Thursday, December 28, 2006

At home



Ah to be home again. The hearty, healthy meals. The heat, water, and electricity for free. The tree blazing away in a slightly off balanced nature. The long afternoons to read and the evenings devoted to dusty board games and old, classic films. The unwavering distrust parents have in computers and debit cards. I even found myself in the den one evening viewing via VHS circa 1985, videos of Christmas past, another post entirely.
Ah yes it's good to be home.

From the living room, the view of my parents in the kitchen affords many delights. On Christmas day it was to my enjoyment to witness the excitement with which Mom and Dad carved the turkey with an electric knife -- a technology first introduced into the United States in 1950, and first discovered by my parents in 2006.

On the adventures around town, I see familiar faces either in town for the holiday, or those lucky few who have finally made it home to stay. Lucky to be back before the rest of us, lucky to have found a job. Strangely, so many of us yearn to come home. Yet we live from Idaho to Seatle. From Portland, to Pheonix. From the Carrolinas to New York, Pennsylvania, and overseas to Britian, Iraq, Germany, Japan, and Australia. Some are in the army, some in college, some just working. But those who come home for Christmas all talk about the day they will return for good.

Among the other joys of being home is the embarrassment of holding up the line at Albertsons while your parents write a check for their $30 worth of groceries. Oh, how I love that one. The cashier requires a phone number, a driver’s license number, a lock of hair, three cc’s of blood and your first born. As the first born, I flatly refused to hole up at Albertsons while the bank confirmed the check was good. You may ask why they insist on using checks. I have a headache from attempting to explain a debit card works the exact same way and that it’s perfectly acceptable to write your purchases in the check register just as if you had written a check. But they laugh, shake their heads at me (as if I’m the dense one) and calmly submit their DNA for further investigations.

I think the best thing about home, though, is the games. We’ve always been a game family. Winter weekend nights provide some of the most fertile times for inventing entertainment. As kids, my brother and I were exposed to every board and card game in existence. We would listen to oldies on the radio, make some sort of treat from scratch, whether it be ice-cream, caramel corn, or suckers. Then we would round the table sweets only a nearby distraction and argue, laugh, taunt, and joke for hours over Monopoly, Pictionary Junior, Sorry, Clue, Outburst, Scattergories, Candy land, 21, Shoots and Ladders, Life, Yahtzee, Junior Scrabble and so on.

Now all grown up, sorta, I find that not much has changed in the game department. We’ve added a few, and I convinced the parents to try Risk last night. As we set up our little armies on the world map, my Mom pouted that she didn’t understand the game. My Dad re-read every instruction I’d already read aloud. Then the game began. Mom more and more upset over the rules insisting that Dad was cheating, Dad suspicious and relatively vindictive in attacking my Mom’s armies. Of course, Mom won the game. Then, oh, then it was fun as she played the ‘blond’ card of “oh you mean I win? Gee wiz? Really?” Ha-ha Mom.

We took a quick tour of Sorry after that, then Mom and I hung out watching an old Liz Taylor film from sometime in the 1940’s.

Yes, it’s good to be home.



20 Comments:

Blogger Camie Vog said...

What a nice post! That tree looks like a real treat. Game night! Even better, since I have played Sorry and Chutes and Ladders for days now. Nice picture of the parents, too. You look a lot like your mom. And is that a big glass of eggnog I see on the table in the last photo?

9:39 PM  
Blogger The Boy said...

Sounds like a lovely time

Happy New Year

4:52 AM  
Blogger Molly said...

We are a game family too. Nothing says fun like a night spent getting mad over a board game!

Glad you are enjoying your holiday at home!

9:24 AM  
Blogger MrRyanO said...

Wow!~ That sounds like such a nice time! I love boards game, but rarely find the time to play...I might have to dig them out for New Years...we stay home so that might be fun! Thanks for the idea!

9:46 AM  
Blogger Biddie said...

There is nothing better than coming home.
We're a game family, too, and we've been playing 80's Trivial Pursuit ever since the kids gave it to me. The other game I got was Buckaroo, and yes, I've played that one too!

11:32 AM  
Blogger Michael Colvin said...

Board games are fun. Although I've had a few drunken arguments playing Risk with friends. Whole armies have been swept to oblivion! I'm glad you had a good Christmas!

3:24 PM  
Blogger * (asterisk) said...

Sounds like fun times. Have a great new year, Snowcrush!

10:14 AM  
Blogger ldbug said...

Cami - Definitly a real tree! Actually, it's not eggnog, it's this drink my parents love on holidays, has orange juice, some soda water, and vanilla ice cream, interesting.

Boy - Happy new year to you too!!

Molly - Games are the best

Rockdog - Anytime:-)

Life - Wow, buckaroo? Never heard of that one!! I'll have to hunt it down for us!

Tod - Yeah, I can see that happening here too!

* - Have a great new year too!!

7:48 PM  
Blogger C said...

One of my friends is a natural target when playing Risk. I don't know why, but every time a group of us have played, we all end up ganging up on him, LOL! Maybe it's smugness factor? ^_^

9:28 PM  
Blogger katy said...

that was a lovely post thank you.
Happy New Year to you hugs from me to you x

1:58 PM  
Blogger ldbug said...

candace - aww, poor guy;-) sounds an awful lot like my dad!!

pup - Happy New Years!!!

indoors - Hugs into '07 for all:-)

9:28 PM  
Blogger CindyDianne said...

SC - Christmas Day, my family had two tables of spades games going - a real tournament.

I like Sequence. Have you ever played?

:-D

10:36 AM  
Blogger dilling said...

Home is where the heart is...and the Scrabble board. See you soon?

10:08 PM  
Blogger .:.KC.:. the brown eyed girl said...

Glad you had fun. Christmas sounded great. :)

10:55 PM  
Blogger Michael Colvin said...

Snowcrush,
I took my Christmas decorations down today and I hate to be too pushy but may I suggest that you do to? I think it's time for a new post!!!

Where are you? We miss you!!!

9:52 AM  
Blogger ldbug said...

I'll be flying back to NY tomorrow...got a long day of flying, then work the next day. I'll probably be around on Monday with a new post:-)

1:52 AM  
Blogger FOUR DINNERS said...

sounds like yer had a cracker. Good stuff.
New blog is drunkpunk.wordpress.com

Be good (or not)x

6:35 AM  
Blogger Steven said...

You love home...I hate home.

It's weird how that works. ;)

Steve~

12:46 PM  
Blogger katy said...

missing you :-(

2:20 PM  
Blogger ldbug said...

4D - I'll check it out:-)

Steve - I'm lucky to have a good place to land from time to time

indoors - back tomorrow, promise!

10:33 PM  

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