Heather’s Back!!!
A festive Friday Five.
1. What holiday or holidays do you celebrate this time of year?
The Christian holidays, although, admittedly, Xmas is for giving gifts and spending time with family and friends, instead of having the religious connotation that it *should.* I guess it would be fair to say that the holiday I celebrate is New Year’s Eve. lol. ‘Tis the season to be drinking! (oh, hell, that’s any season for me!)
2. What was the best gift you have ever received?
One of my cousins gave me my computer for Xmas ’98. Love it. Would probably have never owned a computer without her, and I’m still draining the life out of this fabulous machine, actually. She not only gave me a blueberry iMac, but the blueberry printer and even a scanner (the latter two were both a piece of shit, but I’ll digress). The printer is in its box and the scanner is somewhere at my mom’s place, but still, it was quite a generous thought. 🙂
3. What was the worst gift you’ve ever given?
I don’t give bad gifts. One of my trivial talents is not only buying the most awesome gifts for the people in my life (totally suited to their tastes and personalities), but I spend almost as much money on the wrapping paper. I love to doll up the perfect gifts with the perfect wrapping ensemble.
4. Where will you be celebrating the holidays? Are you hosting? Going away?
I will be spending Xmas eve with IKEA Boy and whoever else we can dredge up, probably attending mass at the Nat’l Cathedral and seeing the Nat’l tree. I hope, anyway. If not, I’ll spend Xmas eve alone, in front of my tree, pulling Maddie out from beneath it.
Then I begin my jaunt to Pittsburgh for Xmas dinner (shit, I need to make my hotel reservations ASAP!). I am dying to see Leslie, who will be home from Ireland for the holidays, as well as the usual suspects. And frankly, I can’t wait to see my mom. I miss her greatly. And my grandfather, too. His health always leaves us wondering if this will be the last time we celebrate a holiday together, so I will savor each moment that we have.
5. If you could spend the holidays with someone who isn’t around, who would it be with? Why?
My grandmother. We always lose a loved one on a holiday, and accordingly, we lost her on the Fourth of July in 1999. She was a riot — a very matriarchal Italian grandma type, not to be confused with the “grandmotherly” type. She could always be counted on to initiate the family brawls or to continue them when a dull moment rolled around, but even though she was stuck in her hospital bed in the living room, you never forgot for a second that she was there.
She had her feisty spirit up till the end, and well, I inherited it, so I actually enjoyed our holiday fireworks. 🙂 That, and she loved everything about Christmas — she always decorated like a madwoman. She always had the newest and most unique trees, with hundreds of matching ornaments. And she loved topiaries. So today, I have a tall spiral tree and a small fiber optic tree of my own, and the reason I even own them is because, when I saw them in the stores, I knew she would have bought them for herself. She never went half-assed — everything she bought was expensive and classy. She hated dumpy decorations and dumpy people, calling them “Polish churches,” which was her way of saying they looked like shit. And in her spirit, while I am not rich by any standards, I have always bought the best of the best for myself — expensive crystal ornaments, coordinating house decorations for the whole year, etc. And when I see something in a store that has a cardinal, a nest, a birdhouse (all of which had to be sparkly and unique), I admit to shedding a tear, because I just know that she would’ve loved it. This is the time of year that I feel saddest to not have her around — I just wish I could buy her some of those pretty things I see. But Mom has totally picked up her spirit as well, and we always put a Christmas tree on her grave, among other treasures she finds that we know Gram would’ve loved.
If I can venture a second answer to the final question, I’d spend Xmas eve again with MV. Every Xmas eve, I sit in front of my tree, like I did so many years before, and remember the one we spent in mass and driving around Mt. Lebanon and Dormont (in Pgh), admiring the lavishly decorated homes. I remember that giddiness, that excitement, that trepidation that I felt, not knowing what was going to happen with us and where this could possibly have gone. (Unfortunately, it really didn’t go anywhere, but I remember having visions of sugar plums that entire evening. lol). We were young and naive and unsure, and life was very sweet then. Each moment counted — we didn’t wish time away like I seem to do now. I don’t know if it’s that I want MV back, or if I want those moments back, but anyway, what I wouldn’t give to be 22 again. …