Last Friday evening was the time that Hunter and I agreed to reserve for decorating our house for Christmas. We reserved the date about a week ahead of time, and for the following seven days both of us were frequently being invited to do other fun stuff on that particular Friday night. But Christmas decorating emerged victorious as night after night we would report to each other, "So, I just turned down going to _________ so that we can still decorate on Friday...we're still decorating Friday, right?" Our answers to each other were always an emphatic YES.
A couple of days before our decorating extravaganza, I started really getting in the mood and suggested to Hunter that I make my famous hot cocoa to sip on decorating night as we enjoy looking at the fruits of our labor. (My famous hot cocoa drink is actually a recipe from the front of my hot cocoa-flavored Philosophy-brand bath, shower gel and shampoo bottle. After making this homemade hot cocoa several times for several different groups of people, I've determined that it's officially a knee-buckler. Especially for chocolate fanatics. Here's the recipe:
philosophy®: 1/2c. granulated sugar, 1/3c. hot water, 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, 4c. milk, 1/8tsp. salt, 3/4tsp. vanilla extract. mix cocoa, sugar, water and salt in a saucepan. over medium heat, stir constantly until mixture boils. cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. stir in the milk and heat, but do not boil. remove from heat and add vanilla. blend well. serve immediately.
Enjoy!)
I was so discouraged when Hunter, the one who first classified my hot cocoa as "wow, really good," told me, "No, I really don't think you want to make hot cocoa that night."
"WHAT?!" I exclaimed to him. "Of COURSE we're going to want hot cocoa that night. It's the perfect Christmas drink! You LOVE my hot cocoa!"
He just shook his head, squinted his eyes a bit and said, "I'm sorry, I'm just getting this vibe that says hot cocoa is NOT a good idea that night. It's just this feeling. Any other drink, cider, tea, yeah, let's do tea. Just not hot cocoa. Yes, I love it, but it's just not right for that night. You don't want the hot cocoa."
I consented with a disappointed "harumph" and said, "Ok, but only because tea sounds pretty good do I agree to have it instead of hot cocoa." And because I was feeling particularly feisty, I added, "And don't tell me what I do and don't want." That made Hunter giggle.
Friday evening came around. Before we started getting out the Christmas boxes I suggested that not only do we sip tea after decorating, but we also watch one of our favorite silly Christmas movies, Home Alone I, together too. At first he agreed but then hastily changed his mind. "I think we should save Home Alone for later. Let's watch Veggie Tales Christmas tonight." I pretty much did NOT want to watch Veggie Tales Christmas, but I didn't want there to be an argument in the air as we started decorating, so I again consented. Besides, Hunter had already tried to describe to me what a magical feeling he had inside him about this night, so I didn't want to ruin that feeling by any sort of disagreement.
Decorating went smoothly and was a complete blast. I mean, we were almost COMPLETElY exhausted only a third of the way through it, but we were determined to get it all done that night. Our biggest accomplishment and the one we're most proud of is our fireplace display. Hopefully I'll have a pic up of it soon. As we decorated we listened to our favorite Christmas tunes. Periodically throughout the evening Hunter just wouldn't be able to hold it in and would tell me, "I just have this magical feeling. It's hard to describe. It just won't go away. It's like I wouldn't be surprised at anything that happens tonight."
I said, "Like, you wouldn't be surprised if Santa Claus visited us tonight?"
He looked at me with a smile and said, "Exactly. Like I wouldn't be surprised if it was Santa who was making me feel so magical and Christmasy."
When we were done decorating we agreed to get ready for bed, then prepare our tea and a little snack to enjoy with our video. By that time I was happy that Hunter had suggested Veggie Tales Christmas, because it was about 10 pm already, neither of us really wanted to be up much longer.
After the movie I started taking apart Hunter's bedding so that I could put flannel Christmas sheets on his bed for him. When I lifted up his pillow, I found a rented Polar Express dvd hiding underneath. "Oooo!" I thought to myself, "Dad is trying to make a Christmasy surprise for Hunter! Pretty good idea, Dad!" I made sure to keep the dvd underneath the pillow when I took it off the bed so that hopefully Hunter wouldn't see it until he crawled into the warmth of his Christmas sheets that night.
Hunter entered the room as I was just starting to put the fresh set of sheets on his bed. He had a look of, "Well, geez, I just wanted to go to bed." I giggled at his expression and told him to relax, his bed would be ready soon and it would be worth the wait. He wandered around the room a bit and then sat down.
