The following story is from Christmas two years ago but I'm sharing it here today because the news has been so bleak that I thought we could use a smile. You can find the original story on my blog here: https://beanxiousaboutnothing.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/merry-christmas-grab-a-seat/
Christmas Eve. A time for laughter, family gatherings and the perfect time for last-minute major household fixture breakages.
OK, maybe not, but in my family, this is how it goes. Murphy’s Law adores us, apparently.
So on Christmas Eve my family was sitting around just enjoying each other’s company when Chad heard the “call of nature.” He went upstairs to use the bathroom because the downstairs bathroom was where my dad had been quarantined with a stomach virus. (It may have also been food poisoning. Thankfully he was good to go on Christmas Day.)
A minute or so later we all heard a loud crash and immediately started a headcount of all the Littles (my nieces and nephews). A moment later Chad called out, “Uh, the toilet seat fell off the toilet and broke when I lifted up the lid.” (Sidenote: I had noticed the wobbliness of said toilet seat earlier in the day but for some reason forgot to mention it to my parents. Oops! At the same time I was kinda impressed that Chad only had to lift the lid of the toilet for it to decide, “Nope, I’m out. Peace bro.” )
This we had to see. The oldest Little managed to beat us all upstairs and grabbed both pieces of the broken toilet seat (one in each hand), and gleefully announced to the gathering crowd, “And here are the two pieces!”
Now the funniest part of this whole scene was the oldest Little standing there holding up both broken parts of the toilet seat. He had a gap in his teeth where he had just lost his first tooth, his jeans were ripped and, most alarming, was the scrape on his head from sledding into a tree the day before.
It was like looking at a modern-day version of a Norman Rockwell painting. Right down to the missing tooth and scraped face.
Ironically enough having one toilet down, 9 times out of 10 makes a person suddenly have to go, but they can’t make it to the other one in time. Yeah, I have the world’s most ironic bladder. 😛
The next order of business was repairing the toilet (as this also conveniently occurred 48 hours before the biggest family gathering of the year….which my parents were hosting….in their *house…….where a toilet seat just broke). So it was decided a new toilet seat was going to have to be shopped for and installed tut de suite (right away). After several hours, the shopping party returned victorious with a bright and shiny new toilet seat.
Now, before the toilet seat debacle, I had planned to make gingerbread houses with the Littles that same afternoon for our annual Christmas Project. They were therefore given a choice, either they could decorate gingerbread houses with Auntie, or they could troop upstairs to watch (and possibly assist) in a toilet seat installation.
Can you guess what they all chose??
Yep. All of the biggest Littles got to take a turn at turning the wrench, taking off the old seat, and putting on the new. The 2-year-old was so excited he exclaimed, “I fix the potty!!” Fun was had by all.
This makes me realize that maybe next year I need to think outside the box when planning my annual project with the Littles. So next year our project will entail learning how to change the oil in a car and replacing flat tires.
Stay tuned. 😀
*I stand corrected. Since the rough draft of this blog was written, I was reminded that, due to the increasing size of our extended family, the gathering this year would take place at a local church.
Where all the toilets were in working order.
Cheers!
