Tag Archives: Christmas

Let It Go……Frozen

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In the spirit of the holidays, I wish to lend my two-cents to all the grand advice you’re getting:

  1. Let go of the craziness….You can, you really can. Take a deep breath. Look around you. Have you done enough? Probably. Can you stop right now? Maybe. Can you be so close that you can declare: “FINIS!” Try, for your own sanity, for the safety of others, for the circle of hell you will leave behind, please try. Try and enjoy Christmas….Now.
  2. Let go of the politics…Just for 2 days…Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even if everyone in your family, your neighborhood, your church, your spirit circle, your yoga class and Jacob Marley have told you they are on your side…still….let it go. Let it be Christmas. Let it be the two days of wonder and magic and joy that every 5-year-old is feeling right now.
  3. Let go of the scale. Two days isn’t going to make any difference. Two weeks might, but two days,  not so much. You’ve been here a thousand times, haven’t you? Just Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Just enjoy yourself like a regular human being, or maybe like a Labrador Retriever. You know, eat your dinner. Have a snack or two and let it go. And remember Labrador’s don’t have opposable thumbs so make someone else open the refrigerator.
  4. Let go of work. Enjoy your family, your friends, your fun people in your life. Whatever your work is, it will be there…just like Bill Shakespeare and his pal, MacBeth says….tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Just Let It Go…………and what the heck, Let it Snow!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY WONDERFUL READERS! I love you all and wish you only the best Christmas ever and the happiest of holidays!

“You Just have to Laugh……….”

©2017 Cathy Sikorski

Secret Santa Millennials…….

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There’s a post going around Facebook that basically says when my grown kids ask me what I want for Christmas, let them know I just want TIME with them.

This is the mantra of all the empty-nesters out there. So I have a proposition. Instead of a cookie exchange, or a Secret Santa gift exchange, I propose we do a kid exchange.

My kids live in cities far away from me. I can’t go Christmas shopping with them. We don’t have time to bake cookies together. We don’t go to the local Christmas Symphony concert anymore. We can’t play that game at the Mall where we would watch the young mothers gingerly place their toddlers and infants, all dressed up in their Christmas finery, onto the lap of a big scary guy with a white beard and a crimson red suit and guess which child is going to be delighted or scream their bloody head off. Good times.  My husband and I don’t listen to missed notes of flute practice for the school concert, wondering how it will all come together to actually sound like Christmas carols.

So enough with the melancholy. Let’s put all our millennials’ names and addresses out there to each other! Let’s find out where they live and whoever lives the closest to you, you get to have them for the Advent Season.

You can bake those cookies now! You stopped baking because all you were doing was eating them for breakfast. Now….you can get rid of them. Take them to your Secret Santa Millennial. Better yet, take them to their job! Everyone at their workplace will be thrilled to see you, especially with those home-baked cookies.

You can make plans to take your borrowed millennial ice-skating, Christmas shopping for their Mom (who knows better what their Mom would like than another Mom?). Your millennial will come to your house for hot chocolate and help you with the Christmas decorations! You can take selfies and send them to their real Mom and post them on Facebook, so everyone knows you have a Secret Santa Millennial. Think of all the other Millennials who will be so jealous when they see your “Insta” postings.

Your Secret Santa Millennial will probably teach you how to Snapchat! Then, everyone can  see all the fun you’re having, like you used to with your own kids…but only for 10 seconds!!! How cGIPHY Studios Originals nice santa santa claus naughtyomforting is that? In case, you do something naughty instead of nice!

And I feel very certain the millennials will love this. We all know they are hungering for another Mom to send them texts, call them, Facebook comment, and show up at their work and apartments with Christmas cheer, suggestions, plans for their weekends. It will be like they never left home! What could be a better Christmas present than that?

Since I just saw that Facebook post and came up with this idea, I’m going to have to concede that it’s too late for this Christmas. But don’t worry, I never forget any of my amazing ideas, so I’ll be contacting all of you for your Millennial’s “deets” next year!

Can’t wait for my kids to read this and comment!!

Merry Christmas and all the Best in the New Year to each and every one of you!

“You Just have to Laugh……”

©Cathy Sikorski 2016

The True Meaning of Christmas………………..

