Dec
10
It is cold here in Seattle. I know, I know: you were born on the ice planet Hoth and if it weren’t for that tauntaun which provided warming entrails for you and your tribe you would have all perished in the great storm of ’06 when the temperatures reached nine hundred jillion below zero and you still can’t see very good out of that previously-frozen left cornea so what do I know about cold, but listen, all I’m saying is that it’s normally pretty mild here in the winter and I am not used to peering at a sub-20° thermometer for days on end, or worse, having to reluctantly lace on my shoes and go running in this shit, where my self-pitying tears instantly form a sheet of ice on my face.
(I love how that one light of ours is all, Ladies?)
The upside to this unusually chilly weather is how crystal-clear the days have been. The mountains look craggy and enormous, and with their fresh coats of snow they seem as imposing and dramatic as the Himalayas. The lakes are sparkling and glassy. The recent full moon was improbably detailed, like something Photoshopped over the city. The sunrises and sunsets have been achingly lovely.
We got our tree this week and at first I felt kind of awful that we didn’t go to the same U-cut farm we usually do. It was just so bone-chillingly cold and I imagined trying to bundle up the kids and Dylan refusing all head-coverings as usual and everyone crying with snot stuck to their lips and mittens getting lost and etfuckincetera so JB and I just stopped by one of those crappy-looking lots where a guy is selling trees from his trailer with a spray-painted sign propped nearby that says XMAS TREZ and guess what, the selection was MUCH nicer than our beloved tree farm and the Noble we picked out was about $30 cheaper. Who knew?
I really thought we’d have to come up with some bungee-cord solution for the tree this year because I pictured Dylan constantly trying to pull it down on his head, but I guess since it is not shaped like a horse it doesn’t really tickle his fancy. He “helped” with the lights and was briefly interested in some of the ornaments, but now it’s this total meh thing over there in the living room, not nearly as cool as Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
By the way can I just tell you what a total mouthbreathing fool I was for getting him that movie, because it features, in addition to Matt Damon’s horse-voice, a moving and dramatic and endless soundtrack with lots and lots and lots and LOTS of Bryan Adams songs. Of course Dylan is obsessed with it, is begging night and day for the “Horse? TV? Horse? TV?” and if I don’t seem to be obeying fast enough he goes and brings me the remote and stands there peering up at me expectedly, like THIS IS THE UNITED STATES CALLING ARE WE REACHING? Meanwhile I’ve got about eight thousand cheesy Bryan Adams songs stuck in my head here I am it’s just me and you tonight we make our dreams come TRUUEEE aarrrrrrgh.
PS: Dylan’s started . . . neighing. A LOT.
Comments
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Oh man, I have a BAJILLION pictures of me with my horses and Theo loves them, but if DYLAN were around? I’d have QUITE the audience for all my tales of olde.
You bring him to Chicago, I will take him to see my (retired) horse. Promise.
Mine is still mooing at the horses.
Well, it’s been witches’ tittie cold here in San Francisco too, and I HATE IT. I grew up in Wisconsin, so 35 degrees in December shouldn’t bug me so much, but jeeeeebus it does.
The horse obsession and how you describe it cracks me up. Hilarious.
Is it safe to say there will be a farm-themed birthday party this year?
The real question is, did you have to look up how to spell tauntaun?
I hear ya on the cold thing. I’m from Arizona, so anything below 50 is *brrrr* to me. Good thing I live in Iowa now where it it was -10 this morning. SUCKS.
I think I’d trade for the horse thing. My son is very into cats and dogs so it is all “Meow? meow? woof woof” all day. See a squirral: meow. See a horse: woof woof. See a cow: meow. I wouldn’t mind some neighing attached to the correct animal.
Ugh. Although we are very competitive about our cold in MN, I have to say that you are right – when you are used to it being one temp and it’s suddenly 10 or 15 or 20 degrees cooler than that, it feels freezing.
Your stories about Dylan remind me of my younger sister. She wanted to be a horse when she grew up, and would run around on all 4s (literally – not hands and knees, but hands and feet). This went on until she was like 7 or so, so…um…good luck with that.
My sis and her new hubby (from Africa) are in Tacoma and I am in Michigan and (until today) you guys were colder than us (I have to say I was loving it). I was worried about my brother in law freezing in Michigan over Christmas, but he has already gotten a taste of below freezing temps. Of course, you all won’t have to endure month after god forsaken month of sub-freezing temps. Why do I live in Michigan again???
The horse obsession is cracking me up, but I am sure you are SO over it.
too freaking cute.
OMG, love the Pink Floyd reference! Sorry about the really, really, really cold weather!
Your posts always make me laugh so hard. It is funny because today was 17 degrees and only because yesterday was 0 did I think, “hmm it feels warm today, I’ll run outside!”
But I’m originally from Iowa so when people here in KC start saying it is cold when it is 30, I do laugh. They also don’t know how to drive in snow, natch. But anything below 20? Cold any which way you cut it.
