Happiest of Holiday Seasons

When I decided to teach a community college class this semester, my husband warned me. "You're gonna stress yourself out. I know you. You just keep piling things on." Obviously, I told myself I had to prove him wrong. I'd be able to handle it. And I was doing pretty well, until this past week. Grading final projects. Creating the final exam. Completing performance evaluations. Getting board reports ready. Christmas. I chewed up a few migraine pills.

I noticed my husband watching me like a hawk, ready to pounce on his prey. I absolutely couldn't let on about my heartburn, headaches, and overall anxiety. Whenever the word "busy" seeped into my conversation, I received a quick retort. "Told ya."

But I made it through and utterly enjoyed it. Even though it was stressful at times, I coped through exercise, yoga, and finding humor whenever I could. I love to laugh. I heard from Dr. Oz  that it's, like, the best medicine. Since I missed blogging many funny moments with you all this past fall,  I'll share two recent moments that made me smile.

#1:

• Cleaning the house is typically a back burner priority for me. But my toilets were indeed past due. This Saturday I tackled our master bath stool. All the while I was thinking, "Disgusting. Gross. This should not be my job. It's not me violating this space." But I cleaned it, considering the task to be my tricep workout for the day. It was truly a scrubber. I won't mention names. It's not nice to implicate. But approximately thirty seconds after I finished the duty, the culprit plopped his butt on the toilet. I paused removing hair from the sink to swing around, ready to lambast. Thirty seconds. Ugh! The stool was clean for thirty damn seconds! But then. Instead of giving him an earful, I laughed. I couldn't help it. He sat there with a pleasant, happy smile, completely oblivious to the terror he was about to unload on the porcelain pot. My hubby is lucky he's so cute. Oops. Just implicated him.

#2

• Star Wars is kind of a big deal in our house. The good people in this world know know that "The Last Jedi" came out this last week. Cole went with his best friend and then stayed over at his house. (I'm sure they needed to analyze the movie together, and Cole didn't have a car last week which is a completely different story I won't go into since this story is supposed to be light-hearted.) I didn't hear a word about the movie – no text, no phone call. A quiet Cole is a an unusual Cole. So, I emailed him at school the next day to get the verdict. I was slightly concerned this chapter of Star Wars did't live up to his expectations. And just as I was feeling a little sad that perhaps our baby boy is maturing too rapidly, I get this response (verbatim, thus the poor grammar):

"... mother, I can't stress enough how phenomenal it was, it was the best action Star Wars movie ever and it had so many plot twists that I can't even, so many things happened that I can't stop thinking about it, we need to see it again right away haha, you're gonna be so surprised."

At this very moment, we are choosing our Sunday night movie. My cat is purring right next to my head. My dog is snoring right below my feet. I can see the Christmas lights flashing outside our window. Our eldest will be home tomorrow for winter break. And I'm 99% sure I will be receiving the last season of How I Met Your Mother for Christmas.

Busy, shmizie. I have much to smile about. Much to laugh about. And I truly hope you all do as well. To my friends and family, I'm wishing you a happy and humorous holiday season!

I don't think my family finds me as funny as I find myself.