A holiday of apocalyptic proportions…

On Friday morning, they day of the proposed Mayan apocalypse, the power went off in the entire house at 5:45 in the morning. At first I just rolled over and grunted “power, off” to my husband.

Then the screams began.

Mr. B’s was more of an informative “Dad! The power’s out!”

Miss P’s was a blood-curdling shriek of fear and confusion, as she couldn’t figure out why her night light, Christmas tree, and the vortex of sound creating machines (sound machine AND humidifier) suddenly shut down.

At 5:45 am.

Have you tried getting a child back to sleep after getting the crap scared out of them at the crack of dawn? It’s darn near impossible. I kept trying to cuddle, to lull her back to sleep, to even sprinkle her with sleepy dust, but to no avail.

We were all up. And in the dark. And at any moment, a meteor was going to collide with earth, the solar flares were going to burn us all to smithereens, and the poles’ reversal would doubtingly mess up our internal organs.

Nice scare tactic there, Mother Nature, with that power outage. Well played.

— Full of it… (@totallyfullofit)

 

While none of that nonsense really happened, it was my first foray in to managing a power outage with small children. One that I would hope I don’t have to experience again for a while.

Seeing as we had 6 pounds of stew meat and a ton of other food in our fridge for our huge family gathering the next day, I was beginning to sweat. Luckily the power came back on about a half our before our deadline to start throwing food out on to the snow covered lawn like the fishmongers in Seattle.

Our big fete on Saturday was a blast. In part, because it meant I didn’t have to spend Christmas day somewhere other than my home. And in other ways, because we got to show off our home. But mainly because there was more space for everyone to spread out and relax. I have to admit, I’m a bit like a toddler. Give me a crowded room with lots of people, noise, and too much sugar and I get a bit overstimulated.

I even managed to feed all of these people without a single report of e coli or salmonella poisoning.  Merry Christmas indeed!

The only thing I have left to avoid is the rabid and furious stomach bug that’s going around.

And now, here we stand, less than 24 hours before the big day.  The kids have already dragged out the presents from the tree and performed very scientific predictions and calculations on the quantity of bounty.  My pants already reject my indulgence of way too much salt and sugar and have hit critical mass.  Our trash and recycling cans are already overtaxed.

But I can still feel the excitement.  The newness of being in our home for the very first time on Christmas morning.  The fun of indecisiveness in figuring out what traditions we’ll begin on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  It’s uncharted territory.  One I’ve been looking forward to exploring for a while.  And I get to do it with a great group of scouts with me.

May you and your family have a merry adventure ahead!