Today I saw maybe 15 trucks full of Christmas Trees on the highways between home and work. They were looking very rushed too. I got the impression that they were in a rush because vendors underestimated the number of Christmas trees that were needed for the season. They say that in hard economic times, it becomes even more important to folks to celebrate family traditions like Christmas.
The grape leaves have all fallen now, and frost covers the fields every morning, but harvesting is still happening in the Willamette Valley. There are still a few fields with lots of pumpkins left out to rot. It seems that the Christmas consumers on the West Coast are much more eager than the Halloween ones were. Either that, or it was a REALLY good year for pumpkins.
The patterns in my life are changing too, as harvest time winds down. Jimmy has started to work fewer and longer shifts, and he's no longer getting up at 5:30am. With him staying up later, I'm enjoying staying up a bit later too (as you might notice by the time stamped on this entry). I like the new schedule for many reasons. For one, I have only two or three weeknights a week that I have to cook for both ends of the meat-eating and non-meat eating spectrum. Since I have only a half time job, I have been trying to do most of the cooking, but it's challenging when you like to cook from scratch, and your kids are all very picky, and one is a vegetarian, while dad is a huge meat lover and mom is lactose intolerant.
Tonight I cooked for just the three kids, who all three happen to love mac and cheese. My first preseverative-filled dinner was a blast. Wow. That was easy! I only had to cut up some veggies and heat leftovers for myself while the pasta simmered. I like the challenge of cooking for my family a lot, actually, but after three nights in a row it gets hard. Now I have just a day or two at a time. That is perfect. The new schedule is great for another reason too--it gives me and Jim time alone on our two common days off, when the kids are at school. We haven't really met our goal of having twice-monthly dates since we have been married, so far, unless you count a one-hour escape to do some quick wine tasting up the street. Maybe now we'll at least get some relaxed lunch dates in.
Work is getting better for me now, too. Two students are becoming good friends, and when I walk through campus nowadays I often see two or three students with whom I've had a solid conversation, so when I smile at them, it is really sincere and not so awkward. It takes so long to build relationships! This weekend we are having a retreat at the beach, and for once, I'm not anxious about whether anyone will come or whether we'll have things to talk about if they do. Things are starting to feel natural, and organic.
By the time my daughter sees this entry on facebook, the secret will be out--we will have two new members added to our family tomorrow. They are two little boy Yorkie pups that we are buying the kids as an early Christmas present. It will be so fun and so chaotic around here for the next few weeks, while we get them trained. A great Christmas experience!
Yesterday I realized how wonderful it is to live in the country at Christmastime. I drove through four small towns, all of which had the same 40's era Christmas decorations--either wreaths, candy canes, or christmas tree shaped lit-fake-fir-garlands, hung high on electric poles and light posts. It was so charming and quaint, to see this variety of americana replacing traffic and strip malls that I always associated with Christmas before, having grown up in Clackamas, where most of my family still lives. No strip malls in my life any more. I am blessed. I'm excited to host my family's Christmas gathering out here in the country this year!
No comments:
Post a Comment