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This has become the Christmas of boycotting….everyone is telling everyone else where they can shop and where they can’t shop.

It doesn’t matter why or what  you’re protesting. You can’t buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, underwear, ties, beer, vodka, cereal, cookies, soda, anything in Target, anything on Amazon, gift cards for anywhere, coats, shoes, take out food, and some of these things and places are being boycotted on both sides because no one can seem to get their facts straight.

So we are all going to have a Christmas where we go “commando”,  can’t get drunk, can’t have coffee to help with our hangover,  have no presents to complain about, can’t go out with those restaurant gift cards to those places we would never go without a gift card, won’t have a warm coat to wear or a tie to wear to church, no cereal for breakfast, so somebody better be cooking Christmas breakfast AND dinner….like that would ever happen. And think of all those  people who don’t even celebrate Christmas  who can’t call for take-out on Christmas Day?

And no cookies for Santa, unless you’re one of those crazy people who still bake, are there still people like that? I sure hope so cause those elves who make cookies are probably out of work right now.

This was not well thought out, people. It’s Christmas, for heaven’s sake. How are we supposed to buy a bunch of crap for others that they don’t want or need if we are boycotting all things capitalistic?

Yes, I am inspired by this. I think we will all come to find the true meaning of Christmas.

See how nice our underwear is, George?
See how nice our underwear is, George?

To paraphrase Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life…… You see, George, you’ve really had a wonderful life and some wonderful underwear. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?

The true meaning of Christmas….is about not throwing out your old underwear until you have new ones….otherwise, the term “Jesus!” takes on a whole different meaning.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Wonderful New Year to all my amazing readers. I wish you joy, happiness and clean underwear wherever you go!

“You Just have to Laugh………….”

©2016 Cathy Sikorski

A Christmas Story……….

Caregivers, Humor, , , ,

 

On Sat, Dec 19, 2015 at 4:30 PM ( MY NEPHEW Wrote)

Dearest Aunt,

Could you find it in your heart to take a few minutes out of your busy day and send me the mailing address of the ( my brother and his son)? It would be most helpful of you and I would owe you my gratitude.

Yours,
Mr. J Doodles ( A NAME WE ALL CALLED HIM WHEN HE WAS A TODDLER)

 

On Dec 19, 2015, at 9:48 PM, Cathy Sikorski <cathy.sikorski@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mr. J Doodles,

Here is the requested information: (Info redacted to protect those unsuspecting relatives)

I will be sure and keep the ‘chit’ you owe me for this great burden and use it in the future when I find it  most necessary!

By the way, love our thermometer, except it’s broken . I debated telling you. I don’t want you to go to any additional expense but thought you’d want to know. Hope you all have a wonderful Merry Merry Christmas. We will try and call  you on Christmas day before we go to your other aunt’s for dinner. Love you all! So excited that you’re coming to  thewedding!!! Love A. Cathy

Cathleen S. Sikorski, Esq.

My Darling Aunt,

I am so sorry to hear about the damage incurred by the United States Postal Service. I was quite concerned about the thermometer making the arduous northern trek unmolested, as it is such a fragile thing. Thank you for telling me about this calamity and rest assured this wrong shall be righted.

Thank you for the addresses. It makes physical correspondence with the New Jersey relatives much more convenient. You have made the impossible, possible. You can add that to your long resume of assisting others with their most dire needs. And as for the ‘chit’, you deserve it, as I am sure you have a huge pile of chit from your years of caring for those who need it. Every time I see your face I think of all of the great things that you have done for me and my family and all of the chits that face has garnered. So in my eyes, you are always chit-faced.

Thank you again, and may your holidays be filled with friends, health, and good cheer,

– Mr. J Doodles

Wormed out of my Apple

See….it’s genetic..

“You Just Have to Laugh…..”

©2015 Cathy Sikorski

Every time I think I’m out…..

Caregivers, Humor, Uncategorized, , , , ,

The holiday season does not have an internal compass that allows you to treat every day like a holiday. In fact, I’m pretty sure that MORE, not less disasters happen during the holiday season, just as a karmic reminder that in life, there is no holiday. But a few days off can really re-charge the batteries, if you’re lucky.