When it was time for me to make the pillow/dvd transfer, I reached one hand underneath the pillow to grasp the dvd. But my hand found NOTHING! I lifted up the pillow and sure enough, no Polar Express there. I went slightly frantic, looking all around me, under pieces of furniture, lifting up curtains and such, all the while scratching my head and worrying. Suddenly I gave up and looked at Hunter, who was resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and obviously trying to hide uncontrollable laughter. I asked him what in the world he was laughing at, anxious that he had found the dvd before I got to it and hid it as a trick. He explained to me, through his laughter, that he didn't know what I was looking for, but man, when I started looking for it, I perked up like a peacock on a mission, straightening up much like Dwight Schrute would if he discovered a hidden plot to remove Michael from the office or something. He mimicked some of my head movements as I was looking for the lost object...I started laughing till I was crying because they DID look like a curious bird or a focused Dwight Schrute.
Finally, I explained to Hunter what I was looking for (without giving him the name of the dvd) and told him that I was trying hard to not ruin the surprise the dad had set up for him. He could provide me no help as to the location of the dvd, but agreed to get in bed, and when I told him to close his eyes, he would as I slipped the dvd under his pillow again....that is, if I ever found the dvd.
I went on searching for about three more minutes, all the while getting more and more worried that I had simply hallucinated the whole idea of the Polar Express. The idea of the hallucination sounded completely bizarre to me, but then again, there was no one in the room when I found the dvd, so maybe I had hit my head hard on something and then dreamed up the whole experience and forgotten the hitting of my head!
FINALLY, I found the dvd. But it was NOT where I had put it. I had NO recollection of putting it where I found it again, but I just shrugged off that confusion and slipped the dvd under Hunter's pillow.
Hunter was surprised at the Polar Express, but he was also kind of like, "Well, thanks dad. You tried to make a Christmasy surprise for me, missed the mark a bit but thanks anyways. "
"I thought you loved the Polar Express," I said.
"OOOH," he said as he looked at me. "It was you! This is YOUR surprise to me, isn't it! No, yeah, I...I like the Polar Express."
Suddenly MY dignity was at stake...I didn't want Hunter thinking I had surprised him with a movie he thought was cheesy, especially when I remembered thinking it was cheesy, not to mention the fact that it WASN'T my surprise to him. He had a hard time believing me that it wasn't my surprise, though, so the debate continued until both of us had hit the sack. We did, eventually, get to bed, with memories of a very Christmasy and fun evening.
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I woke with a jolt and a gasp. Something felt strange...had there been an earthquake? As my mind went through the process of completely waking up, I realized one of the things that felt so strange was Hunter standing over my bed and frantically begging me to wake up and get up. My heart started pounding because of the knowledge that Hunter has only ever woken me up in the middle of the night because of frightening circumstances...earthquakes, possible intruders, etc. When my brain started functioning to the capacity that I could understand what Hunter was telling me, I learned from his frantic explanation that he had been hearing lots of sounds downstairs and NEEDED to go down and see who/what was there. I was about to just lay back in bed again until he further told me that at one point during one of the noises, the bedroom door had opened a crack. From being tightly CLOSED. THAT got my heart racing. No longer was I safe staying upstairs with whatever it was that was wandering downstairs. The thing had opened the DOOR. I got so completely frustrated with Hunter that he was so insistent on GOING WITH ME to check it out. That's always been Hunter's strategy with monsters or intruders. GO DEFENSELESS AND CHECK IT OUT. As a kid, my strategy had always been to stay as low-key and quiet as possible, then maybe the monsters would never know I was present and would never bother me. But Hunter always has to give away our hiding place by making noise and making his presence known. I tried to keep my voice from shaking as I attempted a convincing, "It's probably just a cat. I'm going to sleep." Hunter PLEADED with me with an even louder voice to come with him to check it out. When I realized that he would be going downstairs whether I came with him or not, I decided that I would rather be with him when the monster attacked rather than wonder what was going on as I hid in bed.
We slowly and quietly started creeping down the stairs. After only the second step, sure enough, I heard scary squeaking/metal-rubbing-against-metal/banging noises, they sounded like they were coming from the fireplace. I was TERRIFIED. Previously in our lives, there had been plenty of times of believing there MIGHT be something scary going on in our home, but this was the first time that it seemed to be a reality. I bolted back up the stairs as quickly and stealthily as I could, wondering what exactly I would do when I got back into my room. Huddle, frightened, with Hunter? Was that all we were going to be able to do?
