Today's thought...How did we get so off course...????

Okay this is going to be a nostalgia post, I know, but you know what? It's Christmas. I don't care. I'm going there. How did this world get so strange? How is it that this world got to the point that it's in now? And not just in America, EVERYWHERE!!!

I was talking to my mom tonight, and we got into a convo about Christmas past. When times were simpler. When it was just us three families, and really just one. It was my grandma and grandpa, and their three kids, their kids included. I remember Christmas. Going to my aunts house, eating at the table in the living room, Mom and Dad, Son and wife, Daughter and husband, Daughter, five children, and usually someone who was adopted into the family at some point by someone. That's what I remember. Those are the times I cherish.

Of course, this was years ago. Times do change. People move away, people pass to heaven, lives grow, children have children and so on and so forth. But is it so strange for me to want my child, to have the same memories I do? But alas, she can't. My little girl doesn't have what I have. She isn't going to have the memories of the whole family getting together. Because the generation she's growing up in, we don't have such things.

Christmas isn't about getting together as much any more. Christmas is about Skyping with the parents that aren't close enough to be here. It's about seeing the pictures of the cousins on Facebook and trying to share it. It's about seeing the parents that thankfully CAN be there, and hope that THAT side of the family is able to be together, and not stuck working or otherwise.

And it makes me sad. I get it. I realize that Christmas should be the last time of the year that I should be sad, but it does make me sad. Christmas isn't what it used to be. My little girl is NEVER going to be able to have the memories I did. Then my mom, smartest woman in the world, tells me that I need to make my own memories for my daughter, so that she has something to take with her in the future.

Then we get into a conversation about how much times have changed, and family dynamics are a thing of the past and how much our world has changed. When did my relationship with my mom, something that I hold so sacred, and so dear, become so out of the realm, that I look around, and I can't find more than one or two people that I know, that have the same relationship with their mom's as I do?

Or even my daddy. And I mean, I totally get that mine and my mom's relationship or even mine and my dad's, is special. But (literally, I can count on one had) the people I know, don't have even remotely CLOSE to the relationship with their parents as I have. How did this happen? How is it parents and children have gotten to the point that they're so estranged from each other, that the relationship isn't anywhere close to what it should be? How is it we've gotten so far away from what family is, that we don't know where it's from any more? Why isn't my relationship with my mom, the norm?

I'm not complaining at all, don't get me wrong. But seriously!? My friends look at me like I'm on crack, when I talk about things I discuss with my mom. Why? When did this world get away from being able to talk to our parents? When did this world get to the point that family get-togethers, and family dynamics, stopped being basic connections to the other person, period? When did we get away from what family is really about?

Am I just that strange? Is my relationship with my mom, just that different from the norm? Is it just that wrong, to want my daughter, to know half of what I did growing up?

Today's thought...Legends are funny things.

My husband and I were out to dinner the other night, at Logan's. I was talking to our server and I asked him if he knew there was a Gnome inside every peanut. He says no, so I show him. But in the process of showing him I realize, I don't know about the legend behind the gnome inside the peanut.

So, I come home, and I Google it. Alas I find, there is no such legend anywhere on the internet. So I go back to the source of the original person that showed me. They tell me to ask another person and I do. Turns out, as far as anyone is aware, there is no legend anywhere. So I, being the creative brain that I am, created one. And here we have:

The Legend of the Gnome Inside the Peanut (Copyright 12/13/14)

One day, a long time ago there lived a village of gnomes, thriving peacefully. Now gnomes, who can live up to four hundred years, have two known enemies. Trolls, and humans. One could live below ground with the gnomes, one above. Well one day, while in a battle with the humans, this particular bunch of gnomes, wound up fighting once more, when they went underground, with the trolls. Turns out, the humans, had made a deal with the trolls, to wipe out this village of gnomes, being as gnomes are notorious for being impish.

Stuck, and not willing to give up their lives, they traveled as far as possible, winding up in a peanut grove. Knowing that both the trolls and the humans were bearing down on them, they did the only thing they could think of, and hid inside the peanuts that were growing there. Their hope, was if they hid inside the peanuts, they would be able to avoid devastation. But, they couldn't just jump inside of a plant or seed. As guardians of the ground, they did the right thing, and asked for permission. The peanuts of course, agreeing to hide the gnomes; as they knew that though they were impish above the ground, below the ground, they took care of the roots, flowers, plants and soil.

They created a special bond, that spanned generations as well as tribes, allowing the gnomes to hide within the peanuts when the need arose, no questions asked. What they didn't realize, was that when the gnomes jumped inside of the peanuts, it created a small spot in the top of the nut, that would, if inspected, reveal their hiding spot, leaving the part in the top, only visible to humans that were careful enough to discover it. And so, every time you open a peanut and find a gnome, remember that even though they are not there any longer, on one fateful day, possibly long ago...possibly not, a gnome hid, inside that peanut, for the safety and protection during a battle, leaving it's legacy behind.

ADDENDUM: It has recently come to my attention that there is a STORY about a gnome in peanut, an old fairy-tale. I'm currently researching this to make sure that I am not stepping on toes with my creative legend.