I am so sleep deprived, it’s like being the mother of an infant all over again. But I have no baby to blame it on. Menopause, hot flashes, holidays, alcohol, too much food, not enough gym,those are the culprits….oh yeah, and shoulder pain, back pain, and general pain-in-the-ass middle age. That doesn’t help either.

So every time I THINK, “tonight is the night” for sleep (which I’m sure is not the same thing my husband is thinking when he’s thinking, ‘tonight is the night’), I am reminded that no caregiver is ever in her right mind.

The first time I thought this was the day after Christmas. Yay, all the hoopla is over! I can just sleep in. Everyone is well, we are all snug in our beds, no more planning, wrapping, shopping, just the blessed day of rest.

The phone rings at 7:30 AM.

“Hello?”

“Hi Cathy, this is your cousin. My Dad is in the hospital and is having surgery today and he needs to see you.”

“Umm (this because I have 25 cousins and am not sure who woke me out of an ACTUAL sleep). Okay.”

“He’s in ICU, so you have to call and ask the nurse to give him the phone or they will call you back.”

“No, I will go to the hospital, no problem.”

This uncle is my godfather, and I love him dearly. He’s a bit of a Duck Dynasty gun dealer, but I love him anyway.

So I haul myself out of bed at 7:35 AM and go to the hospital. There’s a moratorium on who can see him, ’cause his Duck Dynasty pals can be a bit overbearing. So I tell the squawk box:

“I’m here to see Mr. R, I’m his lawyer and his niece.”

Immediate entrée. I pull this lawyer card when I just don’t have time to deal with any crap. Little do I know this will come back to haunt me. I get to his room and my cousin is there with him.

“Cathy’s here now Dad, do you want to have a private conversation with her?”

“No,”says my Uncle, who is looking pretty good for a guy going into surgery, “I just wanted the hospital and everyone around here to know I have a ‘mouthpiece’ so they better watch out.

Really? I dragged my tired sorry behind out of bed the day after Christmas, so my uncle could have his lawyer as a show piece in the  ICU???? Where am I, ‘The Godfather???’ Oh, yeah, that is EXACTLY where I am.

You just have to Laugh…..

Cathy Sikorski

A holiday for who????

Caregivers, Humor, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

In a sense, we mothers, never stop caregiving. And when you’re kids come home for Christmas from college and their ‘real lives’, you sort of begin all over again.  Which of course, we LOVE, right?

But then you can’t find your favorite pj’s or slippers. Or you are under constant demand to mate the sox that you let pile up in the ever-growing ‘volcano of  unmatched socks’ because your little darlings could only bring home so much stuff, and you haven’t replenished the unforgivable pile of stuff until Christmas  day. So c’mon, Mom get it together, we’re home now and you love us.

And I do, I really, really do like  you…so much so that Dad already knows he’s been relegated to the back seat of ‘attention’ and accepts his fate as driver, drink provider (now that all are over 21..YAY) and default errand runner for all things Christmas.

What turns us caregivers into “I-DON’T-CARE” givers? About ourselves, I mean. At the drop of a semester, and a holiday, we ramp up our to-do lists, our need to make magic for everyone, and our total and complete exhaustion all in the name of creating, “it’s a wonderful life”. If only George Bailey would have gone for a massage and a facial, had his nails done (including a peppermint pedi) and THEN came home and said:

“You know what,  you’re right. Life is pretty terrific with me in it! I feel refreshed, relaxed and well-groomed. Let’s eat!”

But noooo. Like George, we caregivers choose to take the hard road. Like today when my daughter asked for chicken. And like an idiot, in the middle of making bacon for my other daughter, I ran to the basement in my bare feet (cause’ chicken daughter absconded with my slippers when hers broke in the middle of the night), zoomed over to the freezer all the while, keeping a mental timer on that bacon so it didn’t get too crispy, didn’t bother to turn the light on, cause I KNOW where the freezer is in my basement, and promptly smashed my toes, likely breaking at least two of them, into a brick that was left lying in front of the freezer.

Yay caregivers the world over! Yay Christmas! Damn you George Bailey, you just couldn’t take care of yourself for once and be a lesson to us all?

Merry Christmas, caregivers…..cause

You just have to Laugh………………….

Cathy Sikorski