Am I done yet?
Just left, one class party, a house to clean, and a major trip to the grocery store. I so wanted to go to bed at 9:30 last night after I had been to the mall, wrapped gifts for Mark's co-workers, had the kids finish their cards for their teachers, talked with my other class mom as we forgot to get something for the student teacher in the classroom, wrapped gifts for Josh's friends (and their siblings...Mom, we are having a gift exchange--oh, when do you have time to plan all this Josh? Must be on the kickball field) but stayed up until 11:30 rolling out the sugar cookie dough I made the night before. I used my new mini cutters and now we have dozens of tiny cookies to frost and decorate today. Oh, add decorate cookies with the kids to the above list. I told Mark it was actually quite theraputic. I made rows and rows of tiny cookies.
It's a good thing I did so much early as the majority of my week has involved holding Sam as he is still suffering from the affects of an ear infection in both ears and has been very grumpy and clingy. Did I mention it's 5:37 a.m.?
And it's a good thing Grandma will be here tomorrow with her fresh and loving arms!
Oh, it's the process I am supposed to enjoy. Mark says I just power through things, while he prefers to enjoy the process of things more.
Gifts to myself
Well, we are getting close. Only 8 more days! To help me manage all the many responsibilities and keep the Christmas spirit, I have given myself a couple of small gifts I wanted to share.
First, the gift of reading. We have been reading. We read all of our Christmas books. We checked out more from the library and read all of those. Caroline and I read the Best Christmas Pagent Ever. Then, independently, I read in about 2 hours each, The Gift and Finding Noel. I remember how much I had liked the Christmas Box, so I checked out Evans's 2 other Christmas books and they were quick and fun and touching. Not serious lit, but I enjoyed them.
Second, the gift of boundaries. I decided that this month when any unwanted email comes in I was going to take a minute and unsuscribe from that list. This is a very small thing, but I like it! I am like, oh, send me an email so I can unsuscribe from it!!! Also, Mark wanted to make cookies for his home teachees and deliver them. So I made 2 cookies (versus five) that I can make pretty well and we did those. I didn't have to go all out, just doing what I do pretty well made a difference.
Third, the gift of being a child again. It's fun to get excited about small things, decorating a gingerbread house, singing a favorite Christmas song, dancing with Josh to "Linus and Lucy," hanging up lights in the kids' room. Admittedly, it's hard to be the mom at Christmas. So much to do, shopping, wrapping, cards, mailing, etc. and I tend to get caught up in the tasks. It's been nice to focus on small moments. Also, I've tried to not worry about being Christmasy all the time. There is still laundry to do!
Did you get elfed?
So on Friday, an email from one friend and two family members who had been elfed...by Elf Yourself. (office max interenet elf song and dance.) I would link to it, but since one of my things about blogging is that I don't link, I won't...but anyways, Josh and I had great fun creating an elf dance of my children, of Sam and his 3 baby cousins (sorry baby David but only 4 elves at a time) and Josh and his 2 best friends.
I emailed some of these to my mom, who wrote back to say she had gotten 5 elf emails. You can also Scrooge Yourself (only one of these at a time). They are pretty funny. Just wondering how quickly these things make it around cyberspace!
Advent craziness
Well, we are into week 2 of counting down for Christmas.
The 3 older children are enjoying their advent calendars from Trader Joes for $1.19. They have chocolates inside of them. They were enjoying them so much, that Matthew practically chanted himself to sleep on Dec. 5 saying, "I wonder what shape number 6 chocolate will be..." (repeat over and over) Then on the night of Dec. 6 he got up at-- no kidding-- 3 a.m. saying "I want number 7 chocolate."
Caroline has taken over as the advent person on our real advent calendar. It was purchased at a country store in Vermont when Josh was 1. It's a advent calendar with characters of the nativity you adhere to velcro, etc. She has decided we are doing a reverse advent. She has put up all the characters on the nativity scene, then takes one off each day and puts it in a pocket. Well, at lease when it's time to take it down, it will be all ready to put it away.
Memories of our advent calendar from growing up is something near and dear. With 6 children, we devised a system where we each got 4 days. My mom made the advent calendar. It was red felt with a big green Christmas tree. And each day we pinned an ornament on (the ornaments were made out of felt and adorned with sequins). On the 24th, we pinned (no velcro or snaps, just pins) the star on the top. The person who got the star was the luckiest person in the family. Meanwhile the rest of us would switch the ugly ornaments for the better ones. The best ones were the prettiest, the angel was my favorite, there were some nice birds, a drum, etc. The worst ones were like the brown stocking with black and gold sequins or the boring gingerbread boy. In my later years I would torment my siblings by not putting my ornament on until like 10 p.m. in the evening. Or maybe not even until the next day. They'd remind me over and over to do it, and I just kind of blocked it out. Cruel, huh?
I hope you all are having a wonderful advent.
PS I am adding this as an addendum...in his prayer tonight, Matthew asked, 'Please help us know what number 10 chocolate is.' Oh dear, I hope it's not another early morning! We may have to let him open all of his chocolates if it is.
Highlights of Thanksgiving Week
View from the Top of the Rock, Wed. night. Love the Empire State Building...my favorite part of the NYC skyline. I went to American Girl Place Cafe for dinner afterwards with my mom, sister and Caroline!
Two of my favorite balloons from the parade, Hello Kitty (new this year) and Kermit! We couldn't have had better weather or a better place to watch! We love the parade!
My favorite painting from MOMA (Van Gogh!), and Mark's (Modrian). We went on Free Friday night (thanks to Target). We had a wonderful dinner before at a french bistro (soups, crepes, fondue).