I love how Dylan is obsessed – either your born with it or not (just ask my horse ;)
The next Phillip Dutton/Stephen Peters/Eric Lamaze here we come…
I just snorted… the horse thing?! Priceless.
My daughter thinks she is a dog. This is good parenting 101, right?!
Linda:
This is the first time I’ve commented but I’ve been reading your blog religiously for months. I wanted to share this article, written by a good friend of mine, because it reminds me of your writing style (wicked funny) and I thought you would appreciate it as you prep for the half marathon! I just ran the NY marathon in November, and it was basically exactly as Kevin describes in this article–awesome at first and then…ouch!
http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/article/120709_kevin_mcfadden_one_runners_marathon_trek
HORSE?
OK, just catching up on my reader, and read this post back to back with your “Keeping Score” post. I just have to say that, with time, your old self-loathing self will be at least partially subsumed by your new self-improving self… keep the faith! And to help you on the road to said squelching, know that you have the incredible gift of making tons of people laugh, pretty much on a daily basis. And if the knowledge that you contribute to countless coffee-shooting-out-nose and pants-wetting incidents doesn’t make you feel like a rock star, I don’t know what will!
Hee. Pink Floyd reference, LOVE.
The way you describe Dylan and his horse obsession is super funny. He’s going to love those posts when he gets older!
Oh how I envy you! I have a horse and have worked dilligently to instill a healthy horse obsession in my own kid since the time he was in the womb. Visions of mother-son trail rides into the sunset… He is instead has a great passion for cats. Everything is “Meow, meow!” this and “Meow, meow!” that…. Which then makes me think of this old chestnut: http://vodpod.com/watch/124691-cat-herders
That could be me. In fact, it still is.
The way you describe Dylan’s horse obsession makes me laugh SO hard. Mine has a similar obsession with butterflies/fireflies but it doesn’t sound as deep as Dylan’s obsession.
You might want to try the Backyardigans. The only animals they ever have on that show is either horses or worms. Very odd. But we love the Backyardigans around here.
Oh man…can we switch? For awhile? Because my 2 y/o is currently obsessed with Mamma Mia, and yes that sounds awesome at first, but I swear to Gawd I’ve seen that movie 50 times in the past month and I’m starting to have REALLY violent feelings toward Meryl and Pierce, and they just don’t deserve that, you know?
Both my husband and I teared up while watching the “Spirit” trailer. I turned to him and said, “The horse is so … free!” and he responded, “I know!”
Any and all credibility, lost, forever. I understand.
I LOVE the horse obsession. It’s so amazing to see them attach onto something. And usually it’s something you never expect. And I also teared up watching “Spirit.” At least he likes a good movie, although, yes, lots of Bryan Adams. Great tree!
Too bad Dylan couldn’t have fixated on Hugh Jackman so you could have endless Van Helsing and shirtless Wolverine playing in your livingroom.
My husband and I keep putting off getting our Christmas Tree because neither one of us really wants to rearrange our living room to accommodate one. And, you know, we kind of can’t afford it right now. But mostly it’s the rearranging the living room thing.
The Cimmarron movie (am stupid and cannot spell and am too lazy to scroll up and look again) sounds horrible and intriguing at the same time.
Your tree is gorgeous!
Re Dylan’s passion for horses, I don’t know if Horse Crazy is available on DVD but it’s about a little boy who hopes to capture a wild mustang. I don’t see any Brian Adams in the soundtrack.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276198/
and if that works out, there’s Horse Crazy II. Haha.
This isn’t Eilis, this is Eilis’s husband, but I saw your blog left open on her laptop on the couch and I started reading it. I have two comments.
a. What I can see of your house, I LOVE
b. Thoroughly enjoyed the Pink Floyd reference
Cheers!
OMG, I bought our Christmas tree today at a GROCERY STORE because it’s been so f’ing cold. I couldn’t bear to drag the kids OR myself out to the festive, Rockwell cut-your-own-tree venture. So instead I bought it at the store, along with a head of lettuce. Festive, huh?
Hahaha, Dylan is so awesome. Dude knows what he likes! Not so awesome for you, though. I understand. My daughter will be two this month and she has plenty of her own annoying-ass obsessions.
Sounds to me like Dylan maybe needs a horseback ride for Christmas. Lessons might be a bit premature, but an afternoon on a horse (pony?) He would love it.
Horses are a great outlet for kids- Expensive but great. Is it just me or does it look like he is losing his shit over the horse in the mall? Take him to a dude ranch and throw him up on a horse. Good stuff.
We were in WA seeing the hubby off to Kuwait at Thanksgiving and I was in total amazement (like OH MY GOD did you just see that car with the tree on it…on the freaking 26th???). Cuz ya see I’m in the hell of Phoenix..where I think it was close to 120 yesterday (I jest it was only 51). I got a free tree from the Trees for Troops program. It’s on the back patio (which faces north) and is shaded and in a bucket of water. In hopes that next weekend we can put it up for approximatly 2 weeks and it won’t die all over my family room.
I figure it’s a wash if it dies..it was free so I had already allocated funds to buy one…so if it croaks and doesn’t want to perform it’s upright qualities I can get another at some random facility.
