This Christmas, Hope, Yappy and I headed to Grammy’s and Grandpa’s house for the day. We dutifully took our COVID tests this morning; I’m so happy I had ordered a few a couple of weeks ago. It gave us a lot of peace of mind to know we weren’t dragging the plague into their home. We laughed, we exchanged gifts, ate a yummy Christmas dinner with caramel cake for dessert (IFKYK), mocked holiday Christmas movies even though when I reminesce on the scenes in my mind they check every GD box for holiday, family friendly rom-com, minus the rom part.

This Christmas was great.

This Christmas feels legit like the first Christmas that I truly went in to spoil territory, and it was completely by accident. I appreciate a nice set of packages under the tree, but I’ve always tried to put experiences over things. But y’all this is the SECOND GD year of this panini and seeing as this is the worst EFFING GROUP PROJECT EVER, there are those of us who have opted to limit experiences that have heavy exposure. This year, we got a little loosey goosey wth this stuff.

I usually chose one substantial thing from her wish list as her big gift. Then a few other gifts and gift cards and dassit.

This year I purchased the Nintendo Switch from her list. Found it on sale and purchased it early. Great!

Then there was a late night/early morning binge on the JCPenny app, followed by a swing through the Target app, the gaggle of things that were in my Amazon cart, a traipse through Wayfair and like a couple of Amazon purchases before I fell asleep. I remember bits but I know it’s going to be cray when I look at the books later in the week.

I also remember that was around the time I made a batch of edibles. I’ve since adjusted the dosing to something less…dramatic because this was a really epic binge shop situation.

Anyway the boxes came, and then I got busy and thought I was done. Until I had nearly a week of work-free rest with lounging layabouts in the afternoons; then I started thinking: What kinda dork gives a person a gaming system with no games? Duh. I hit the web, picked out a few, delivered next day. Hmm, I probably should get an extra controller, well since I’m here, some of these accessories are cute!

Then I was like, oh I need to get the TV in her room spruced up and make sure it’s on the house wifi. Hope rarely watched TV in her room, so the TV is legit, rarely used and like new. Until you realize that Hope has been my daughter for nearly 8 years. While she was away at work, I slipped in prepared to get the new Fire Stick set up so that it would be plug and play for her upon opening the gift. When FireTV asked for network settings, this TV replied, “I’m sorry, who dat?”

The like new TV is basically an old “dumb” TV. That setting didn’t exist at that time, apparently. In any case, while it is a silly thing, if your TV can’t get hooked to somebodies connection then do you really even have a TV?

Two days before Christmas I find a decent deal for an upgrade to present TV streaming standards, and like 2-3 hours later that living room TV got dead. There had been a few weird things with the living room TV over the last month or two, but it wasn’t alarming or so I thought. I spent quite a bit of time trying to reboot the TV and got nothing. Never came back on. So, I had to buy another TV. Hope was blown away that I ended up buying two TVs at the last minute.

Yesterday while visiting, Grammy was fussin over her and Hope was eating it with a spoon! And I was struck in that moment about how far we have come. Our first holiday in VA, Hope was only 12, scared, hopeful and probably a bunch of emotions. We went to my cousin’s house for the holiday and Hope spent a good chunk of the night sitting on the floor looking at her foot, which had a little jumpy nerve spasm. I would later learn that these spasms happened in her temples, feet, and hands when she was really stressed. Now she genuinely blossoms with joy when she’s around family.

I’m really into observing Hope these days. I marvel at how she has grown up, how much she has matured. This year really got off to a hellish start, but it is encouraging and a blessing how she’s bounced back. I’m grateful and hopeful for her future.

Oh, Hope got me two sandwich makers–I asked for the simple version, but she got me that and a suped up version. I mean, I do have two air fryers–a big one when I’m doing the family thing and a small counter top on that I use for chicken fingers and tater tots on a week night. I LOVE THEM.

This Christmas was lovely. I’m blessed beyond measure.