I have spent the last two days basically glued to my computer. The Boyfriend has been sick for the past week and all he wanted to do was veg and play games, leaving me no choice but my computer. So, I spent the first few days puttering around then the last two doing nothing but Sims.
I don’t think ever, across any of the franchises, have I ever dedicated myself so much to only one family for so long. Back in the Wii Castaway days, I’d start a family then move onto a new family, play for a little bit and then move onto a new family. The Sims 3 on the Xbox 360 is probably the only time that I’ve ever come even close, and then even not, because everytime we’ve ever bought that game the kids have it destroyed in a matter of days. After the fifth time, I laid down the law and said we couldn’t spend anymore money on it!
I feel absolutely all simmed out today after pulling almost 12 hours on it yesterday. Most of that went into building, which I seem to be struggling with like crazy, even though it’s easier than it’s ever been.
In other gaming news, The Boyfriend has been playing a lot of Project Spark lately and officially understands “if” (when) and “else” (do) statements better than I do… He’s managed to find quite a few games that are teaching him the basics of Koding and then he’s applying that to his own games and he’s coming up with quite a few good projects. It’s making me totally jealous, because I’ve long wanted to figure out this game (especially being that I think it will be a huge helper in learning to write JavaScript) and even though I have it on both the Xbox One and my computer, I’m nowhere near where he’s at.
It’s Halloween today and all the kids are beyond excited. This whole entire week has been nothing but talking about who’s going to be what and how they’re going to be that thing and what they’re going to do on Halloween night. I’m always excited about Halloween until it’s actually time to take them out trick-or-treating.
Holidays, of any kind, always kind of make me feel like a crappy parent. First of all, I take on no religious affiliation whatsoever, and although religion is a very popular topic around our house, it’s not something any of us subscribe to. Then, I don’t personally have any traditions and I never kept any that we had as kids. So holidays are literally just another day on the calendar for me.
But for a big majority of my family, Holidays are family gathering times. Someone is supposed to host a dinner for the family, decorations are to be laid out, everyone participates. So when I don’t put up a Christmas tree (because why should I?!?) or when I don’t want to trek outside in the freezing cold Alberta October’s (because why would I?!?), my entire family comes down on me. From Mom and The Boyfriend to each and everyone of the kids.
I also beat myself up a lot about it, because I think it’s important for families to have traditions. I think it’s important that kids can depend on that thing happening year after year after year – no matter what life is like. When I was a kid, no matter what, you could always count on the fact that Christmas Eve you’d sing carols and get to open one present and Christmas Morning everyone gathered to open presents. You could always count on us doing these traditional things.
And it’s not that my kids don’t have that. They know that every year on Christmas Eve, even when there is not a single decoration or carol in sight, they get to open one present and on Christmas Morning they get to wake everyone up early for present opening. They know on Thanksgiving every single year, we will do whatever is necessary to ensure we get turkey and gravy! We have traditions, just not in the way that I always envisioned it would be when I became a parent.
For example, in this place where Holidays mattered more to me, this Halloween we would be gearing up to have an epic party. First, The Boyfriend and I would have some friends (something we are sorely lacking) and those friends would have kids. Whole families would amass at our house after school and we’d have a Halloween-themed dinner. Then, we’d all get ready and head to the mall first for trick-or-treating and then we’d terrorize the town with our ghoulish screams of “Trick or Treat!!!”. Afterwards, we’d come back to the house and the kids would drink beverages that steamed and the adults would drink until the wee hours of the morning while the Monster Mash streamed over the crowd, as one by one they all fell asleep with zombies, goblins and ghosts on their mind!
It would be awesome, but it’s so not me… Or us…
However, all that being said, the kids are doing their Halloween parade at school as I type. Shortly after they get home from school, Mom is picking us up and even though The Boyfriend will be at work, the kids and I will be trick-or-treating at the mall. Depending on what time it is and how cold it is when we get back from the mall, I’m thinking about being the most awesome Mom ever and taking them up the couple of blocks to the store. That should net them at least a bag-worth of candy. So, for all my previous ranting, it won’t be a terrible nothing-gets-done holiday…
How do you celebrate the holidays? Do you wish you did it differently? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!
Valerie Rayne Rants 