all humbug, but…I mean, I like the lights and the music and the festive sense of fun in the air. I don’t even mind the mall as long as it is on an early Monday, early in the season. What I don’t completely enjoy is all the gift-giving. Especially at a time when I am trying to PURGE my minimal-in-theory-house to actually become minimal. My mom is pretty good about all this. She buys us gift cards, things we ask for specifically, etc. My dad generally does the same. They do this for both myself and Zac. Isaac is another story. No sooner have I cleaned his room of toy crap, Hanukah rolls around and more toy crap is accumulated. Then, even more dreaded than Hanukah, is Christmas. Zac’s parents follow the “quantity over quality” theory. They get us about 60% unnecessary crap, 20% somewhat necessary crap, and 20% stuff we ask for (mostly books & CDs). Last year I was on top of things and gave them a pretty specific list of stuff we wanted. So, last year wasn’t too bad. This year I just never got around to it. I look at everything they buy for all 3 of us and cringe wondering where I’m going to put it all. I am hoping, though, that b/c they are paying our way to Boston for Christmas, they will have assumed that is our gift and only give us a few book and movies from the list we gave them. We’ll see. I expect the worst and hope for the best.

Back to Isaac’s toy crap from my mom and Steve. He welcomed each and EVERY gift with an ecstatic “OOOOOHHHH!!!” Even the ones he knew about. It is so much fun to watch a toddler open gifts. They are full of such unabashed joy and pleasure. He got a Casey Jones action figure that is on its way from Ebay (Mom and Steve went to 3 places looking for the obscure TMNT toy until they realized it is out of production). He also got 2 Star Wars figures, a Dinosaur pop up, a dinosaur figure set, a TMNT figure, a Power Range sword, a Star Wars laptop game (from us), a Buzz Light Year toy, and his two favorites… an amazing Star Wars pop up and a 2’ T-Rex.

I got everything I wanted. A wood salad bowl set with matching tongs, a mini vegetarian cookbook and white bath towels that should be here sometime in January. Maybe in time for my new tissue paper holder.

Mantra for the season, “It is less than a month and I am going to New York.”