Fun Times

The post vacation blues - they're inevitable.  We had the best time at our annual vacation site, but we have rules.  It must be a beach.  It must be the same beach.  It must be relaxing.  And we must have people we love come with us.  That's really the only way to enjoy a great vacation.  Of course, Sweetie Pie and his parents came the first week.  And my sweet cousin visited the second week.  There was only one bad time - the day we had to leave.  It's always sad to come home.  We love our home, our town, our friends, but we always want to stay longer at the beach.  That was true when we were children and it's true now that we're old.  But we're home and now it's time to get back to the lives we were leading before the vacation.  Cousin and I like to talk a lot and we had so much fun chit chatting about the family and remembering fun times we had long ago.  I talked about my 5th birthday party at my grandmother's house in Kentucky. I had a birthday cake with a circus on top and my cousin brought me the most desired present in the world - a new coloring book with a big box of crayons.  Jackpot!!!  Coloring books presented an entirely new and fresh opportunity for me.  I can easily slip back into that world and see myself lying on the floor with the book spread in front of me, first sniffing the inside, then turning the pages slowly and taking my time scanning each page to decide what picture to color, how to color it, and think about maybe tracing around certain parts of the picture. The more intricate the picture, the more excited I would become.  And the crayons, oh, the colorful crayons.  Lordy!!!  I'm getting all giddy just thinking about them even now.  The best part of the crayons??  That fabulous, brand new, break open the box scent.  Looooove me a good smellin box of crayons!  I never failed to pull out every single crayon, read the names ( and back then the names never changed so I still don't know why I did that - remember brick red and cornflower?), and return them to their special places in the box.  That flip top box.  Soooo cool.  I was always careful with my crayons and I don't remember breaking any.  I do remember peeling the paper away at the top of the crayon so I could get as much from the color as possible.  I think I colored them pretty much down to the nub.  After I got older (I'm still waiting to grow up), I made sure my kids had coloring books and crayons.  And every now and then I would color with them.  I still love to color.  It's very relaxing - and it can trick you into believing you're still on vacation.