It's over -- for one more year

I don't like women who complain about their husbands a lot, so believe me when I say I'm not doing that. I'm not complaining about my husband, but I am complaining about men. More specificially, I'm complaining about men and Christmas.

It is my humble opinion that married men with children have no inkling, no pinkie toe, no slice of an eyelash of a clue how much work Christmas really is for the women in their lives.

When it comes to Christmas, my husband has a few things on his list:
1) Put up the Christmas tree. Because I am allergic to real trees, it's a fake one. So no finding, chopping down, dragging to the car or tying to the roof rack for my husband. Just grab it from the basement and go.

2) Put up the Christmas wreath. This involves getting on a ladder outside and hanging the wreath with the lights on it up on the front of the house.

3) Buy a present for me. This is not as difficult as it might seem. I'm completely in the "it's the thought that counts" camp, so I'll take new bath towels or a hand mixer or a digital camera. I'm happy with whatever shows up wrapped under the tree. And one is plenty.

4) Make Christmas cards. This was a new one this year. Although my hubby's a fabulous photographer, we have somehow managed not to do a photo card -- ever. The one we did this year got a huge reaction (positive, of course) so we think we might have to keep this tradition up.

OK, so that's about it on the hubby list.

Take a deep breath before I start mine. HHHHHHaaaa.

1) Buy presents for everyone on the list except myself. With two kids and multiple relatives and friends, this is easily the biggest time consumer. I did myself a favor this year and bought the first thing that caught my eye for each person that I didn't have a strong idea for. This actually worked out much better than my usual plan which involves thinking that I'll find something better, so passing by one idea only to never find anything better and then not have anything in the closet. Bad, bad.

One more key thing here: Moms have to keep track of who's getting what and make sure it is all coming out even.

2) Pick up lots of "little things" for a variety of people on the list. I separate this from real Christmas shopping because this is the sort of thing you have to be tuned into all Christmas season whenever you go anywhere. So you're at the card store picking up a birthday card for someone and you happen to see these adorable little tissue packs that say "naughty" on one side and "nice" on the other. Perfect for the Secret Santa at the office -- also works as an additional little thing to stick in the gift bags for the neighbors.

3) Buy wrapping paper, tape and ribbons. Next year I'll scratch ribbons from my list. I buy them every year and rarely use them. I think I'll make a fun, shiny dress out of stick-on ribbons to wear somewhere on New Year's Eve.

4) Stock up on butter, flour, sugar, eggs and vanilla. I'll be making spritz cookies three times, at a minimum. One of those times is for the Boy Scout cookie exchange. Yes, the boys and dads are supposed to make the cookies themselves and, puh-lease, no, they don't really do it. The moms do.

5) Arrange babysitters for the various office and other Christmas related events. Mine were very available this holiday season, which was helpful when I ended up calling two days before my husband's office party to try to find an available teenager on a Saturday night.

6) Wrap the gifts and pack the gift bags. Sort presents in larger shopping bags by what day and where they'll be needed.

7) Select and prepare a holiday meal menu for the Christmas Eve get-together at our house. Just grandparents and us, so this one was easy.

This isn't my entire list, but I don't know how much you want to read about cleaning toilets and other stuff you have to do all the time anyway, just more frequently at the holidays.

So today is Dec. 26, and I'm exhausted. But here I sit at my computer, and my husband's asleep on the couch.

This American Life "Reruns"

If you listen to "This American Life" on public radio (I don't know if it is technically NPR or PRI, and I don't know if those are really two separate things or two sides of the same coin), you may have heard the show on Sunday about reruns.

It started off with a segment by a woman who loves to watch reruns on TV, and then she tells the story of "The Beaver Trilogy," which is a sort of cinema experience in which a TV news cameraman records this weird kid outside his station. He then goes on to "remake" the exchange with the kid using unknown actors like Sean Penn and Crispin Glover.

At the time it was made they were unknown, anyway.

So I heard all about this movie and now I want to see it, but at the end, Ira Glass, the narrator of the radio show, says that you can't get "The Beaver Trilogy" anywhere. Not on VHS, DVD -- nothing. It isn't available.

I guess it was shown at Sundance and that was it.

For the past few days, all I've been wanting to do is watch "The Beaver Trilogy," but I can't.

It's Christmas time in the city

Baking? Check. Shopping? Check. Wrapping? Well, not yet. But I've started, so at least I'm a few percentage points into it.

And surprisingly, I'm finding that for some reason this year I'm not wishing it would just be over. Not yet. Although usually by now I've had it up to here and then some with Christmas.

I'd like to blame the big, lit-up, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. door-busters retailers, but that wouldn't be honest. My dismay over the annual holiday comes from no one else but me.

I don't like to shop, but I do like to find the perfect gift -- which sets up the dilemma. How do you find the perfect gift if you don't like to shop?

I've done the online shopping thing, and it works OK when you know what you want, but for pure, oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-I-found-pink-knitting-needles-that-light-up retail discoveries, you have to physically walk into the stores and look around with your eyes and wallet open.

I did just that -- three times this Christmas, as a matter of fact. Pretty proud of myself that in three trips I managed to score what I needed for about dozen people of all ages and tastes. So I'm not sick of the holiday yet because I'm actually excited to see how people react when they open their gifts.

And if they hate what I got them, there's a bit of good news: No one I know is impolite enough to tell me.

Babies!

The twins were born last night -- Lucas Addison and Miles Madden.

It is hard to hear the stories and be so far away. But the excitement carries pretty well over the phone.

Time to start surfing for cheap airfares!

Something New

Today seems like a good day to start something new. (Or revive something old. But more on that later.)

Today is a good day to start something new for two reasons.

1) We have a snow day. My husband and I are both off work; the kids have no school. This is somewhat unheard of, even here in Wisconsin.

2) My sister is half a country away, in the process of giving birth to twins. I got the call late last night that she was going in to the hospital; I'm sitting here today, in Central Standard Time, waiting to hear from Pacific Time.

There's a lot more to the tale of the twins, but that's my sister's story to tell -- not mine. Suffice to say there's much joy in our family on this day as we wait for word.

So back to the something old. For 10 years, I wrote a column for our local newspaper that enabled me to meet lots of great people and share their life stories with readers. Some stick with me so strongly they almost feel like a part of my own life.

I still think about many of the people who let me into their lives at times of great celebration and times of great tragedy. Some of us stay in touch, but for those that I don't touch base with from time to time, I wonder how they are faring.

I also shared some of my own stories in that space along the way -- stories of becoming a mom for the first and second times, new homeownership, friendship.

It was great and I loved it and for 10 years, it was my favorite thing to do.

And then it wasn't. There's a reason for that, and I'm still deciding whether I'm going to get into that here or not. Maybe at some point I will.

(Just got an update call from the West Coast. No babies yet.)

So I'm going to try this as a way to get interested in writing again. I really feel like I lost it, and now I'm feeling that loss.

Today seems like a good day to try to wrap my arms around it again and hold it close while the snow falls outside and it is quiet enough for me to hear.