Here's hoping you get everything you want this year! (photo by Barbara Piancastelli)

By Nancy Cruse

While applying my makeup every morning so that I won’t scare small children with whom I come into contact, I listen to Scott Laughlin and Colleen Reynolds on the WJBC morning show.

Colleen has said many times that she is going to ask Santa for the same thing that her father always asked for at Christmas: Peace and Quiet. First of all, what is that? I live in a house with 5 children, 1 dog, and 2 cats. Peace? Quiet? Colleen, if you have been a good girl and Santa brings you the gift you desire, I will be right over!

 Actually, there are a few things I would like to receive this year:

1. A day when all the males in the house remember to put the toilet seat back down. I grew up with five brothers and spent the majority of my childhood falling hind-in-first into a toilet. I will not do this in a home I own!

2. I’d like all my children to remember when they were talking me into getting a dog and I heard this phrase repeated over ten bazillion times: “I will take the dog out even if it’s raining or snowing and no matter what time of day it is!” Picture a child looking at me with big, pleading eyes, their hands prayerfully clasped together. There were lots of children nestled all snug in their beds while I was outside in our lovely Central Illinois weather this morning.

3. A day when no one puts clean clothes in the laundry because they don’t want to hang them back up after trying on 14 things while trying to decide what to wear to the movie with their friends. You may have noticed that movie theaters are dark! No one cares what you are wearing!

4. A day when I don’t have anything scheduled on my calendar and I’m still alive.

5. A day when I put less than the normal 50 to 100 miles per day on my car without ever leaving Bloomington-Normal.

6. A day when I get home from work and find the kitchen as clean as it was when I left for work in the morning. (I have to say here that when my daughter Kendra is home from college, this actually happens. Santa has noticed, Kendra! Oh yes, Santa has noticed!)

I’m one of those moms who always tells my children, “I just want hugs and to cuddle on the couch and watch a Christmas movie.” I amended it a little bit this year. The department next to mine has a food day every Friday and they all wear sports jerseys representing their favorite teams. I asked for a Bulls jersey. That way I can just blend in and make my way through their food line undetected. Kids, you will be on your own for dinner on those days!

Here's hoping you get what you want! 

Nancy Cruse has been part of the Bloomington/Normal community for the past almost 30 years. A widow, with five children, along with her late husband was a small business owner in downtown Bloomington. Now employed by State Farm, Nancy is active in the community, writing the Clare House newsletter and maintaining their Facebook page, hosting an annual Fourth of July Food Drive, a team leader and fundraiser for the Pat Nohl Lupus Walk, and a member of Toastmasters International, as well as volunteering in various capacities at Holy Trinity Church and schools. In her spare time, Nancy likes to run, bike, hike, read, sew, and be a vegetarian who occasionally indulges in a Schooners Tenderloin.

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