The New House and Christmas
One of the things I like about keeping a blog is the history. I can go back eight years and see what I was up to. Facebook, however, is keeping me from posting. And, while I’m an almost daily poster on FB, now I’m posting here every other week or so. The downside is FB has no “archive,” really. Yes, I can click “see older posts,” but who wants to do that to find something eight months old? No one. I did it once, looking for something from Jimmy T’s bachelor party, and it took forever. So I need to remember to post milestones here.
Back in the first week of October, I moved into my childhood home. My mom bought a new trailer, and placed it on a couple of acres about a mile from her old house. I have said for years that I would love to live in my old home town, Spruce Head Maine America. With mom moving, that opportunity came around. With the blessings of my brother and sister, Mom and I made arrangements for me to purchase her house–the house I grew up in. Susan moved five times before she was 12. She was really captivated by the idea that I grew up in essentially one house for my entire childhood. (Technically, another house was burned out in ’77–or was it ’76? Either way, I was too young to have any real memories of it. The “new” house sits on the old foundation, though!) So we’re now all settled into my “old” house, which is now the Batty’s “new” house, even though it was this Batty’s old house. Got it?
Our “new” house is a ranch, where “Rockland House” was a typical New Englander. Living on one floor has significant advantages. Since the laundry is all on one floor, I’m like to wash, fold, and put the laundry into storage. At Rockland House, where laundry was in the basement, clean laundry went onto a table, and eventually became a mountain of clean laundry. And, since the bedrooms are on the same floor, we’re more likely to make the bed, and keep things tidied up. No more hiding mess upstairs! The only downside I can see so far is that the kids don’t go “downstairs” in the morning, making sleeping in after those late night gigs much harder to do.
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Christmas at the new house was a lovely affair. Though a made a special trip to Rockland House to pick up the video camera, we forgot to use it. My inlaws came down and celebrated with us, as they usually do. In the afternoon, we had lunch at my mom’s new house, and opened presents there. I should also mention that Christmas Eve was at my grandmother’s house. This year, she “cut back.” Every year, she says she’s cut back, and bought fewer presents. This year, she actually did. And honestly, I appreciate it. In years past, the kids would get so much stuff we’d actually have to give perfectly good toys away in order to make room for the new stuff. This year, everyone was more in line.
I bought Susan a Wii Fit–something she wanted last year too. I played a very nice Christmas party for a legal firm, and parlayed that gig into her present. Really, the whole family is using it. I’m even getting up early to try and put in 15-30 minutes of “work out.” I do a little stretching, some cardio stuff, and then a little run. It’s really quite fun. The biking, the obstacle course, and the run get the heart rate up, get my lungs working, and get me off the couch. Here’s hoping I stick with it!