We’re getting there.

We finally have a Brumalia shrubbery. Hubby and Little Princess traveled the world over looking for the perfect tree, well, for any tree, actually, since they left it kind of late. They finally found one, and at that it isn’t a prize specimen, at the florist/nursery as you’re going out of town (just before the turnoff to the HeII’s AngeIs’ clubhouse) and paid a king’s ransom for it: $30. I feel a little sheepish, after telling drgeek that we never spend more than $20 on a tree, but this was an extenuating circumstance. The tree is short, very short, and in order to give it some elevation has been placed on a stool (one of our stereo speakers is sitting on the floor). This works, although it is still short, and there is more room underneath it to place presents, which is a good thing. I have decorated it and placed what presents were available underneath it, and the place is starting to look a little more festive. I also hung the mistletoe from the light fixture in the hallway, and there’s a wreath on our front door. We’re ready for the holidays.

Little Princess decided she wanted to make sushi for supper and invite her friends, so I volunteered to make the rice and promptly burned it because I got out my old guitar and was playing BIack Day in JuIy by G0rd0n Lightf00t in another room when I smelled something incinerating. Stupid me. But I was able to salvage most of it, plus cook up some arborio rice which I had on hand so there was plenty to work with.

Little Princess put her BF and Ollie to work with the chopping and rolling, and I promptly escaped. My mood alternates rather quickly between euphoria and abject bitchiness, so I thought it best to absent myself, especially when sharp knives were involved. I did make miso soup, though, chopping up tofu and carrots into tiny dice, and that was a nice way to start the meal. The sushi was delicious.

I also got the family letter (which I originally intended to send out mid-November) finished and printed out, with address labels, but as of yet they are still sitting unenveloped on the dining room table.

I’ve been feeling lately as though I wish I could inhabit two parallel universes at the same time: the one I do now where I am married and have children and live a very boring and ordinary lifestyle, and another where life is different because of different choices I made somewhere along the road. I think I’m starting to experience the “you can’t go home again” syndrome that comes along with middleage. It’s not as though I’m unhappy with my life and the people in it, I just wonder what it would have been like if I had done things differently.

There is one thing I would never change, though, and that is having had the two kids I ended up with. I know I’m always singing their praises, but I can’t help it. They are just such darn good people and fun to be with. I couldn’t have done better if I’d studied for this exam.

|

<~~~ * ~~~>