Better-ing It PART 1
It’s bar none, my favorite time of the year. The older I get, the thinner my skin and I just have to say, winter is NOT what it used to be. I would dream of skiing (the downhill kind because there is something about the adrenalin that is released with gravity and speed when you take the whole hill in a tuck!). I could play outside as a kid for hours in the snow-my older brother leading the way in making a snow fort. He conceived ideas I never would have and made life far more interesting and adventurous. I am sure I was a pain in his neck but I just thought he was the coolest. Growing up in Montana, we had a LOT of snow. A LOT of cold. And we ‘bettered it’ by finding ways to capitalize on the fact that we had tons of white fluffy stuff that afforded us opportunities we didn’t have when it is 90 degrees out.
Now that I’m older that whole thin-skin thing has taken hold and there is quite a bit more effort that goes into my staying warm than just a handful of years ago. I don’t get it. It’s a marvel. One day you can thermoregulate and the next you can’t. Thank God for down. Down coats, down throws, down slippers, down quilts-It’s a marvel how insulating down is. Thank God for ducks! I grew up with poly-fiber fill, (not down) and believe you me, it’s not even in the same universe in terms of keeping one warm-think light-years in difference. But Lord, was I rockin’ my little rainbow jacket and Dorothy Hamill haircut of the 80’s-I was a stylish little popsicle.
The holidays are upon us. I’m making my shopping lists. Turkey (get now-I hear there is a shortage this year), sour cream, potatoes, pumpkin, scallions, whipped cream, etc…..
We got our jingle on this weekend and decked our halls. We can’t help ourselves and can’t wait. We started counting about 12 weeks ago when we could officially start listening to Christmas music and blocked time on the calendar the weekend we would put the tree up. I love EVERYTHING about it. So does my hubs. We love putting up our 10 foot faux tree decked with the fir scentscicles (if you aren’t familiar-they are tiny wooden dowels, dyed pine-green and impregnated with fir essential oil-brilliant invention!) We have a woodstove, so a fresh tree would last about 10 minutes before shedding needles at the rate of 5,000 a day. That and….I’m allergic to every tree, grass, pollen, mold, every possible environmental allergen known to man. But that’s another topic for another day. Where was I going? Oh-right…the holidays and better-ing it!
What our holidays aren’t, are the Folger’s commercial. They aren’t the Hallmark made for tv movie. They aren’t stress-free. I grew up in a family where the motto, ‘The More The Merrier’ really was a thing. Though we enjoyed our share of dysfunction, it was mixed with many memories of family and holidays and laughter and messes and food and games and a fireplace crackling with what my mom called her 7-butt hearth loaded with several butts on it at a time and cocoa. And oh my goodness-noise. Everyone talking at the same time and loudness and music and laughter. Friends. We always had friends over. The Reints family were a staple. Close friends turned our little Montana-transplanted family of four into the Waltons. Certifiable. Mom and dad, Elso and Marlene playing canasta. Dan and Rydell would usually be outside past dark, until their teenaged stomachs signaled it was time to eat-hunting or fishing or blowing something up. Lisa and Lori, (The Twins) were a couple years younger than I-we would play inside. Usually Monopoly. How I didn’t become a broker is beyond me. Grasping the concept of lending and charging interest, I would lend them money just to keep the game going for days. Again-how I landed as a personal development/relationship coach instead of a financier is a radical deviation from that initial talent I exhibited in my youth.
Away from our biological extended family in California, the Lord ‘bettered it’ by giving us great friends who became family. Of course, we had to be open to friends becoming family and the possibility of ‘better-ing it’. In Part 2 we will look at Better-ing the Holidays because, well, life isn’t perfect for 99.999% of us. Life gets ‘lifey’. We talk about better-ing the lifey.
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