Empty nest…

I haven’t written about my youngest son Sam, who works as a nurse in the ER in Bennington and accepted a job up in Burlington, VT, at UVM Medical Center’s level 1 trauma ER. 

Level 1 means the highest level of care for severe trauma patients, which is right up his alley. It’s the next step in his career, and we are excited for him. 

Over the next couple of weeks, he will be packing, moving, and unpacking, getting everything set for his start date of 12/27. Long before Sam got his new job, I’ve been throwing out tons of shit and donating many other items. 

It’s a daunting task, but after having to go through all my parent’s things twice and getting rid of their stuff, I don’t want our boys to go through that. It overwhelming and makes you feel guilty when you start chucking stuff.

While I will miss Sam after he moves, I will gain a new closet for my belly dance costuming and other pieces of clothing like coats, jackets, and shoes. Yay! We will also gain a proper guest room and not have to squeeze company into our tiny office space. Yay! 

While he is packing, I am cleaning out and organizing things on the main floor. I genuinely feel like I did when I was pregnant with both boys, getting the nest ready but this time cleaning it out.

So we will officially be empty nesters, which is bittersweet. Knowing that both our boys, now men, are on their own, successful in their careers, are hard workers, and are polite and have manners. Yay!

This year when Marty and I went to get our Christmas tree. We wanted something small, which was still expensive. We were shocked to see how much the prices rose on trees was this year, like everything else.

Many people may bite the bullet and buy an artificial tree for a one-time purchase, but I vowed when I moved out that I would never have one; I would do without but not go the fake route. 

Why not a fake tree? Growing up, we had a fake tree that my father never took apart. Instead, he would carry it down to the basement with the lights and tinsel still on it. 

He would shove it up under the basement stairs and throw a big green garbage bag over the top. The following year, he would carry it back up to the living room for us to decorate. The tree looked exactly the same every year. 

I didn’t realize how pathetic that was until I was an adult with my own kids. I guess my father hated putting up a Christmas tree.

We also never had Christmas lights outside. My father said he decorated once and that “little son of a bitch paper boy” unscrewed bulbs and smashed them on the sidewalk.

How did my father know it was the paperboy? It was his exact reach at his height, he told us. So no Christmas lights growing up, but I do every year because I love them.

This week has felt long with my colonoscopy on Monday; the pathology report showed everything was normal! Thank God! On Tuesday, we had deliveries to make and an echocardiogram for Marty. Thursday after production, we made more deliveries and got our little tree.

It took me on Thursday night 5 or 6 hours to clean and move shit around to make room for the tree and my other decorations. Next came dragging all the totes upstairs from the basement. Putting up the Christmas tree is like, “the ankle bone is connected to the knee bone” kind of thing for me.

Once I finally get to start decorating, I am in my glory! I put on Christmas music for the first time of the year and drink wine. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I hate taking it down, but through past experience, I always do it neat and organized.

One year I must have been having a bad day because when I opened everything up the following year, I literally threw everything in the totes; ornaments broke, and lights were tangled beyond belief. True to my form, I threw them away and bought new ones. Lesson learned.

We were back in spätzle production on Friday; we had our farmers market today; I am completely exhausted. Tomorrow we will be in NY again, searching for a pair of swivel armchairs for our living room. It’s a long story, so I’ll tell you about it soon; until then, have a great rest of your weekend.