Oh my god, I seem to have married a MacMullan!
Marcia pointed that out today when some very MacMullan-ish behavior* emerged out of both Don AND the GG. Now, Don *is* a MacMullan, so it’s logical for him to exhibit MacMullan-ish behavior, but the GG is NOT! And I am half MacMullan but somehow this particular behavior seems to have skipped me. In fact, quite frankly, it irritates the heck out of me! But the MacMullan folk have many other wonderful qualities and they are The Commander’s family and I love them *anyway*! 🙂
No matter how “done” I think I am with the Christmas holiday, I never seem to be quite done. And so today was a flurry of last minute errands and deliveries. It is a little easier this year since I don’t have two kids at home so I only had to actually buy physical gifts for one. Gifts that get wrapped up and opened, I mean. Mouse has been taken care of in the typical way of handling Christmas gifts for someone spending the solstice holidays in an African country. Clickety-clickety-click. Ka-ching! Took about three minutes.
It is always hard, for me anyway, when there are two (or more) kids, to figure out how to gift equally. I would always meticulously keep track of what I bought and try to make the number of gifts and the total dollar amount come out as close to equal as I possibly could. I would *spreadsheet* this stuff. With fancy little functions that counted up various categories (toys, books, clothing, etc.) and compared them. Then I would sit there on Christmas morning silently panicking that I might have slighted someone. And almost always, it would *seem* as though one daughter received more gifts than the other. I know how silly this is and I realize how many people even in our society of excessive consumerism go without gifts, not to mention food and shelter, on Christmas. I know we are among the fortunate, even with our rusty old vee-hickles and rattle-trap landfill and old tattered shabby-is-the-new-black clothing. It is just part of the whole guilt-related baggage of being Moominmama. I dunno. Maybe someday grandchildren might ease this a bit by removing the focus by a degree? Or will I then just worry about making it equal for each grandchild? But I’m too young for grandchildren.
Speaking of grandmothers, little girls do know what they are good for. You go and get your bottle out of the refrigerator and your grandma will hold you while you drink it. You don’t even have to ask. Just crawl up in her lap. She knows just what to do. Miss you, Sally. And Garth. And Grandroobly.
*MacMullan-ish behavior = getting started on a whole new track of conversation just as you are heading out the door of someone’s house. Or driving out of the driveway. And that reminds me, thinking of driving out of the yard at Houghton Lake with Garth coming toward the vee-hickle with just one more thought on his mind, I’ve known a few Courtois’s who are pretty good at it too.