Unfortunately, we won't all be together. Andrew won't let us buy him a plane ticket home from Japan (SAD FACE), and I think Daniel and Angie are going to be spending Christmas with her parents in Boston. It's only fair, I know, but... :( I'm going to miss all three of them!
Sigh.
But it will still be awesome. There will be four children, when you add my sister's kiddos to my own daughter. They're delightful. And Christmas is always more magical when there are little ones there.
Plus, I love spending time with my siblings and parents. The vast majority of my Christmases have been spent in their company, so Christmas = family in my mind.
Also, my parents live in Idaho, so we might actually have a white Christmas! I literally cannot remember the last time that happened.
And, of course, my own little family will all be there, too. A couple of years ago, we had Christmas by ourselves, without Ben, because he was deployed. It was not great, although my brother came to spend the holiday with us. That made it much better. But Christmas is definitely not really Christmas without Ben and Evie there.
I love my family, can you tell? My husband, daughter, parents, siblings, nieces and nephew, aunts and uncles and grandparents and in-laws... FAMILY. It's awesome.
So, today I'm grateful for family.
My own little family brings me so much joy, even just through the little silly moments we have. Like I mentioned a few days ago how Ben was a good sport when I bought him those Storm Trooper footie pajamas? I also got some for Evie with penguins on them. I was 70% sure that she would hate them, but I was wrong. She got super excited, and immediately put them on. She looked just like she did when she was two and wore footie pajamas on a regular basis. My heart melted into a gooey little puddle.
She and Ben wore their footies proudly around the house for the rest of the day, and slept in them that night. Both of them insisted, however, that I find some for myself. Because it wasn't fair that they had such awesome pjs and I didn't.
We were all supposed to be in this together, apparently. But I really didn't mind. I love that Evie still wants us to be matchy, even though she's nine now. I hope she never grows out of wanting to do stuff with her mom and dad.
So, while I was running errands today, I found footie pajamas at Target. This is really the best time of year to find weird pajamas. Apparently we're not the only family with the Christmas tradition of opening a new pair of pjs every year.
I knew I couldn't get the boring, plain pink ones. I'm a Madsen! And a Fifield by marriage! We don't wear normal pajamas when super-weird ones are available!
I really wanted to get the Princess Leia set with the cinnamon-roll buns on the hood, to match Ben in his Storm Trooper footie pajamas, but they didn't have my size. I suppose it's just as well, since they would have undoubtedly looked extra super ridiculous.
I considered the Batman pajamas, but I figured the velcro from the cape on the back would catch at my hair all the time. Same went for Wonder Woman (who doesn't actually wear a cape, by the way, Target).
The red stripey ones had sock monkeys for feet, and my youngest brother has a mortal fear of sock monkeys. I wanted to be able to wear my new footies when we go visit for Christmas, so I figured I should avoid those ones. As weird and kind of hilarious as his fear is, I know what it's like to be irrationally afraid of something. I wouldn't want him to buy a pet tarantula to get even with me.
The tiger and zebra striped jammies were both just a little too busy-looking for my taste. Stripes are okay, but all things are best in moderation. Add to that the hoods with faces and manes... too much.
Finally, I settled on a simple, light-turquoise pair of footie pajamas.
Complete with owl hood, and wings on the sleeves.
Just bizarre enough!
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| The hood. I look pretty cute with an owl on my head. |
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| The winged sleeves (I pronounce it "wing-ed" in my head). :) |
I'm grateful to have other kooky people encouraging, embracing, and adding to that oddness in my life.
I'm grateful to be seeing those other weirdos I'm related to over Christmas.
And I'm grateful that my little family unit is so close, and that my daughter likes to do strange things with Ben and me. We're raising a totally nerdy little weirdo for a daughter, and I'm absolutely thrilled about it.
More than anything, I'm grateful for all the weirdos and nerds I call family. :)
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