Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Memories

Well, finals are over and I am now a free woman, at least for three weeks:) It's amazing how quickly time flies, I am way behind on my Christmas memories!

As previously stated, mom loved to get presents, she was a pro at getting presents for us, when we were standing right there! Believe it or not, we wouldn't even see them until Christmas morning. Well one day Mollie happened to see mom pick something up she could tell that it was for her and she asked mom about it, of course mom lied and said that it wasn't for her. Well Mollie got hers for being snoopy before Christmas. No joke, mom put this present, which was a necklace, inside a 4x4 box, but not before she duck taped the necklace. She then put that box inside a shoe box, after she wrapped it in duck tape. Then she put that duck tapped shoe box inside a small appliance box, she then duck tapped that box. And you get the idea, this routine went on until she had duck tape wrapped this necklace, Russian Doll style, in about a dozen boxes. Oh the hilarity on Christmas morning. Our routine was to have the oldest to youngest open one present at a time, when Mollie got that present it was taking her too long to open for us to wait so we bypassed her several times. By the time she got to the necklace she was in tears, and mom said "That will teach you to snoop around Christmas time".

Another great present story is, the boys, John, Mike, Dusty and Richard all wanted motorcycles for Christmas one year. Well obviously they weren't going to get them, but in the nature of mom, she never told them that. Christmas morning we came into the living room with the sight of what appeared to be a motorcycle covered with a sheet. Needless to say when the boys saw that they were more that ecstatic, they all tore the sheet away to find a wonderful sight of more than a dozen 12 packs of pepsi fashioned to look like a motorcycle. As ecstatic as they were, their sorrow didn't even come close! However, everyone else got a big laugh out of it!

No one was immune to mom's present tricks. I won't lie, her trick on me had me almost in tears! It was normal sized box, not too big and not too small but it was very heavy. When I got it unwrapped all that I could see were cans of salmon, this was at the point in my life when I hated fish, well I started pulling them, hoping that this wasn't my present, well the further inside the box I got the harder it was to hold back my tears. I am not joking, every can I pulled out was salmon! Finally I felt something very soft at my finger tips, I pulled out the last can and saw what my present was. A great purple purse! My tears then turned into tears of joy. I knew that mom knew me better than to get me a box of canned salmon. Mom then said "I didn't realize that all the cans were of salmon! That makes it so much better!"

Some of the greatest memories are of getting our tree. We always went the weekend of Thanksgiving and it was always a day trip. It always took forever because mom wanted the perfect tree! And by perfect I mean it couldn't have any physical damage, therefore whenever we went tension was always high, mainly because John was in a hurry and dad was doing everything he could to make mom as happy as possible, he didn't care that we had practically hiked the entire Pine Valley mountain. Because of mom's bad health we had to take a 4-wheeler for her, so her and dad never actually hiked so it didn't feel like that long to them. For some reason one year we didn't go to Pine Valley went just by our house, this year we just took 4-wheelers, by this time mom couldn't even get onto a one. Dad's solution..... get a trailer and put her wheelchair on that, his name for it? Mom's chariot, we have a picture but I have no idea where it is at!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

One reason why I have been absent lately!

As great as December is it is also finals, being an English major that means lots and lots of writing. This paper, is just one reason why I am basically socially nonexistent. I have posted it because I would like some reviews and to help me edit. Please post any suggestions you have!

The Ideal Woman

What makes the ideal woman? Who determines whether a woman is ideal or not? Is Griselda the ideal woman? Obviously in the time that The Decameron was written, the qualifications for being the ideal woman would be different than now, however, there are three qualities that are across the board; qualities that are highly respected by men no matter the era or social standing; sweetness, loyalty, and low maintenance. These three qualities build upon each other, each needing the other to obtain the desired crow, of being the ideal woman. Griselda is not the only woman in history that has held these qualities; another wonderful example is Penelope from The Odyssey. Using these three qualities, the ideal woman will be established.

