Christmas in the Park

Christmas in the Park.  Ah, the wonderful images that provokes when one hears those words.  But, my friends, I must dispel any quaint images of snow covered pines and gingerbread houses.  My park is full of trailers and RV's.  Oh, yes.....our Christmas was endured in a 27 (Oh, excuse me.....my husband's ego gets fully bruised here)....I mean, 28, foot travel trailer.

We have been living in it since early August.  And not for the first time.  It is our home when my husband is working.  And since we really haven't had any place to call "home" in quite some time, it's the only home we have.

My two youngest sons have come to stay with us for the holidays.  Living in a small confined space with two teenage boys is a lesson in tolerance.  There is no "hiding away in the bedroom", no "go to your room" when you're mad at them, and no "both of you separate and leave each other alone".  Especially when it's cold enough to freeze a wooly mammoth's balls off outside.  You just gotta learn to bite your tongue, count to 50, and hope one of them gets invited to a friends house.

My husband and I finally got tired of them asking if they could open their gifts "today", so we let them open them a couple of days before Christmas.  The gifts were not out in the open, there was no tree in which they sat beneath beckoning to them.  They were in the trunk of my car.  It was the only place I could put them so that we would have room for everyone to move around in the "house".

The gifts got opened, the new laptops got booted up, the new airsoft guns got tried out.....and then the boredom set in.  One day.  ONE day.  That's all it took.  Teenagers.  Gotta love 'em.

As for me......Christmas in the Park was kinda nice.  My pesky neighbor was gone for the holiday and I got to be a Mom again for a while.  My kids might get on my nerves, but I sure do miss them when they're gone.