So I know that yesterday was just Thanksgiving and I do try to take life one holiday at a time, but I just had to share this little story with everyone. Don't worry it is relevent because it involves both the television and Thanksgiving tradition so I am not just wasting your time!
In the Smith family growing up we had a tradition that after Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's place we would watch Christmas Vacation together and put our tree and exterior lights up. It is one of those memories that I am sure we all cherish because we had so much fun doing so and the movie no matter how many times we saw it made us all laugh, a lot. This year the siblings, sans Dominica, were all home on Thanksgiving Eve so we decided to mimic our old tradition by watching the movie. It was a wise choice. A very wise choice!
Mom already has the tree up and is completely done shopping for everyone (what an over achiever) and our folks have long since given up lighting the house up Clark Griswold style for the holidays so instead of working while we watched, once all five grand kids were nestled all snug in their beds (more to that later), we watched Chevy Chase and cast in this family Christmas classic while simply relaxing. And even after at least twenty times seeing it, I still found myself laughing uncontrollably for a better part of the show and so did everyone else. If you have never had the pleasure of watching this one, take the time, better yet, make the time, to fit it in this holiday season even if you are as busy as I am. It delights most audiences and is shocked full of humorous situations to which most Americans can relate. In the wise words of Clark Griswold, "Burn dust, eat my rubber."
Back to the getting the kids nestled all snug in their beds part of the story. It was nothing like the Night Before Christmas as I may have inadvertantly made it sound. I merely borrowed the words because they fit well. For us nestling of children was very challenging, time consuming and frustrating. I'll explain. As we finally had all the kids rounded up and actually sitting still at the table with Thanksgiving dinner on the table, Hazel began vomitting. I'll be honest, it was not the greatest start to our holiday season. Needless to say after a bath, a load of laundry, disinfecting of the floor, table, chairs, walls, dishes and anything else in the line of fire and after much time spent snuggling with a sick child, we finally had her "nestled" in her bed. The others were even trickier. Kara was finally "nestled" when I threw her into bed with Grandpa. My sister's boys thankfully are much better sleepers than mine and were actually asleep by 8:45. My son was the toughest. He fought sleep like a civil war soldier or an overzealous telemarketer and was not giving in easily. After thirty minutes of back scratching and story telling I finally got him to sleep. So finally at about nine thirty we had all children "nestled snug in their beds". We turned on Christmas Vacation and I do believe all of us were transplanted back to the good old days with the click of the television. I guess maybe all television isn't so bad.
Vern Out
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