But trees at Thanksgiving? They’ll really make it until X-mas??? Who’d’ve thunk it?
Love your blog..long time blog reader lurker. And the horse thing…we have trains here…so I’m in the same hell.
Wait until he’s about 11 or 12, then embarrass the hell out of him with Spirit/Bryan Adams/Cuts Like a Knife references.
I’ve been doing that to my 15 year old on a weekly basis lately. She shudders every time
heh
Seriously, how do you motivate yourself to run in winter temps!! It’s very inspiring, one day I will be so inspired to lace up and head out too.. one day, yeah.
I’ve been lurking on your site for a long time, and without sounding like a crazy stalker, I really admire your determination and think your family is lovely :)
Now having flashbacks to 2005-6 when my then 2-3 year old tortured me with that movie. Just a tip: no matter how much crying might happen, do NOT take this movie with you on a road trip. If you think it’s bad to deal with that Bryan Adams soundtrack in your house, imagine it being stuck in your head in a car. Yikes!
[…] of All & Sundry shares her family’s Christmas Tree and briefly ponders toddler-proofing it with bungee cords. What about you? How do you keep your […]
Oh my GOD, I know JUST what you are going through! My daughter also went through a “Spirit” phase. Gawd, I could never muster up any kind of feeling for Bryan Adams before that – he was totally just “eh”. But now? After “Spirit”? Yeah, white-hot fiery passionate hate.
My kid is 14 now though, and still loves horses. The good news is there is much less clomping around going “NEIGH!” here, and no Bryan Adams.
It’s…like going back in time, reading your blog. This was my oldest. I USED to have a somewhat quiet fondness for Bryan Adams. NO MORE.
She pulled the movie out a few weeks ago. The first we’d seen it in what–1-2 years? And…I had to LEAVE THE ROOM as I just couldn’t stomach ANY MORE Bryan.
Also a note of how I love to hear about your running. And how you’re actually doing it in the freezing weather. I just CAN’T get past it. I am a wuss, and YOU are Superwoman!
So, when are you and JB going to get Dylan a REAL horse?
*snickering as I leave the room like Uncle Skeeve-I-Mean-Steve after announcing his wife, the sweet and long-suffering Aunt Jenny who slaved away over the food all day, doesn’t wash her hands after using the bathroom, while everyone chokes down the first bite.*
love the horse obsession updates… i think that was me. and the Floyd reference, brilliant. You made my husband and I giggle for 5 whole minutes.
Get him some kind of animated Black Beauty movie. That will take the edge off. Although I guess there could be some major tantrums if you put the WRONG horse movie in the tv….
If it makes you feel any better about the neighing, my daughter’s preschool progress report said something like “Julie is a sweet girl. She loves art time, playing outside, and looking at books. And she often barks like a dog.” Yeah. I know.
My daughter’s are 9 and 5. The 9 year old got the Spirit movie when she was 3 which started her horse obsession. I have NO pants from her to hand down to her younger sister because of her being a horse 24/7. The knees lasted about 2 weeks in any pants I bought her.
Last year she let her sister have the Soundtrack CD, because she has the songs on her Ipod. So now I get to listen to the soundtrack every night as part of the bedtime routine for the 5 year old so….I’m just warning you…6 years later with no end in sight…horse obsessions seem to last a while.
The tree is beautiful! And I can totally sympathize with this cold crap. Sacto girl born and raised and this cold shit is killing me!!!! I don’t have nanook parkas and all that extra crap.
Erica went through the SPIRIT IS MY FRIEND phase (still loves horses so much oh my god) when she was about 2 as well and there is nothing like seeing a naked, except for a diaper, child galloping down the hallway and neighing and pawing at the air like Spirit.
Cracks my shit up to think about it still. Love it! Great photos!
I freakin HATE Bryan Adams. And I’m Canadian, so saying that in public is probably grounds for deportation, but I don’t care. I HATE his schlocky music and I don’t care who knows it! Canadian radio stations play him constantly to keep their Canadian content quotas up, ignoring loads of other Canadian bands in order to cater to the lowest common denominator. Bryan Adams, if you’ll forgive the pun, is a ONE-TRICK PONY.
Most hated? The song he did for the soundtrack of Don Juan deMarco. It’s hard to tell which lyric is more ridiculous:
(a) “Tell me have you ever really … really, really, ever loved a woman.” (Geez, Bryan, FILLER MUCH?)
(b) “When you can see your unborn children in her eyes.” (Um, Bryan? You’re aiming too high. Also, EW.)
“. . . he keeps hanging up! There must be someone else there besides your wife, sir, to answer. . .”Love it!!
Sorry about the Horses. Mine was the Little Mermaid. I can quote the whole freaking movie without much prompting. ugh
Redmond Parks & Recreation offers toddler (2 – 5 year olds) horse classes out at Farrel McWhirter park. My girl loved them & by the way, at 9 years old…is still horse crazy (neigh).
wordygirl, fellow Canuck here. I’m with ya! He’s a nice guy in person, but his music SUCKS.