We interrupt this blog for a moment of unfiltered sentimentality and paper crafts

Ordinarily, we here at SK Enterprises Ltd. Inc. do not subject our readers to the kind of drippy sentimentality that parenting can inspire if you are not vigilant.

We recognize sentiment as nature's way of trying to distract you from the fact that 18 years of your life have been stolen in exchange for some lame poetry and a macaroni necklace.

But the truth is, I am wearing my macaroni necklace today. Except that in South Florida preschools, where my children made their necklaces, they are made with seashells because the fashion standards there are much higher. Also, the humidity would cook an actual macaroni necklace while you were still wearing it.

My point is, two longtime Friends of Kamikaze, including the one who is most responsible for the fact that there even is such an "organization," even if it is rather loosely organized and largely unregulated, recently did the math for me: our boys are very close to leaving home. 

The clock is running down on my time as the live-in mother/personal assistant/transportation and meal coordinator to Boy, Esq. 

So Christmas, a time of year that I have labored diligently to overlook for more than a decade, has acquired a quasi-sentimental gloss this year. 

By this time next year, the boy will be halfway through his first year at some prestigious university and we will be living in a cardboard box trying to pay for it. So maybe this is everyone's last Christmas in a house with real walls. Oh god. 

If I am not careful, I am going to find myself baking cookies. 

Photo: SK, in a rare moment of sentimentality/usefulness, sprinkles a collection of elementary school arts and crafts across the tree, which is already dying.

Comments

[nthnglsts]

Well, if you are baking cookies anyway, and you can figure out royal icing, go for gingerbread. It is better in the rain than cardboard and you will never be stuck for a snack.

[Gigi]

I remember that feeling from last year - just go with it. And then next year you will be where I am - back in the "can't be bothered" state.

[SEK]

the tree or the sentimentality is almost dying--water for the first and whatever it takes to keep the latter going

[Executive Suburbanite]

I did manage to delegate as usual: Grandma Executive handles gingerbread, and when I get home from my fabulous trip, Executive Sister will have made my house ready for hosting Christmas Eve. So they can leave home all they want, some things won't change.

[Suburban Kamikaze]

I really don't know how you got the life I deserve.

SK