A little Christmas "Whine"

It all started with the snow. The weather forecasters predicted 8-12 inches by Saturday, but since weathermen have the only profession known to man that allows them to be wrong, (since most of us don’t know our jet stream from a stationary front a weatherman can blame anything for the missed prediction) and because the computer generated Super Doppler Radar is still just a machine, I didn’t believe them-I was wrong. It snowed continuously from midnight Friday until late into the evening Saturday (we got 20 inches), so no runs to the mall for a couple last minute gifts, or runs to the grocery store for things I needed to do our holiday baking…

Now you might ask how I know that the snow started at midnight Friday night, and I will tell you. I finished watching 3 Weddings and a Funeral for probably the 30th time (still worth it to me, but not my hubby), and was heading to the bathroom for some hand cream. I glanced out the window in the kitchen and saw a few flakes start their decent. When I got to the bathroom, I couldn’t find my new hand cream tube, so I tried to squeeze what I could from my old tube and my hand slipped. The cap made a ¼ inch gap in my left pointer finger (typing is real fun tonight!) and blood was dripping down my hand and onto the sink. I started weaving back and forth and I kept thinking would anyone hear me hit the floor? My inner voice finally piped up and I put pressure on the cut and raised my hand over my head. I did manage to finally get a bandage around my finger-not an easy thing to do while you are rocking back and forth I can tell you-and me and my throbbing finger finally made it to bed.

Later that morning I rolled over and winced because of a kink in my left shoulder-I just figured I laid on it wrong and tried to go about the day. The snow kept falling, and my finger kept bleeding, and with my shoulder now hurting, I parked it on the couch while the kids and hubby braved the wind chill and played in the snow. I tried to make it up to everyone by attacking a new cookie recipe that was supposed to be foolproof, and although it was, I burned my hand getting the tray out of the oven, and the mess I made making the cookies was more than a little disheartening. The bandage kept coming off my finger while I washed up, so I asked if hubby could finish. I know he had been Mr. Entertainment for the kids outside, but I did manage to put something on the table for dinner and get it cleaned up, and although he obliged, he didn’t do so without making a comment or two...

Fast forward to today-I can’t lift my left arm to the side or even lift it up waist high, but since I took it easy yesterday, the laundry for the week (I usually start washing clothes Friday night and end Sunday so I don’t have to do it during the work week), wasn’t done and I wrestled four loads in and out of the washer and dryer all day today. And since Sunday school was canceled, my activities today consisted of computer, laundry, lunch duty, laundry, computer, laundry, and then couch. No one is taking my wincing seriously, and when it was nearing the time for dinner (I was reading the paper on the couch) my husband walks in and asks, “What’s for dinner?”

I wanted to say something, but it’s nearing that “most wonderful time of the year,” so up I went to the kitchen to quickly get something together using my one good arm. I sat at the dinner table in a rather sour state and I braced myself for the stress that eating with children always brings, but then something happened that is really quite miraculous, and no, it has nothing to do with my aches and pains. As I sat there, I watched my son pretend to throw super hero punches at his dad sitting next to him instead of eating his vegetables. My husband was doing his best to eat his dinner and ignore my son, but I could tell by the look on his face that his patience was dwindling and his annoyance was growing, and all at once everything-my finger, my arm, the snow, and even my annoyance-was hysterically funny. Even though I tried my best to hold my laughter in, it spilled out then, and sporadically throughout the rest of the evening.

You know it really is how you look at things-I mean my shoulder still hurts and I have a date later with the heating pad (I still don't know what I did to it!), I am typing without the use of my left pointer finger, and I have a load of laundry in the dryer, but I am sitting here smiling, my soul is content, and like a line in A Christmas Story, "everything is right with the world!" Goodnight everyone and Merry Christmas!