Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Odds & ends

  • Oldest nephew (soon to be 22) recently got a tattoo. His second. Both times, his dad (dh's younger brother) flipped out -- & apparently he's barely spoken to the kid since the second one appeared. Now, I'm old school enough that I don't particularly like tattoos either. I wish he hadn't gotten them. But it's done, & he's the one who has to live with the consequences. I realize that it's a different generation, & it's probably more common for kids these day to have a tattoo than not. I think BIL has blown this way out of proportion. I so badly want to remind him that he has two beautiful, healthy, GOOD kids, and if the worst thing they ever do is to get a couple of tattoos, he should consider himself the luckiest man on earth.
  • Went to the mall last weekend. I almost forgot Santa would be there, but I heard a little chorus of "hi Santa! hi Santa!"s & looked over the railing down onto Santa's castle, & there he was, giving a high-five to a little girl, who was dressed to the nines, of course (with a long line waiting). I got teary eyed & couldn't watch for very long. It's still a scene that has great power for me.
  • I ordered a photo card for our Christmas card today -- using the photo I took with the self-timer on our 25th wedding anniversary. : ) I send out a photo card every five years or so. I suppose some people might find that a little vain, but I figure the families with kids shouldn't have all the fun. ; ) I agree with The Inadequate Conception, who recently wrote about how getting cards of only the kids drives her batty. Me too. I have friends who send me pictures of their kids every single year -- which is all fine & good, & I like seeing the kids (always have a refrigerator door full of them) -- but it's been 20 years since I've seen some of these friends!! It would be nice to get a picture of them once in awhile, too (alone, with hubby &/or the kids, I'm not picky).
  • I remember my former boss (who was also childless/free, although I never knew exactly why) telling me she & her partner used to send out photo cards of their two cats! Just the cats; no humans. One year, the cats were wearing Santa hats; another year, she hung them up in stockings on the mantel. Of course, the cats were less than enthusiastic, & they had to take dozens of photos to get one useable shot (& this was pre-digital), but the results were hilarious.
Last year's (2009) Christmas card
Christmas card 2008

6 comments:

  1. Love that photo of the two of you. :)

    What you said about your nephew reminded me of what my aunt said to my mom when I was converting to Judaism. My cousin died when he was 20 of a brain tumor. My mom was VERY upset when I converted and my aunt said something to her about at least I was walking around on this earth for her to love. It made a big impact on my mom. I guess on me, too.

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  2. I have several tattoos, I like that. But I try to stay sensible about them, I think them over for a year or more before proceeding... I sometimes get the feeling that most people don't do that, lol. And yes, not the end of the world (*hugs*)

    Glad you're sending out a photo card this year :)

    lmao about the cats, I can just imagine that! I bet we'll do something like that someday too. hehehe

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  3. That's awesome about the cat card. My husband won't let me, but if it were just me, I would send out a card with my dog and cat in the Christmas outfits.

    The kid pictures drive me batty too. It's like once you have kids, that's the only thing that's important. Like the parents fade into the background and are no longer people in their own right, they are now just "mom" and "dad".

    www.brandysheaif.blogspot.com

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  4. I have tattoos, and I remember my mom not being too keen on them when I started the "process" (I only have three now, so it's really not that many)... but tattoos are no reason to practically disown a child. I hope that your BIL comes to his senses and realizes that it's not the end of the world.

    And I absolutely love that photo of you and DH. You are a beautiful couple!

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  5. My dad cannot get the past the fact that SIL #2 has several (huge) tattoos. I've told him that nearly one third of Gen Xers have them, but he still thinks it's "skanky" (his word) and disreputable.

    I know what you mean about the missing-parent photo cards. I tried to make sure there were a couple of pictures of us, but it was pretty challenging as there were only TWO decent pictures of me this year. Seriously, two. I ended up with seven photos on the card -- maybe that's worse than one big picture of only kids. : P

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  6. amen to point #1, in particular. makes me sad that someone would cut their kid out over something that trivial.

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