Santa’s Family Tree

Well, now that Saint Nick is done delivering gifts to children all around the world, perhaps he can now get back to his secret passion: genealogy.

Mama’s Mixtape

I hate to admit it, but in my teenage and young adult years, I was an expert at pushing my mother’s buttons. (If I haven’t said it lately, so sorry about that, Mom.)

It seemed like every time she spoke, I would respond with high-pitched whines, ever-rolling eyes, and yeah whatevers. (It really, really is a miracle that I made it to adulthood!) Worse yet, I would argue the opposite of what she was saying. If my mother stated that the sky was blue, I would claim that it had a tint of red. If she commented that it was cold outside, I would swear that I was hot. And if she yelled, “Turn down that #$&* noise!”, naturally, I cranked up the volume. (Yep, I was THAT kid…)

It’s a Miracle We Made It to Adulthood

Now that I am older, I have come to appreciate the amazing restraint my mom exercised when I and my sisters were children and teenagers. With our rolling eyes and know-it-all comments and all-around pain-in-the-posterior attitudes, it is a miracle that any of us ever made it to adulthood.

And yet, here I am, a mother myself of children with their own eye rolls and smart-aleck responses and P.I.T.A. performances: I swear they will be lucky to make it to next week!

What’s in a (Nick)name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

~William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, Scene 2)

Yesterday, one of my favorite bloggers, Ann Marie Bryant, posted a writing challenge, asking readers to share their nicknames and the reasons behind those monikers.

Middle-Aged Morning

I woke up old this morning. Old!  But I swear, when I went to sleep last night, I was still slightly youthful.

However, at the break of dawn, as I stretched myself from slumber, my body creaked and cracked like tree limbs in winter.