~On vegetarianism: "Oh Lord, honey, have some ham!" so the kids eat the ham, and then they pay for it by feeling unwell for a day and a half afterwards.
~On Religion: "Gracious! Y'all don't go to church?! How do you expect to get through life without JESUS?"
~On Urban Life: "I mean, can y'all even go outside much? How many shootings by your house?" We actually don't live in a bad part of the city. We live kind of close to some rough areas, but it is not dangerous in this part of the neighborhood. It does look dangerous if you're a racist, I guess. And sure, bad things happen, but they happen EVERYWHERE, even in the middle of nowhere.
They are, basically, good people who love my kids, they just don't understand anything about how I am raising the kids......
So we had a very small, stripped down Christmas. On Christmas day, it was just the three of us. We had popcorn and homemade hot cocoa and watched movies and baked cookies. And today, when the big kids came back, we handed out presents. I didn't cook a big meal, since I am still kind of reeling from that Thanksgiving dinner in which EVERYTHING, right down to the vegetable broth used in the stuffing, was homemade on that day. I didn't make anything in advance, thinking IF I START AT 6AM, IT WILL BE JUST FINE! I didn't take into account the stress involved in timing multiple dishes that require quite a bit of attention. So, simple dinner for Christmas, stress free. I was hoping for a little snow, it was forecast but never showed.
I've been absorbed by this family history project. I've gone back insanely far, into the 600s. What it looks like is that my ancestors were actually remarkable people (at least in title) and I am looking at a chart full of Earl of ___________ and Lady ___________ and dukes and countesses and barons and baronesses and so on. There are saints, and even a king of Austrasia. I did not ever even know that there WAS an Austrasia. Anyway, I thought it was too interesting to be true, I just assumed all of my ancestors were regular people from Germany. Blacksmiths and such. But there's so much more. Anyway, I was all OH MY GAWD THAT IS SO CRAZY because that is such a long way back to go and a king? For fucking REAL? I did some reading up on being descended from royalty types, and it turns out TONS AND TONS of people are descended from royalty and don't even know it, and it doesn't matter because even though I am in some crazy way related to Queen Elizabeth (I AM! How EXCITING!) it is not like we are going to hang out and drink tea, during which I would wonder I be able to call her 'Liz' while we drink Earl Grey. If you have any European in you at all, you are, 100% for sure, related to some monarch from way back. The thing is, those birth and death records were pretty well kept (it seems), so once you get to someone 'important' it is cake. The hardest part, for me, was just getting past 1900 or so because I know absolutely nothing about my family......anyway, it does not matter who I am descended from, it just makes for a good story. Also, it alleviates the sick feeling I had reading the wills of my Southern ancestors, in which they left their slaves to various family members just like they would their wedding china or grandfather clocks. I mean, everyone KNOWS that's how it was back then.....but seeing it documented gave me a great big case of guilt and shame and my stomach turned a little, and I had kind of hoped I had come from something better than that.
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