Star Wars Cookies and February
Who knew that Williams Sonoma makes Star Wars cookie cutters and that the boys' inimitable Uncle Dennis would show up with them? Well, trust Dennis of course to show up with a wonderful present. The boys were delighted and I must admit I was pretty tickled with how they turned out. As you know I refuse to bake (it's better for everybody that way) so Ernie and Owen mixed up the dough and when I got home last night Owen was very excited for us all to roll out the cookies. I tried to pretend to be enthusiastic but it actually ended up being quite fun. Owen was very, very happy, periodically announcing, "we're having a good time, aren't we?" I assured him we were.
Note Leo's impeccable timing for getting his hand in front of his face:
Owen also told both Ernie and me that he was feeling a lot more responsible these days----hence his putting his plate and cup in the kitchen without being reminded. Evidently he also kept his shoes on when he got home from school last night because they were going out later in the afternoon and that made him feel quite 'adult.'
Ah, my sweet peas. I have been thinking a lot about how grown up they seem these days. The second anniversary of Judi's death is on Monday and so the passage of time has been on my mind. I look back at pictures of the boys in the time Judi was ill and they look so young. It makes me so sad that she is not experiencing them as they get older.
Here is Owen with a holiday message for her the first Christmas she was ill and couldn't be with us. Look at what a baby he is....and how sweet.
She used to talk about how they would come visit her on their own when they were older....and they were going to take trips together. And of course she always threatened to get them a dog when they were older too. She probably would have....and my mother would have said, "oh Judith Ellen" and shaken her head. Ernie would have grumbled and then been the one to take care of it.
We were going to go to South Carolina and cook Thanksgiving dinner together on her wonderful six burner stove after my parents were gone. We were going to make sure the other one didn't have chin hairs that they weren't aware of when we got older. She was the only one that ever called me Cyn. She could drive me crazy. She used to call me sometimes when she was eating dinner and I would yell, "could you NOT chew in my ear?" and she would just laugh and keep eating.
I got a couple copies of her textbook in the mail from Clemson the other day. Someone must have been clearing out things. I was happy to have them, I didn't have a copy. The boys were impressed with her name on the cover.
Eh. I guess it's gotten easier. I don't have tears running down my face as I write this and that's a hell of an improvement. And I know that missing somebody is the price you pay for loving them so deeply so I can't wish it away. I'll be glad when February is over though. My parents' wedding anniversary was Ground Hog Day. Judi died on the February 7th and was buried on February 14th. My mother died a year later on February 17 and was buried on Judi's birthday, February 25. And of course we found out Ernie's cancer had metastisized two years ago on February 28.
So this February I will focus on Star Wars cookies with my sweet boys and I'll talk to my sister Debbie and tell her about the chin hair deal. And soon it will be March.