Monday 4 February 2019

This Magical Life

There are moments when I look around, amazed at the life I'm so lucky to live. And hours/days/weeks when I am horrified.

I don't often share our "perfect" moments (probably because there aren't many), and also, in an effort to turn the lifestyle-envy-inducing feelings that twitter and instagram and facebook propogate, I'd rather share the hilarious and real moments.

But those real moments, hilarious and absurd, are often my favourites.

Like at our wedding, waaaaay back in ought-seven.  Seated at the head table, Chris and I could barely talk above the cacophony of kazoos, which I, in my quasi-unhinged state of wedding planning, had ordered online so that our friends and families -- to prompt a kiss -- could serenade us with love songs via kazoo. Each was printed with our names and wedding date, and I had splurged on the extra-fancy "Bugle Bell" ends.

(I do hope that they are still kicking around out there... and that our friends pick them up once a year on our anniversary.  If that's not happening, don't worry, you still can:  we have a whole bag of them left over.  Call me.)

So yes, at one point, I looked over at my groom, laughing SO hard, and I said, "This is just how I pictured it."   He looked completely dazed, as if to say, you planned THIS???  Of course, it was too late for him by then.

Anyway, as I see it, it was a great investment.

***

Last September, we took a quick 2-day trip to the Isle of Wight, which was somehow missed in my "blogging about travel" schtick.  Possibly because it was wet, it was windy, and we stayed in a damp 2-star hotel with the dog.* And it was fantastic.  

#QuestionableParenting

We went down to the beach, and Chris looked at me incredulously when I said, "Go ahead and play, kids, but if you choose to go into the water, I don't want to hear you complaining later."  So, they did.  Shoes, socks and all, they chased the waves, shrieking and laughing, and Ziggy raced up and down the beach, and we were all cold and wet and windblown.  For dinner, we swept into a pub, grabbed a table, and had the best pub night ever:  we did karaoke on my phone (just the five of us), played Heads Up, and laughed and laughed.
On the way back from the pub...smiles all around!

Again, I was smart enough to step outside of myself for a moment to see the magic and truly appreciate my weirdo, bizarro family as they shimmied and sang in the booth.

***

The latest contender in my collection of weirdly magical moments occurred on the weekend.  We have a somewhat-regular lax-parenting pizza-and-playdate with friends, in which the grownups sit around and drink wine and talk, and the kids... well, we don't know what the kids do (because we're sitting around drinking wine), but there are six of them, and they never seem to want to go home, so we assume they have fun.

At some point, I turned around, and saw Chris and Ailsa standing on the coffee table, playing Just Dance.  To Fraggle Rock.**





It's another moment that stood out to me as absolutely brilliant and perfect, but one that I didn't know I had always wanted till I saw it.

It was magic.


* "2-star" is pushing it.  We couldn't bear to leave a review; the owners were so nice, but the hotel was so terrible.

** Have you ever tried to explain Fraggle Rock to someone who's never heard of it?  Go ahead and try - you can't do it without sounding like you have a serious drug problem.  

No comments:

Favourite posts