V. finally made it back from that God forsaken place (aka Saudi Arabia) on Christmas night so that we could proceed with a family Christmas and we had a nice one indeed. To say that I. was happy to be with her daddy again would be an understatement.
The following Monday we drove up to Idyllwild, a little mountain town basically in the middle of nowhere but that's the point. I always love the scenic pictures I get each year.
This isn't Big Bear or Lake Arrowhead. The locals call it "The Hill" so that tells you something right there. However, for us it's perfect - quiet, relaxing, nothing much to do.
Well, except nowadays that isn't quite true and here's why. Before we had I., V. and I started this tradition of going up to "The Hill" for about a week over New Year's. And the adjectives I used previously - quiet, relaxing, nothing much to do - fit the bill. We never looked at the clock while we were there. We ate when we were hungry, we napped and slept when we were tired, and just vegged - me with many books and V. with papers and tv. It was a kind of no rules week also evidenced by the sounds coming from the trunk on the drive up the curvy mountain roads. CLANK, CLANK, CLANK. Those were the Jack Daniels and Absolut bottles clanging against each other all the way up and it always made us laugh. We weren't drunks but it was nice for a time to do whatever we felt like when we felt like doing it. One last example of that mentality - one night we went into the outdoor hot tub. It was around 20 degrees outside and we were laughing at the insanity of being outside but so appreciative of how cold our drinks stayed.
Now though, with an active 3 year old who doesn't take naps, the days on "The Hill" are anything but relaxing. It becomes an all day exercise of trying to keep her happy, amused and out of trouble, all of which is extremely tiring. I imagine it's probably akin to having a Great Dane puppy inside of a small cabin. To make matters even more challenging, I. was getting up in the wee hours of the morning so it made for an even LONGER day. Thank God there was a lot of snow on the ground left over from a recent storm so we were able to go out and play in that and get some of her energy released.
I thought about all this today and realized that someday, if we're lucky, it will be V. and I back up there on "The Hill" alone, relaxing and napping albeit with less clanking probably. Knowing how things go, we'll probably be wistfully looking back at these days when our whirling dervish was exhausting us but making us laugh all day long with her antics and sense of humor. Granted, the memories from the past seem more carefree and pleasurable. However, these memories we are building now are richer, deeper, and more meaningful because they don't just exist in V. and my minds but now in I.'s and perhaps in her future families' minds as well.
And now I have the title of this post - "Building Memories".
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