freeze week

Merry Late Christmas.

I would have written sooner, but obviously, as the youngest of 6 kids (all of the siblings being married with kids) Christmas around here was insane. I drove home last Tuesday for the holiday. It should have taken an hour and a half but ended up taking 3 hours due to the fact that I couldn't go above 40 mph because of the condition of the roads. Not good.
Mark and Jill got here the next day with Alden and Micah (2 year old girls, you will be eating your hearts out in 10 years...). It was awesome to see all of them. Everyone else rolled into the house at will, as per the usual. Christmas always whirls by me and before I knew it, I was driving back on Friday afternoon to be at work by 3pm.
I worked Friday and Saturday nights and then on Sunday had a much more enjoyable ride back home to my parent's house. I talked to Rob, my eldest brother for a good chunk of the trip, which was nice since he didn't make it home for Christmas this year. It had been a while since I had sat and had a good conversation with him, so there was a lot of catching up to do. Not to mention, the cross-generation translating that has to take place! (I love you, brother Robby :P )

I hung up with him as I was coming over the last hill into Burlington, the land where people older than you are still referred to as "Mr./Mrs. SoandSo." Every time I drive home on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I get a little bit nostalgic and somewhat swept away with the romanticism of the moments. I was driving southeast into town so the warm hues of the 5 o'clock setting sun were hitting me through my review mirror and reflecting off of the golden cut fields of corn. I passed Mormon Road and that little white house on the right that seems to grow more and more dilapidated every time I drive past it. I'm never really sure if the house is getting older or if everything else around it is getting newer. It's probably both. I passed the bridge that Carolyn and I got stuck under in a canoe when the water was too high. I passed the church I grew up in and remembered the oppressive heat of summer sermons on my mom's lap, chewing old sticks of Extra bubble gum from the man in front of me and playing with my dad's dove tie pin. Every once in a while, she would get out her nail file and let me push her cuticles back to keep me occupied. I drove past the old library, where I used to go with Cassie from the house across the street to Book Night. We would come home after dark on those first nights in October when the sky is slightly covered by spindling clouds that chase each other past the moon and my imagination would run away with me to the thoughts of scary stories and the cemetery behind our neighborhood.
And then I pulled into our driveway. And mom and dad were there to greet me like they always are. And I was home. And the thousands of thoughts that had attacked me driving in left themselves rest on the doorstep so that I could just relax and slink down into the warmth of a blanket and our deep purple couch.


Carolyn's 25th birthday was today and so I headed over to her parent's house for the Annual Fondue dinner. Every year, her parents have family and me over for Carolyn's favorite meal...fondue. I have been participating in this since her 12th birthday. We joked about her cat. Filled her inlaws in on old stories. And then, a newer addition to the evening, sat outside in their hot tub and talked and watched the stars. Jean and Larry joked about how I would still drop everything on her 40th birthday to come back for the dinner...and he's right. Carolyn is the friend that I will always have no matter what happens, where I go or who she marries. :P She's like the 7th child in my family. I'm their other daughter. Everyone should have that 2nd family. It teaches you about your own.

Anyway, it's back to Madison for me tomorrow and back to the reality of Freeze Week. I have this theory about the week in between Christmas and New Years that it is sort of the black hole week. In the midst of it, I realize it's happening but it always seems like it doesn't happen. Sort of like Vegas...what happens in Freeze Week stays in Freeze Week.