It's dangerous having time off. That's for sure. What if I were a stay at home mom? I could do laundry and cook and drive my kids where they need to go. Vacuum everyday like Alice on the Brady Bunch. Sit around making homemade cookies and candies and wrap presents and light candles. . . eat bon bons and get regular pedicures. Maybe I would go to a gym everyday and have cute workout clothes.
Whatever. Every week is NOT Christmas. Wake up Bud. . . I hear Elvis sayin'. Come down from your butter-sugar high and clean up the cat mess in the hall. Also get the rotten stinking shrimp out of the back of the jeep where they were left after the last Costco trip.
Mary had a jazz concert Tuesday night. At dinner she remarked, "Daddy, there were girls in the Glenn Miller Orchestra, weren't there?" An honest man knows when to shrug and change the subject. She's been playing tenor sax for a couple months now. She's not quite up to 10,000 hours yet. The Blackhawk 7th grade jazz ensemble was very good. So was the Blackhawk 8th grade jazz ensemble, the Dakota Hills 7th graders, the Dakota Hills 8th graders, and Eagan High's Jazz I, II, and III. We almost got our very own 10,000 hours in one concert. Feliz Navidad. Feliz Navidad. Feliz Navidad.
I went to the grocery store this morning for the LAST time. I swear. I'm not going back. Well, I still have to go to the other grocery store to replace the dark sea salt chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn that I hogged much to the disappointment of the rest of the family. There is also peppermint ice cream at Byerly's that they don't have at Kowalski's. Yes, that's the Christmas zone I'm operating in. Champagne problems. Speaking of that, I am stocked up on our favorite bubbly for Christmas and New Year's Eves. To be fair it's a pretty shallow stockpile. Two bottles.
Last weekend our church choral service was wonderful and memorable and also not stressful. Glory be. Carols with brass quintet, organ and soprano descant? That's all I need to renew my faith in God and mankind. I got to play original music with beautiful piano parts with an amazing group of singers I'm happy to call friends.
The piano recital here Saturday was amazing in a million ways and just short of a million cookies were consumed. Solomon nailed his Chopin Nocturne and yes. . . he was much closer to logging those 10,000 hours. Mary is owning her Mozart. I got a Braille Christmas card. And popcorn from multiple sources. Mostly I received the joy of hearing everyone play music with their hearts and minds. I got close to 23 hugs during the Minnesota goodbyes.
Kids and music--I'm so thankful for this vocation. I'm also thankful for these occasional weeks at home with my family. I'll give up on the daily vacuuming and bon bons dream. At the risk of sounding really dorky--when you love teaching and playing, every day is just about like Christmas.
Wonderful entry, which was VERY hard to focus on once I saw that pan of caramels. WOW- Is that one part caramel chocolate?
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