The Holidays....12/27 and 1/3 combined

First up, our family Christmas....

When did the 12 days of Christmas become the 12 weeks of Christmas? It’s amazing how much time we spend preparing for this one holiday. People shop nearly all year round, spend days cooking and hours wrapping. Trees and tinsel first hit the department stores before Halloween, blurring the holiday lines. This year is the first I’ve seen back-to-school shelves restocked with wrapping paper. It seems Christmas comes three days earlier each year. At this pace Easter jelly beans will be replaced in the aisles with candy canes by about 2037.

Although I’ve usually protested by refusing to buy any Christmas gifts until December, having a little boy around makes it too tempting. I bought my first gift in October, Wally Wagon to match Jacob’s Johnny Tractor. Once the flood gates open it’s hard to stop swiping the credit card. By Thanksgiving, I had quite a pile of presents building up in Jacob’s bedroom. But then I hit a speed bump with the many Christmas programs and other assignments in December. In the last two weeks, Nate and I went on a shopping frenzy to wrap up the gift giving. We planned one major trip, but that turned into two. Finally, on the night before we were to head down to my parents, we finished shopping and all our purchases. It was a great feeling to be done, although we later found out the real marathon was just starting.

Like usual, Nate and I hit both sides of our family for the holidays, beginning our four days of Christmas. We started out Friday afternoon to head south, but almost turned around not far into the trip. By the time we reached Pittsville, we’d about had it with the snow and 25 mph travel. Luckily the snow tapered off and we had dry roads by the time we reached Mauston. I took over the rest of the driving on the windy roads.

On Saturday we had our Christmas dinner, a day or two earlier than normal because of the weekend. By 4 p.m., we were all thoroughly stuffed and surrounded by torn wrapping paper. In the evening Nate and my brother headed to the barn with a box of cold beverages while us girls decorated Christmas cookies.

We packed up Sunday afternoon to head north again, with Jacob sitting in the back with piles of new toys on either side. As we drove north, we first noticed snow around Necedah, then it gradually built up until we had full snow cover. It was nice to see we would have a white Christmas. After chores and a few more gifts at Nate’s mom and dad’s, we headed back home for a little family Christmas. Since Jacob was wound tight, we opened a few more presents and Nate and I exchanged gifts. Christmas day at the Eckerts was another blizzard of food, conversation, gifts, more food and more talking. By evening, I was ready to pack the car once again and head home.

As Jacob dozed off, I unpacked and put away as much as I could. I did laundry from the weekend and picked up discarded wrapping paper and packaging from the night before. Then I sat with only the tree lights on and listened to the silence. I think that moment was the highlight of my weekend.

And now, New Years to present....

In Buddhist teaching, the law of karma, says this: “For every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.” Apparently I need to fix my karma, since I’m reaping the rewards of some ignored maintenance.

About a month ago, I scheduled an oil change for my car. Between then and the appointment, the “Service Engine Soon” light lit up on my dash. When I took the car in for the oil change, I asked if they could check my car to find the cause of the obnoxious light. The guy behind the counter politely told me they just didn’t have time today but he’d gladly fit me in the following week. I told him I didn’t have my calendar on me so I would give him a call. But I didn’t.

After a while I just ignored the yellow light above the tachometer. Since the car seemed to be running alright and I was short on spare time, it could wait, right? Soon it was Christmas, then New Years Eve. For the past few years, a group of us have splurged on a pricey New Years Eve dinner and hit the bars afterward to ring in the New Year. This year we took a different approach. We all gathered at a friend’s house for a Packer party with plenty of snacks and drinks, including our own little champagne countdown. It was quite a cost-savings. But as we were celebrating a Packer victory and the coming of 2007, the rain switched over to wet, slick snow. When the first couple went to leave, it took the rest of the guys to push them up and out the driveway.

We were the second ones to leave and, like the first, we got stuck. No one had a truck, so the remaining men in the group began to push. That’s when we noticed the car didn’t sound right and had lost most of its power. “You’re missing a few cylinders,” said Luke, the mechanic of the group. Great, I thought. Not only do we have Christmas bills, now we’re going to have a big repair bill. Finally the boys got it out the driveway and on our way. With every hill we came to, I prayed we’d make it up.

“You’d think with all the farmers and rednecks there, one of us would have a truck,” Nate grumbled. Actually, all the guys have trucks. They just weren’t driving them that night.

The following morning I woke up to discover the raspy cough I’d been neglecting had blown up into a nasty illness that I hope, for my family and co-workers sakes, isn’t too contagious.

2006 was a good year for me and my family. Despite a few issues, like Jacob’s ongoing ear saga, we did pretty well and enjoyed ourselves. Maybe we’re not as far ahead in some things, like our goal to acquire our own house, but nothing bad happened either. But now 2007 seems to be off on the wrong foot. Then again, my bad karma can’t last an entire year, can it?