Santa's Helpers

The last few days have been heady, the boys were home. This means a house filled with noise and activity. Their friends stop by and give us great hugs. Every flat surface seems to be covered with kid debris and every bath towel in the house is in play. The dogface boys are beside themselves with joy to cuddle up on a couch with an old friend. A bonus this year was the addition of Hunter’s lovely wife Megan, and Carl’s delightful girlfriend Ashley. We haven’t had a family Christmas in far too long and when the house is full it truly feels like home.

Of course, we’ve redefined “home” since the boys moved out and on to their adult lives. They walk in the door expecting nothing to have changed and anything different is amplified for them. Mostly they just comment on the changes. Sometimes they struggle mightily to return things to normalcy; they made a big effort to do that during this last visit.

We’ve had the same refrigerator for years, a standard freezer on top model. It’s in a corner of the kitchen and for years the door handle was on the right hand side, opening into the kitchen. The spacing of the corner did not allow for the door to swing wide open to the left, so one of the crisper drawers wouldn’t open all the way. At some point Dan determined that the access situation would be improved by moving the door handles from the right side to the left side. Voila, the door now swung all the way open, both crisper drawers opened fully and Dan was happy; me, not so much. I found the left hand access awkward as this required maneuvering the corner when putting groceries away or getting out ingredients for food prep. When the boys would visit they commented on the ergonomically incorrect placement of the handle. Dad’s “fix” confused (and annoyed) them.

At some point during the night of December 22, Christmas elves snuck into our house and made some ergonomic adjustments to the refrigerator. A cryptic note was left on the chalkboard about corrections that were needed. Apparently these were “cookie” elves, because my kitchen was returned to “code” and I was given permission to start baking. Dan saw the note first but could not make sense of it. When I got up he pointed to it and asked me if I knew what it meant. Having not baked a Christmas cookies in about, oh, 25 years I too was confused. Megan, up early, said she noticed something was different. I looked around again, saw the fridge handles back on the right and exclaimed “they fixed it!”

This is the magic and madness that happens when the whole family is together. The entire house is filled with a different kind of energy. We renegotiate our relationships in new and fun ways as we come to grips with these wonderful adults in our lives. Yes, something like the refrigerator can be “fixed”, but we can never return the boys to childhood. I appreciate the confident and competent men they have become, so confident that they can push their dad’s buttons and just laugh about it. I love the wonderful women they love so much. And when I think about relocating I know that no matter where we live, the love will follow.

Happy New Year everyone!