dear diary (christmas triple by-pass) 12/12/2008

dear diary,

tonight, just like any other night i read my kids a bedtime story. we said our prayer...making sure to ask god to protect 'grammy' as she travels to michigan to be with paw-paw as he prepares to have open heart surgery on monday. the kids are scared as kids wear their emotions on their sleeve (i'm not sure what that really means...we just tend to say that). but they tear up at the thought of paw paw having surgery, and grammy leaving for a month...and rightfully so. every night after stories, and prayers and talking, i turn on their radio / cd player so they can listen to music as they drift off to the magical land of nod. i would love to know what they're dreaming about. most of you know how i feel about the song "christmas shoes". i talk about how much i hate this song every year. it's no surprise. however, i find it really cool that people come up to me now and start singing this song. why? WHY??? it just shows me that you are reading my blogs...and that my friends brings me joy. yeah...i like that. what i don't like...is just getting my kids calmed down and stopped the crying and assuring them that paw paw and grammy are going to be ok. just in time for me to turn on the christmas station to hear what? you guessed it..."sir i want to buy these shoes". now i know what you're thinking...'oh maynard, you just got them to stop crying too'. no...they immediately started laughing at me. my children laughed at me. why? because they know how i feel about this song. i replace the words all the time when i sing it...they laugh. i laugh...and they ultimately go to bed with a smile on their tiny little faces. so as i kiss their cheeks good night, and tell them how much i love them, i hear this god awful song playing oh so softly in the background. i grit my teeth and bear through the pain knowing for the remainder of the night that this stupid song is now stuck in my head...all night long. all night long.

i love you,

maynard