Yes, I know: it's over. It happened so fast. No sooner was it Thanksgiving than it was Christmas. Correction: it was the day after Christmas, and I was walking down the hill with Darling Daughter to make a few returns (all just part of the routine). Just to complicate matters, it was snowing. Or slushing. It may even have been raining at that point; this was a weird storm in the way it switched back and forth as the temperature kept fluctuating. It really wasn't much of a blizzard — not here, anyway — although the media would say otherwise (and, in all fairness, I don't know the definition of a blizzard, so who am I to say?). All I know is that it was storming sufficiently that the stores were closing faster than we could get there, and that was putting a real crimp in DD's & my shopping/returning plans. Everything about it (about this whole holiday season, if I'm being honest) seemed a bit off, a bit late, ill-timed, including the it's-over-and-yet-another-year-is-behind-us realization itself. Seriously, I was just beginning to notice assorted colorful wreaths and decorations and doorways (who won the Newport Doorway Contest, come to think of it?) and — wham — it was over, gone, done. Fortunately, the kids were on top of it, all of it; they held our whole little Christmas concept and semblance of tradition/history together. They made lists, wrapped gifts, filled stockings, thought about things long before the last minute and were just generally unbelievably thoughtful and organized. Super Son (now relaxing in warmer climes with Super Girlfriend) even endeavored to choose one his favorite images from the past year and have it enlarged in the coolest real-life wrap-around way, as he thought it'd be just the thing (for me). And it was. Of course, there are other things that might be just the thing in the larger (less self-indulgent) sense. They'd be – some would go so far as to say there's only one thing anyone wants as a gift around here – key ...
We're hoping for a green light, of course.
And Super Son may have chosen this particular pic to enlarge/preserve because it had to do, tangentially, with his favorite band. All I know is I can't believe (really, I can't) that it was a year ago, almost: that day in the sand.
