Christmas was different than I'd thought it would be. My festive spirit woke up and started throwing tinsel everywhere, screaming "Jingle Bells" at the top of its lungs until I gave in and stopped being a grinch. It helped that my niece, who is adorable, was incredibly excited about Christmas. She's almost two-- and despite all the drama that's centered around her, she's incredibly happy and chipper. Her mom is J, who I had expected to have some problems with today.
I didn't have any problems with her, to my surprise. We actually bonded. And she and my brother-in-law, M, announced to Robby and I (they'd told the rest of the family, but wanted to be sure we were told in person) that they're expecting another little girl. J is four months along and strangely enough, I knew as soon as I walked in the door. I was going to ask her, but the only thing I had to go on was that she looked slightly rounder and the way her hips tilted when she walked was different-- and I neither wanted her to think I was insinuating she was fat, nor think that I was looking at her butt (I wasn't, I just notice things like bone structure and balance). I had some emotional conflict about it. On one hand, I'm WAY excited that I'm going to have another tiny niece to spoil. On the other, it was a reminder that I'm not going to be having any more children, and she is. But when I thought more about it, I realized that I'll only be not having more children biologically--- we plan on adopting, and adopted little ones are just as much a new baby in the family as one that's been growing in a family member's uterus. You know, if that makes any sense. I've never had much of a line in my mind about adopted family members (I'm referencing the type of adoption with legal paperwork) and blood-related ones. After all, my mom and her biological sister were adopted by my grandparents, and my cousin is adopted. There's kids of Robby's cousins that are adopted.
But I'm tangenting off-- long story short, I was sad and a bit jealous, but now I feel better about it, and I'm sincerely happy about having a new niece on the way. And did I mention that she's due June 8th? That's three days after my birthday. I told J that I thought the baby would show up on the 2nd or 3rd. With all honesty, though, she'll probably come on the 5th--- my birthday, and M&J's wedding anniversary... and exactly one month off from her sister's b'day. June 5th is a busy day for our family.
I got a very, very meaningful gift from my friend Tracee. I don't remember ever crying when I've gotten a gift before, but this one brought me to (albeit manly) tears. She'd made me a scarf from the yarn that she'd originally gotten to make a baby blanket for Dahlia. It was green, orange and a pale off-white. She did the scarf in stripes, so it sort of looks like I'm rockin' a muted Irish flag. I've been wearing it all day-- I have some pictures to post later, when I get my camera hooked up to this computer and things transferred over.
I got some pretty awesome gifts-- Sebastian got me two blind bags, one MLP and one Doctor Who. I pulled a background pony who's name I can't remember off the top of my head and the rare attack-mode Weeping Angel. Froggy got a hilarious onesie from him, too. Some of the other gifts that stuck out were an aesthetic Buddha that I'd fallen in love with at Marukai, a TARDIS mini-cooler/warmer that makes the noise when I open the door. It's amazing and I keep opening and closing the door, just so I can pretend to be the doctor. >.> Froggy got a frog blanket that's ridiculously adorable and I may or may not be borrowing for the time being. It's so fuzzzzzy~~
And Bub loved the gifts I got him-- purple d20 cufflinks, a stage magic/sleight of hand kit and one of those 8bit oldschool ties from think geek.
All in all, Christmas day surprised me. It was full of things that yesterday, I thought I wouldn't be able to handle, things that came out of right field that I think I handled well and things that made me both really happy and really... something else. And it was all wrapped up with watching the new Doctor Who episode with Sebastian, Ian and Bub.
Here's to the coming new year, the turning of the wheel and all that jazz.
- Loki
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