She really should have been in bed. After spending the day\nthrowing up in dramatic fashion \u2013 you know, like all over the car after getting\npicked up early from school \u2013 she should have been tucked under the covers.\nResting. Trying to sleep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI threw up nine times today, dad,\u201d she told me at one\npoint. Whether it was a cry for sympathy or a badge of honor, I wasn\u2019t quite\nsure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I did know she needed to be in bed, and I had told her\nthis about 94 times that evening. In about 94 different ways, all escalating in\nseriousness and frustration and meanness. \u201cGO \u2026 TO \u2026 BED, BLINGITY-BLANGIN\u2019-BLANGIT!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And on the 94th<\/sup> try, I thought I had done it. She\ntrudged off to her room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Only, you can\u2019t keep a Thompson down. You can\u2019t tell a\nThompson what to do. What\u2019s good for them. We won\u2019t do it. Not to spite anyone,\nbut because we lack common sense and the ability to think rationally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re watching \u2018Christmas Vacation\u2019 without me?!?\u201d came a\nmeek little voice from behind the sofa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You know, \u201cNational Lampoon\u2019s Christmas Vacation?\u201d The\nmovie? With the Griswolds and the squirrel in the tree and Cousin Eddie in his\nbath robe emptying the RV sewage line into the sewer drain. It\u2019s a classic! <\/p>\n\n\n\n I had just come up to the scene when Clark finally gets his\n18 million lights, all slapped haphazardly across his house, to spring to life.\nThat\u2019s when I heard her behind me. \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019re watching this\nwithout me,\u201d she said, groggy. \u201cYou promised we would watch it together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And with her long, soon-to-be-14-year-old legs, she effortlessly\nslipped herself over the back of the sofa like a ballerina \u2013 or a snake! \u2013 and into\na blanket like some kind of cocoon. A burrito of sickness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I stared at the little bundle of misery \u2013 her glossy eyes,\nher pale cheeks. All very good reasons why she should \u2026 BE \u2026 IN \u2026 BED, BLANGIT!\nAnd I should have been telling her this. In no uncertain terms. This time\nsternly, and with molten steel in my voice. Maybe a double-BLANGIT!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only, out of my mouth came these words: \u201cOK, let me rewind\nthis part. You can\u2019t come in mid-scene and not get the run-up. It loses its\ndramatic impact.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a smile on her face. Slightly crazed, and possibly\nfeverish, but a smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s been about Christmas this year. It\nseems to have come so quickly. It\u2019s because Thanksgiving was late, some people\nsay. That lost us a week. Also, the weather is warm, so it doesn\u2019t quite feel\nright. Plus, time just passes faster as you get older. As kids get older. As\nresponsibilities and obligations mount up. As traditions change, or sometimes\nfade. Suddenly it seems like it\u2019s over in a blink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t help that my daughter\u2019s birthday is on Dec. 26. That\nmakes the entire season all the more magical. But it also adds an element that\nI can\u2019t quite put my finger on. Birthdays are a celebration of a beginning, but\nmaybe it\u2019s that they are also another notch on the wall. A mile marker on the\npassing of time. Add in a big holiday like Christmas and it can be\ndisorienting. Disenchanting. Even sad. You seem to notice more how quickly it\ngoes by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So I have to remind myself: don\u2019t miss a minute. Not a\nsingle minute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She really should have been in bed. The part of me that\nfeels the need to be a good, responsible parent knew this. That the minute my\nwife walked into the room and saw the state of things, I was in a heap of\ntrouble. Like sleeping-in-the-car-at-a-gas-station trouble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But another part of me \u2013 the one that lacks common sense and\nthe ability to think rationally \u2013 said to let the moment ride. People always\nget well, but you only get so many of these opportunities. We don\u2019t watch as\nmany Christmas movies as we used to, and some of the old traditions are\nstarting to fade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, I did promise. She could go to bed in a few minutes.\nJust a little more. Just to see the lights come on and Cousin Eddie show up and\nmaybe dump the waste line in the sewer. I mean, it\u2019s a classic. And there was\nsuch a smile beaming out from beneath that little burrito of sickness. Can\u2019t\nlet that go. Wouldn\u2019t want to miss that. Not a minute of it, BLINGITY-BLANGIT! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She really should have been in bed. After spending the day throwing up in dramatic fashion \u2013 you know, like all over the car after getting picked up early from school \u2013 she should have been tucked under the covers. Resting. Trying to sleep. <\/p>\n \u201cI threw up nine times today, dad,\u201d she told me at one point. Whether it was a cry for sympathy or a badge of honor, I wasn\u2019t quite sure. <\/p>\n But I did know she needed to be in bed, and I had told her this about 94 times that evening. In about 94 different ways, all escalating in seriousness and frustration and meanness. \u201cGO \u2026 TO \u2026 BED, BLINGITY-BLANGIN\u2019-BLANGIT!\u201d<\/p>\n And on the 94th try, I thought I had done it. She trudged off to her room. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,561,557,574,556,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-family","category-getting-old-er-older","category-health","category-holidays","category-parenthoodandchildren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2019,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}