It began with a tiff. And in the rules of tiffs…I lost. It was about that word…practical. I am pretty sure that I don’t have that gene. That is bad for my tiff opponent who wants me to have that gene so badly…
So then there is Christmas…
Do you have a fake tree you open like an umbrella or do you schlop to a tree lot, usually in the cold, never finding the exact one… have it tied to your car top with that plastic chord or crammed in the back seat with you holding it as it drips, put it in water over night, drag it in your house with needles everywhere, lift it in that thingy that is supposed to hold water and promised with a guarantee to hold it up as you screw every side yet it still leans.. and does it hold water? Fill with more water, decorate, …the tree falls…maybe twice…redecorate and mop…keep watering so your house won’t burn down and then take it all down when the pine needles show up in your socks and at Easter. Yes, my hand is raised… I do the second. Practical…nope.
How about baking. You may say, “What is baking?” Do you purchase delicious snacks at Trader Joes that seems more Christmassy than chain grocers or bakeries or do you pull out the flour, sugar, molasses, melted butter, spices, chocolate, and…snack on too many marshmallows or chocolate chips before you even dropped little dough drops on a cookie sheet or in a pie plate and have more dishes to wash than if you hosted the work Christmas party. Then wrap the treats to give away. Yes, my hand is raised for baking…Practical…nope.
Do you carol? Like go out, knock on your neighbors’ or friends’ doors stand in the cold or in a hallway and sing…? Even if you’re tone deaf? In our world, would anyone even open the door since most are probably 75 miles away looking at their porch from their phone telling us to get away or they will electronically open their dog door and their two Doberman Pinchers will bite our sorry bums off their property until their electronic doggy collars won’t let them go past their lawn. My hand is raised…I carol and even with those baked goods I spent days making to give away that I haven’t done the dishes yet. I even drop some for the dinosaurs. I mean dogs; the ones without chocolate of course. Practical…nope.
Buying gifts? Probably done on black Friday or Cyber Monday, with every electronic sale receipt carefully filed in electronic folders or in the “cloud” for when the returns need to be made and the electronic return receipt is there for you to access and print out. Then sent with no worries of wrapping hoping the drones dropped them in the correct porches…Or, do you wander through Guitar Center, LuLu Lemon, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS (when desperate) trying to do the matching game with people you love or feel you need to buy a gift, carrying bags through malls (that are dimmed by so many stores vacant), eat good food at the food court, or wander and wander as the days inch closer with nothing to get your mother-in-law because she remembered you re-gifted her the shawl she gave you two years earlier. Yep, my hand is raised…I am the mall wanderer. Practical in these electronic or post Covid days…nope.
Christmas is just a start I go way impractical beyond that…
See…practical isn’t in me. It never has been. I keep noticing most everything I own, my passions, or do’s, or what I think about and well… sooo not practical.
Yet…I wouldn’t trade the pine smell, the tickle of the needles that takes me back to a place I love, the smell of cinnamon or melting chocolate in my mouth…and warmth…there is nothing like a warm kitchen with good smells and lots of dirty dishes you get to wash in warm sudsy water that have made something yummy. I love wandering up and down store aisles thinking about the ones I love and whether they would like this…or that…or both…or definitely not either. I love the drive home with full bags and wrapping next. I’m not a fan of drones, or doorbells with cameras. I’m not all that broken up about not having the practical gene. I know it drives those who do…crazy. I don’t want too much practical. It is much like my blog name… have fun with it? How do you make memories? How do you laugh when the tree falls each year and you still put on the broken ornaments…with the dates of the tree fall?
I’m not saying practical is bad. It is soooo good. The tiff was practical and I was reminded I live in a practical world. (I keep forgetting). I do the tiring, messy, too much work way and rarely default to the adult-serious or “sleek hip and modern.” I like to live IN life. Sing your heart out with carols you love, play eye spy with the tree ornaments, try grandpa’s milkshake recipe with the secret ingredients; return to the mall ruins. It’s kind of the fall down messy approach to life. I know. But if you don’t have the practical gene you just have to get used to rolling with it. Nope, I’m certainly not saying it’s the best way. I lose that tiff way too much…practical is every where. I carry lots of paper towels.