Summer / Fall Vacation

                                  

We just got back from a week at Hilton Head where we go every September. It's one of my favorite places in the whole world! My late mother-in-law loved it too. In fact, she loved it enough to buy several timeshare weeks there, one of which we inherited when she passed away eight years ago. This is the September week we always use. There was a time when I didn't like this week because it occurs after school has resumed. When my kids were in school, I found it hard to take a week of vacation once they were back in school. Today, things are so different in my life. My kids are grown now, so I can travel whenever I want to and now I've discovered what I suppose my mother-in-law knew--spending a week at Hilton Head right after Labor Day is the best! The crowds are gone but the weather is still warm enough to swim and visit the beach. Paint me happy! 

A Colorful Christmas

Many years ago, when my now grown children were young, we had an especially lean Christmas. My husband’s start-up business struggled, it prospects for success looked dim. I worked feverishly to get my nursing license active, which required taking continuing education classes. At Christmastime I was still trying to get my license active and thus not yet employed. We carefully planned our very tight Christmas budget right down to every bite of food we would eat on Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve, we traveled back from visiting my parents some six hours away. Though we had budgeted the gas for the trip, when we arrived home, hungry, it occurred to me for the first time that I had not thought about what I would feed my family when we got home.

Before having dinner, we sat around our Christmas tree, each opening one gift as was our Christmas Eve tradition. My budding artist daughter opened oil pastels as her gift. These look a bit like crayons with papers wrapped around each one.

Then it was dinnertime. I looked around for any food I might could scrounge up for dinner. We had food but most of it was set aside for Christmas Day meals. What could I possible feed my family?

To my relief when I opened my pantry I discovered a box of spaghetti noodles and a can of sauce! We would have spaghetti for Christmas Eve dinner!

As I was boiling the noodles, my daughter came to me with her oil pastels frustrated because she could not get the outside paper off them. For some unknown reason, I thought perhaps if I held them above the steamy boiling noodles the paper would loosen a bit.

I do not know why I thought this was a good idea.

Immediately, the pastels started to melt and drip into the boiling water below. I jerked them away and saved her gift from melting altogether but there in front of me were tiny colorful bits of oil pastels floating around among the spaghetti noodles.

I did the only thing I knew to do. I looked at the pastel box to read what it said about them. There were the words I had hoped to see: non-toxic!

I rinsed the noodles, of course, but still a few flecks of color remained. I had nothing else to feed my family other than the food set aside for Christmas Day and even that had been carefully planned with no extra portions. Not even a bowl of cereal. So … knowing the precious few flecks of pastels that remained were non-toxic … I put the spaghetti noodles in a bowl and set it on the table next to the sauce.

My family teased me unmercifully about our colorful Christmas Eve dinner. To this day, not a Christmas goes by without one of my adult children asking if we are going to have our “traditional Christmas Eve dinner” –multi-colored spaghetti!

A Cheery Countenance

Many years ago when our now grown children were young, my family enjoyed visiting my sister’s family. On one such visit, my sister and I were in her basement doing laundry when suddenly she stopped folding clothes and looked up at the ceiling with her head cocked to one side. Then I heard it too–the pitter patter of little feet were running at full speed directly above us. The sound went from my nephew’s bedroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen, where it stopped. My sister knew immediately what her son was doing. She stepped out of the laundry room and yelled up the stairs, “Chet, you cannot eat any of those cookies!!”

A few minutes later, her preschooler appeared at the bottom of the steps. He looked at her intently and asked, “Mommy, how did you know what I was doing?” My sister smiled and replied, “Mommies always know what their little boys are doing.”

A few months later, we were all gathered at my parent’s home for Christmas when Chet started to go outside in the cold without his jacket. My other sister stopped him at the door and asked, “Does your mother know you are about to go outside in the snow without a jacket?” Chet responded with absolute conviction, “Oh yes! Mommies always know what their little boys are doing!”

My older sister was perplexed but when Chet’s mother and I heard his reply, we exploded with laughter! Then we filled our older sister in on the background story.