(As is my habit, I'm writing until I'm too brain-dead to function, so I'm posting this without editing it. I'll re-read it for errors tomorrow, but who knows what you'll find in it tonight? *chuckles*)
I feel too tired to write tonight, but I also feel I should do it because I’ve got things to say. It’s been an important week, yet again. It seems weird to me that a lot of people have day after day where they get up, eat, go to work, eat, work some more, come home, eat, watch TV, go to bed, and repeat the cycle over and over. Maybe someday my days will become filled with a dull, drab routine, but not yet it seems.
Of course, the holidays added some unusual spice to the week’s events. Yesterday was Christmas, and a very nice day it was for me – and my family, with whom I spent most of the time. Master allowed me to take Christmas Eve off so I could spend the night with my kids. I brought a laptop so I could work on my blog but … err … well, here’s all I wrote that night …
“It’s close to two in the morning on Christmas. I realize that my son has his alarm set to go off at 5:30 – less than four hours from now. Well, I remember that now. I’ve been … err … testing out the Guitar Hero game I got my kids for Christmas, and I sorta lost track of time. I’m actually at my ex’s house instead of my Master’s. It’s the first time I’ve stayed over here in a long time – as in, almost two years. It feels a bit weird, but it’s okay.”
*grins*
I curled up to sleep on an old (and wonderfully comfy) recliner in the living room, and the next thing I remember was my son’s happy face as he was waking me up in the darkness – at 5:31 AM. My daughter hadn’t woken yet, and as she still believes in Santa Claus, I had to convince my son to not open up any presents until she got down. To my pleasant surprise, he was fine with that, as long as he had a chance to look over his gifts and see what he got before heading upstairs back to bed again. My son still has some problems emotionally, but he’s really starting to making some strides in maturing as a young man, and that makes my ex and I very hopeful about his future, as you can guess. *smiles*
After my daughter awoke, she and my son came down together, with my son feigning surprise at all the gifts, and the rest of the day went pretty much as best as any Christmas I’ve had in a long time. My ex and I gave the kids craft kits and books and science kits and stuffed animals, with almost no electronic toys – the exception being a nifty kinetic sculpture for my son and a top that never stops spinning for my daughter, both of which use batteries to power inner magnets. Oh, and I got them both a “sports resort” game program for their new Wii along with the previously mentioned Guitar Hero, and my ex got a dragon-oriented video game for my son – who very quickly became quasi-addicted to it. (I think I’ve mentioned that my son and daughter are both very heavily into dragons at the moment, especially my son, who works with a dragon spirit and somewhat believes he may be a dragon himself spiritually – which concerns me a bit, from my experience with Dragon in the past. In every case of friends of mine who work with Dragon spirit, before long they believe they’re dragons themselves, something I attribute to the energies of Dragon – although I don’t put it past him to be trying to convince them of such things for his own selfish reasons. Whatever.)
Amazingly, only one of the gifts somewhat flopped – the Guitar Hero. I thought my son and my ex would both love it, but my son said the idea doesn’t thrill him a lot, and my ex suggested I just keep it for awhile to play at Master’s house until my son’s ready for it. Well, I have to admit, the Guitar Hero really rocks (literally) in my opinion, and so I agreed to take perfect care of it (and to make good use of it until my son wants it back. *chuckles*)
Come early afternoon, I headed back to Master’s, mistakenly thinking he wanted me to make some sweet-potato frittatas for dinner. I also wanted to spend time with Master and M’Lady that day, thinking they would be celebrating Christmas in their own way. To my complete surprise, Master told me upon my arrival that he and M’Lady don’t celebrate the holiday season – at all. I knew Master wasn’t Christian, and M’Lady was raised in the Jewish faith, but I thought they’d celebrate something simply for the fun, but no Christmas or Hanukkah in any way shape or form. (Although I’m not Christian either, I do see the holiday as a wonderful cultural celebration, and I spiritually take time to acknowledge the Winter Solstice at least.) I have to admit that I expected they’d have a little something for me as a token of the season, but Master explained to me after seeing my crestfallen expression that he feels gifts shouldn’t be given as an obligation as part of a holiday, but instead they should be given spontaneously whenever the mood strikes him. I see what he’s saying, and to me that shows a much more forthright and generous view of the idea of giving to those you care about and those in need, in a way taking the idea of Christmas and spreading it throughout the entire year.