Griselda and Penelope both held the quality of sweetness; they were a pleasure to be around. How do we know this? According to both works people loved them. Griselda was loved by all the subjects in the kingdom. Penelope as well was loved by all of her subjects, loved so much so that she had suitors living in her home constantly pursuing her. Being sweet isn’t being fake or unnaturally happy, people can sense when you are being fake, there is the argument that with Penelope being the queen of a kingdom she would need no other qualities, but to be honest, men were her pursuers they had to have something that attracted them to her in the first place. A happy, genuine person is attractive to all people. Griselda held some trait that attracted the king to her in the first place, since your demeanor usually the first thing that people see, Griselda’s happy genuine persona would have been the first thing the king saw and recognized. Being sweet is being someone who is genuinely happy, positive, upbeat, and kind to all.

If you are genuinely sweet the natural attitude is to be loyal to your chosen husband. Griselda withstood all that the king pushed upon her. She withstood having her children taken away, believing they were killed, and then in the end she withstood being humiliated as the king returned her to her peasant father. All the while she maintained that it was the kings wish and command and that she would follow it. Encouraging the subjects of the kingdom to do the same; encouragement that was emphasized with her example. Penelope is another great example, while Odysseus was away at war, she maintained a kingdom, kept countless suitors at bay, and attempted to raise Odysseus’s son. All the while being told that Odysseus was gone, that he wasn’t coming back and that she should move on and secure a husband to be a leader for the kingdom. However, she did not, and she had no way of knowing that Odysseus would return. Loyalty is defined as unswerving allegiance, both woman epitomize this definition, in different ways, and yet shown to exactness.

Being loyal and sweet will lead to a desire to be, low maintenance. Being low maintenance means that you will do whatever, go wherever your other half insists upon. As well as, being the queen of a kingdom does not mean that you must have the glitter and flash that would be obtainable by you. Penelope, after having twenty years of separation from Odysseus, graciously allows him to leave her again, willing putting herself in the situation that she was just freed from. Not because she is submissive to her husbands will, but because she allows him his own pursuits and she understands her role has his wife. She does not need him constantly by her side. Griselda shows her low maintenance in a different way. She was chosen by the king, she made no attempt to acquire the position of queen. She was a happy peasant daughter that came across good luck. When that was taken away from her, she graciously accepted her fate.

Can being the ideal woman be in each woman grasp? Yes. Being the ideal woman is not being perfect, its being your best self. As shown here, there is not sure tried equation for the ideal woman, Griselda and Penelope each held the qualities of being sweet, loyal, and low maintenance but they manifested those qualities in a different way, the way that worked for them individually.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Memory 2

Okay, so you are all probably dying to hear about my dad. The reason dad wasn't really against the Christmas gluttony was because, he received the majority of it. (By the way, it just took me a good two minutes to think of the word 'majority', I am apparently super tired.) Anyway, my mother spoiled my father. Mom always made our stockings, and one year she made dads stocking roughly the size of The Grinch's bag used to steal all the presents in Whoville, the best part being that she filled it full, about the same as The Grinch as well. Dad always loved everything in his stocking, he had books, candy, socks, ties,the occasional movie, and he always loved them! No worries, mom never made Christmas commercialized, I know it sounds that way, but every present she gave us, she put thought into, she knew we would love them and most of them I still have!

We went to Braedon's institute choir concert tonight and it was beautiful! I loved it, it makes me want to be in a choir. It was a wonderful night with family!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

The first Christmas memory!

Mom loved to do the crazy things for Christmas. Somehow she convinced us kids to be okay with a dwarf tree. Then to top it off, she insisted on painting it white. Her reasoning: “if we have a smaller tree then I won’t get as many presents, and the white paint will help the decorations stand out better”. Well the first one failed, mom had this fear that if she didn't spend the exact same amount on each of us, then we would resent her for it. Not sure where that come from but I remember her getting frustrated one day because she had spent more on a present then she thought so she had to come up with some other presents to even it out among us all. So by the time Christmas came you could hardly see the little tree. What was even funnier was that the tree was placed near the TV, and there was time that we had lost the remote and we had to do this circus act to even turn on the TV because of the presents. Her second point was good until the tree got covered. Mom loved to make the ornaments, and this year she made little mini cowboy ropes. They were so cute! She put little green and burgundy bows on them, so yes the white did make them stand out more, at least until they got covered with the entire Christmas lists of all seven plus a couple of in-law children! And many of you know my father and my wonder how he would have allowed such gluttony with presents. Well that my friends is my next story!