Archive for category: Family

Last night, after a trek across the blizzardy Kansas prairie to get to a family Christmas engagement, we arrived home exhausted and ready for day-long naps. It’s so funny, we spent our entire Christmas Eve and Day at home, snowed in, and happy as clams to be hibernating through the holiday, and when we were forced to leave our house for a mere 27 hours, it almost killed us. I think we are officially in winter mode. Give me the remote, a fire, some hot cocoa (and Bailey’s if the night is just right) and I’m good. We have built up such a collection of movies not yet seen, we may be here until March. Goodbye cruel world, we’ll see you when the temperature hits 60 degrees!

So last night we get home and Lucy, totally spent from the whole Christmas extravaganza, starts screaming. I can’t remember why now, but I’m sure it was either that we made her take off her jammies or put on clean underwear or turn off Thomas the Train….life is hard for that kid. She screamed and screamed until her face was bright red, and then she crawled on to the couch with her daddy to watch football. Somewhere along the line she guilted him into changing the channel, so they both sat there, under piles of blankets, watching the Sound of Music. That’s when I decided to make a break for it.

I took our little TV/DVD player from the kitchen and put it in the bathroom, filled the tub with hot water and bubbles, popped in a rom-com I’d received in my stocking and turned out the lights. This was gonna be ah-may-zing.

I sat down in the tub and immediately realized something was wrong. The water was lukewarm, barely warmer then the air. I like my baths scarily hot, so this certainly would not do. Then, as I emptied out half the tub and started to refill with hotter water, I heard little feet coming up the stairs. Lucy came bursting into the bathroom with Trent right behind her, and within ten seconds had completely stripped down and was climbing into the bath on top of me.

“What are you doing mama? I love baths! Oh, bubbles! I want to take a bath with YOU! Yay! You’re my favorite mommy in the world world and my very best friend!”

As she jumped in, the (still cold) water sloshed out and Trent scolded me for having electronics on the floor. Well, when it was just me in the bath, there wasn’t much danger, was there? He quickly unplugged TV and took it out of the bathroom, turning on the lights on his way out.

There I sat, in cold water, getting soap splashed in my eyes by a three-year-old. After about five minutes I decided this was ridiculous, and got us both out (Lu screaming, of course, because she wanted to play with the bubbles longer). Trent had checked our water heater, and it had gone into “vacation mode” during our holiday absence. The hot water would be back on by morning. I took the wet, screaming child in my room, wrapped both of our cold bodies up in towels and blankets, and proceeded to read an hour of princess books before she went to bed.

Then I went to get a nice glass of wine….and we were out. With the million holiday parties we had to attend this year, we’d given away every bottle, finishing the last one with Christmas dinner.

So I went to bed instead.

Relaxation = FAIL