Nonetheless, it shows why my big British-themed holiday feast for Master and M’Lady that I spent weeks planning and hours preparing and finally presented as a big surprise – wasn’t as big a deal to them as I thought it would be.
After doing some last minute chores on Christmas eve (along with making from scratch a loaf of applesauce bread to bring my ex and kids for their Christmas breakfast), I was counting the hours until the afternoon arrived. Finally at 4 PM I very brightly took Master’s and M’Lady’s nice China from their shelves, brewed a pot of Lady Grey tea, opened a package of sweetened British “digestive biscuits” and place a few alongside the teacups on a tray, then filled the cups and, carefully approaching Master and M’Lady with everything on a tray, announced in my best British accent that it was time for tea. Master was wonderful and very gratefully took his drink and biscuits. M’Lady, who was lying on the couch reading a book, instead uttered coldly, “I don’t drink tea” without even looking up at me.
Oh, well, at least Master liked it, so I was able to take her tea and enjoy it myself in the kitchen.
I then presented Master and M’Lady with a surprise selection of British “Country Living” magazines from several different years dedicated to the Christmas and Winter seasons, and Master graciously took them, but M’Lady only shook her head in refusal.
Undaunted, I thought for sure M’Lady would be won over by the meal I had prepared. And it was a doozy. From scratch, I made country mushrooms in a creamy tarragon-flavored sauce, along with potato scones and glazed carrots. For the entrees, I had to fudge and use frozen stuff, but it came straight from England, so it was authentic – Scottish meat pies, along with a steak and kidney pie. And then, after they had finished all that, I presented steamed plum budding in a brandy sauce, ginger wafers, and to top it off, Christmas crackers – which are these adorable tubes that break apart with a “bang” when you pull them, revealing a toy-surprise along with a paper crown and a joke. (Hoo boy, I’m pretty sure it was the most complicated arrangement I’ve made since coming to live with Master. I was frantically working for hours to get it all ready at the same time, and the number of dishes and utensils I needed to clean afterward was amazing.)
After all the planning and keeping everything a surprise, I couldn’t wait. I spent a decent amount of my own money getting everything together, but I didn’t care – for Master and M’Lady, anything would be worth it, and I just wanted to make them happy for the holidays.
*sighs*
To them, it was pretty much a normal meal. After I proudly presented each of them with a plate loaded with food, they turned on the television, started watching a show, and casually ate what I made without any fanfare. The TV was so loud that I had a lot of trouble trying to explain what I had made.
I made enough for myself of most everything (there wasn’t enough of the steak and kidney pie for me to try, but I figure I’ll get a chance someday). It was hard for me to enjoy it, though, because the television program was so distracting the only way I could get through the meal was to turn off my hearing aids and focus like crazy on what I was eating.
*sighs again*
Finally, Master and M’Lady finished what I had prepared, and I rushed to get the desert and crackers and returned with it all arranged very nicely for them. And then, I realized I simply couldn’t return with all of it as long as the show was still blaring, so I respectfully waited and asked them for that part of the evening to please turn off the TV – and fortunately they did. And it all did turn out fun – Master got a deck of cards in his cracker and very jovially wore the paper crown, and M’Lady got a hair barrette and a good (bad) joke … “Why didn’t the skeleton make it to the New Year’s Eve party? Because he had no body to go with.” Yark, yark yark! *giggles* I had bought an extra cracker in case the others were broken, and Master bade me to open it – and I got, of all things, a shoe horn. Who in the world would give a shoe horn to a child as a present? Those British people are SO bizarre! *grins*
Afterword, M’Lady turned back on the show, not having shown much enthusiasm for anything I did throughout the evening, and I got to work cleaning the dishes. By the time I was done, I was exhausted. In the end, though Master made it all worth it by coming to me, telling me he was very pleased with the dinner, and that it was wonderful, and that he greatly appreciated all my efforts, and then he hugged me, and I truly felt wonderful indeed!!! *bounces*
Well, on that note, I’m going to post this and head to bed. I haven’t even talked about the stuff that happened earlier in the week. Or the fact that I really pissed off Master tonight – so much that he cancelled plans to attend a play party at the Sanctuary BDSM club. But that can wait. Some weird stuff has been going on with me lately spiritually, and so my dreams are calling me. So … toodles for now.
And, as always … la kajira!
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