Teens

It wasn’t so long ago that we had three teenagers in our house.

When I started this blog over 5 years ago, I had a 17 year-old son and the 15 year-old darling twin daughters. And a whole lot of blog material.

I entered the blogging world with no expectations other than to share our real life stories and to write as my personal therapy. I saw how many “mommy blogs” were out there and the number has probably tripled since I started. I also watched as a number of these bloggers stopped blogging as their children reached middle school. Stories became less funny and their kids’ privacy was more important than their blog readership.

Because my three teens were in high school when I started blogging, I kept it simple by letting the teenagers preview any blog post about them. We’re all pretty transparent here at the Humpfreeze abode so for the most part they allowed me to share freely.

You, my blog readers, let me know how much you appreciated a glimpse into our real life and the life lessons we racked up on a weekly basis. The connections to other parents, friends and family is one of the benefits of blogging our stories. Finding the funny is really the gift. Laughing has kept me from another breakdown.

Still, the blog is the sanitized version of our life. I’m saving the more vivid details for the book.

Round 1 with three teenagers flew by with our fair share of struggles. Nothing huge. No giant crisis. Just the mental exhaustion that comes with trying to keep up in a battle of wits while living with the darlings who know they are much smarter than their nerdy, ridiculous parents.

You might think the wisdom of our experience would make round 2 with one teenager a breeze.

You would be wrong.

Our one teenager celebrated the beginning of her 14th year last Monday.

Happy Birthday Scary Baby…

She is beautiful and we love her dearly.

She continues to test our parenting skills on every level.

The stories are still here. Most of them in my head. I’m trying to sanitize a few so I can still be authentic without embarrassing her.

Or I could review the remaining episodes of Dancing With The Stars.

Stay tuned.

While I have control issues over some many things, decorating for Christmas is not one of them.

For years I let Roger Leroy be in charge of holiday decor. She loved to go into the attic and bring all the boxes down. She was a master at assembling the artificial tree we had for at least a decade. The Grunter and Wizzy might hang an ornament or two but they quickly lost interest. Roger Leroy went above and beyond what I would have done.

She conned her dad into multiple trips to the store for more lights and would string lights on the front porch and in her room and anywhere she could think of. I was grateful for all her help and truly appreciated all her hard work.

Then she got older and left for college.

Our decorating elf had abandoned us.

PhilBillPaul and I do not work well together in tasks like decorating.

Thankfully, we got 2 out of 4 kids who find joy in decorating.

Scary Baby has become our new decorating elf!

Dad and Granny picked up a gorgeous tree at Costco on Thanksgiving weekend and Scary Baby couldn’t wait to get all the boxes down and start trimming the tree.

She really did a beautiful job.

Every day I came downstairs and said things like “This year’s tree just makes me happy!” and “I think this is the best live tree yet!”

PhilBillPaul asked her to water it every day. And every night he checked the tree and watered it because she forgot. It was the least we could do since she did all the hard work.

Now cut to two weekends later and it’s our annual baking frenzy. To be documented next week.

It is Sunday afternoon. I’m baking in the kitchen. PhilBillPaul is watching football and folding clothes in the family room. We both hear a very loud noise.

Me: “What was that?”

PBP: “Well I’ll be ________! Come in here”

A fallen tree with ornaments and lights creates an enormous mess.

Tree and stand had toppled over. Water everywhere. Ornaments. Strands of lights. Tree needles.

Roger Leroy was home that Sunday. She had taken Scary Baby to the mall when said tree fell over.

Roger Leroy had also arrived with a tiny dog she was “dog sitting” for her darling twin sister. To be documented next week.

Since she left the dog with us, PhilBillPaul thought it would be funny if I sent her a text with photo showing our mess…

Me: “Need help here”

RL: “Um how did that happen”

Me: “Damn dog. Please hurry up”

RL:”That 3 lb dog knocked over an entire tree?”

ME: “She’s very naughty and no longer welcomed here”

RL: “Whatever I don’t believe you”

Luckily for us, The Grunter was home and helped PhilBillPaul get the tree upright and swept up the needles and wiped up the water all with a joyful Christmas spirit. Not.

I was thankful that Scary Baby had decided not to put all the kids’ special ornaments on the tree this year. So many would have broken.

On Monday morning, I could only laugh when I turned on my computer to read my good friend Leigh Anne’s blog as she shared her Christmas tree decorating tutorial.

Photo used with permission

That is her actual tree in her house. Not a store display.

Are you kidding me? One person is not suppose to be good at everything.

Another example of polar opposites being friends. One tree puts me over the edge and she decorates up to FIVE. And has themed vignettes throughout her house on every open surface.

I shared her blog post with Scary Baby. She was less than impressed with any tips.

The joy of decorating the Christmas tree comes but once a year…

Not twice as evidenced by my cranky decorating elf who was less than thrilled with my request that she re-trim the tree.

Alas, the tree is now re-trimmed.

Not because our precious decorating elves worked together. They were elves with bad attitudes. Roger Leroy did the lights and left. It took Scary Baby a week but she finally put all the ornaments back on. There may have been a few threats.

Keepsake Decorations

We also found some extra special decorations while doing some attic cleaning.

I believe I made this lovely candle holder in the 2nd grade. When my mom downsized and moved to a condo, she kindly gave us some of our beautiful keepsakes. It’s hard to believe that she didn’t want to hang on to this and proudly display it in her living room. Thanks mom.

Perhaps the attic was not the best place to store this gem. Or at least the green candle? that is now melted and stuck in the hair spray lid.

Fond memories of that candle holder that sits in a gold foil wrapped peanut butter lid. I clearly remember the excitement of making it in elementary school. I think you can see I was bitten by the crafting bug very early.

What’s your favorite Christmas decoration? How many trees do you have?

Please say one…