Eventually I heard Hunter's voice at the bottom of the stairs BEGGING me to come back down, he didn't think it was as bad as what I had assumed. I crept slowly back down the stairs again. The first thing I saw was the computer that had been turned ON...the very computer that I had made sure to turn OFF before we went to bed. That right there reminded me of The Ring, for some reason, and I really wondered why the heck Hunter wasn't more scared. Suddenly I heard some of the most magical Christmas music ever, and recognized it as from the soundtrack of The Santa Clause I, during the part where the dad and his son are first discovering Santa and his sleigh on their roof. It was then that I started to calm down...maybe just maybe all of this was set up by Hunter. I looked at the tv and got a little freaked out again when I saw that it too was on, but then calmed down even more when I saw that the dvd menu of the Polar Express was playing. Yes, this was definitely Hunter. Finally, my eyes rested on the coffee table, where there were waiting two fresh cups of hot cocoa. EVERYTHING started to make sense. Of COURSE Hunter had set all of this up! He was trying to make it seem like Santa had visited us through the fireplace and had left us a movie and hot cocoa to enjoy for the start of the Christmas season! My mind started to have all these flashbacks of memories that SHOULD have told me Hunter had something up his sleeve....that's why he didn't want us to have the hot cocoa last night!....OH, the movie, wow, he did a great job at pretending he was surprised!....so THAT'S why he didn't want to watch a full-length movie last night!
Hunter was insistent that we forget about sleep and watch the movie right then, with our fresh hot cocoa. I thought about it for a minute, then asked him, "What time is it?" He said, "Um," gulp, "it's two." I shook my head and said, "Ok. Let's do this."
So we watched the Polar Express at two in the morning. With fresh hot cocoa that Hunter himself made. Very very fun and Christmasy.
Later in the morning (at a DECENT hour), I asked Hunter what in the world were the noises that I had heard coming from the fireplace? He showed me the playlist that he had put together on Itunes. The first "song" was one that he had named "Santa Support." It was three minutes of nothing. No sounds, nothing. The second "song" was called "Santa," it was a sound recording he had made of him banging around in the fireplace...so that's where the freaky and realistic noise had come from. The third song was the one from the Santa Clause. The reason he had to have the three minutes of "Santa Support" was so that he could time my coming down the stairs at the perfect moment to hear the noises in the fireplace. Very creative, huh?
Man, I can't wait to see what Hunter has up his sleeve when the time comes for him to propose to a girl.
We slowly and quietly started creeping down the stairs. After only the second step, sure enough, I heard scary squeaking/metal-rubbing-against-metal/banging noises, they sounded like they were coming from the fireplace. I was TERRIFIED. Previously in our lives, there had been plenty of times of believing there MIGHT be something scary going on in our home, but this was the first time that it seemed to be a reality. I bolted back up the stairs as quickly and stealthily as I could, wondering what exactly I would do when I got back into my room. Huddle, frightened, with Hunter? Was that all we were going to be able to do?
Eventually I heard Hunter's voice at the bottom of the stairs BEGGING me to come back down, he didn't think it was as bad as what I had assumed. I crept slowly back down the stairs again. The first thing I saw was the computer that had been turned ON...the very computer that I had made sure to turn OFF before we went to bed. That right there reminded me of The Ring, for some reason, and I really wondered why the heck Hunter wasn't more scared. Suddenly I heard some of the most magical Christmas music ever, and recognized it as from the soundtrack of The Santa Clause I, during the part where the dad and his son are first discovering Santa and his sleigh on their roof. It was then that I started to calm down...maybe just maybe all of this was set up by Hunter. I looked at the tv and got a little freaked out again when I saw that it too was on, but then calmed down even more when I saw that the dvd menu of the Polar Express was playing. Yes, this was definitely Hunter. Finally, my eyes rested on the coffee table, where there were waiting two fresh cups of hot cocoa. EVERYTHING started to make sense. Of COURSE Hunter had set all of this up! He was trying to make it seem like Santa had visited us through the fireplace and had left us a movie and hot cocoa to enjoy for the start of the Christmas season! My mind started to have all these flashbacks of memories that SHOULD have told me Hunter had something up his sleeve....that's why he didn't want us to have the hot cocoa last night!....OH, the movie, wow, he did a great job at pretending he was surprised!....so THAT'S why he didn't want to watch a full-length movie last night!
Hunter was insistent that we forget about sleep and watch the movie right then, with our fresh hot cocoa. I thought about it for a minute, then asked him, "What time is it?" He said, "Um," gulp, "it's two." I shook my head and said, "Ok. Let's do this."
So we watched the Polar Express at two in the morning. With fresh hot cocoa that Hunter himself made. Very very fun and Christmasy.
Later in the morning (at a DECENT hour), I asked Hunter what in the world were the noises that I had heard coming from the fireplace? He showed me the playlist that he had put together on Itunes. The first "song" was one that he had named "Santa Support." It was three minutes of nothing. No sounds, nothing. The second "song" was called "Santa," it was a sound recording he had made of him banging around in the fireplace...so that's where the freaky and realistic noise had come from. The third song was the one from the Santa Clause. The reason he had to have the three minutes of "Santa Support" was so that he could time my coming down the stairs at the perfect moment to hear the noises in the fireplace. Very creative, huh?
Man, I can't wait to see what Hunter has up his sleeve when the time comes for him to propose to a girl.