Every year I tell Charlie I'm not going to go overboard with the kids' gifts at the holidays and every year I do anyway. It's not really my intention, it's just that we try to only buy them stuff for the holidays and their birthdays, minus books because I say they don't count, so when I do get to buy them presents it's easy to go a little crazy. This year I swore I wasn't going to do it again, and a few weeks ago told Charlie I was done shopping and listed off the few gifts I got for each of the kids. Except that was a few weeks ago.
I have this problem where I am a little OCD about gift buying. If I know I have to buy something for someone, or have a buying opportunity, it will consume me until I've taken care of it. In the same respect, if I need to return something to the store, I will keep planning out how I can get to the store to return it as soon as possible. Neither one of those is a horrible trait in itself, except that when I go to the store during the holiday season to buy something for someone other than the kids or to return something, I end up buying more.
I can't tell you how many times I've told people over the past three weeks that I'm done with my Christmas shopping, only to buy something the very next day. Not something we need to have, but something I saw that I know Charlie or the kids would love and just can't pass up. I probably have enough stocking stuffers for two stockings for everybody and let's just say it's a good thing that Andy's birthday is only a couple months away and I can save some of his gifts for then.
Today, however, I finished for good. One reason is that we are leaving for my parent's house tomorrow and aren't coming back until Christmas Eve. There isn't time to do anymore shopping. The other is because I bought the last of the stocking stuffers I had in mind and found a perfect gift for Amanda this morning. Unfortuantely, I accidentally left it in a bag on the kitchen counter. She wouldn't see it up there, but Andy is home "sick" from school (he has strep but no fever and barely a sore throat yet still can't go to school) and was standing right by the bag. I don't know that he saw anything, but since this may be the last year he admits to believing in Santa Claus, I didn't think it would be fair to actually give the gift to Amanda from Santa confirming any doubt he has is true. I already have a gift from Santa for her, but this would have been a perfect addition. As I took the gift upstairs and threw it in my closet I cursed the fact that I rarely get any time to myself and would have liked to have this last day of school without prying eyes at home. At that point I knew I had had enough of this holiday season.
So I'm done shopping and, except for two things I bought today, done wrapping the presents. The kids finished school today and I made it through Sarah's party (one bonus to Andy being home is I got to skip his party). Amanda had her little school show tonight, which was nothing like the elaborate shows put on by her previous school, and finished without singing but also without a tear. As we were leaving one of her classmates said good-bye to her and it made me think that maybe she's growing up and isn't a baby anymore, until we got in the car and she threw a huge fit because her paper antlers weren't covering her ears and correctly and "nobody wants to hold my hand". Yep, done with that too.
A couple days with my family and their cousins is exactly what we all need. The kids need to bond and I need a respite from hanging out with them all day. We'll still be in the house together, but they will be fully occupied with their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. I can relax a little. Then we are home for Christmas and then April from New Jersey and her husband and son are coming to visit, another thing that I am so, so excited for, and Charlie will be home for the week.
After that, I'll be ready to start the New Year and get the kids enrolled in some extra-curricular activities and start the craziness all over again.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Tragedy
As much as I'd like to pretend the tragic events from yesterday at Sandy Hook Elementary didn't happen, I can't just make my next post about some silly anecdote about the misdoings of my kids without addressing this first. I first heard about the shooting while I was exercising at the gym. The t.v. on my treadmill was broken so I was stuck watching the Lifetime Fitness channel, but I could see CNN across the room. It was pretty early in the story and at the time they were reporting that only three people had been killed. I was saddened but thankful that the casualties were so small.
I picked Amanda up from school, we ran a quick errand and then came home. When I turned on the t.v. I found out the real story. I watched for a little bit but didn't really want it on with Amanda home, so I turned to social media. I read post after post on Facebook from moms that were devastated and praying and wondering if they should go pick their kids up early from school, just because they wanted to be with them and hold them and make sure they were okay. I knew my kids were safe, but I completely understood that urge to go to them.
When it was finally time to get them I noticed more parents at pick-up than normal, and definitely more fathers. It was comforting and sad at the same time. I didn't want to say anything to the kids before talking to Charlie and felt a strong need to do something with them besides letting them bicker at home so everybody was really happy to go out for frozen yogurt. We didn't end up discussing it with them last night because we had a babysitter coming and didn't want to leave her with the aftermath.
In the middle of the night, Sarah showed up at my bedside. When I asked her what she needed, all she said was "I want to be with you." Normally I would have shooed her back to her room, or reluctantly gotten up to take her myself, but this time I invited her to crawl in bed with me. She stayed for a little bit then had to go to the bathroom and decided she would get back in her own bed. I didn't really say anything to her when she was in bed with me, she just needed some reassurance from me that I was there.
This afternoon Andy and I went out and he asked me why the flags were at half-staff. I told him that we would talk about it with Daddy tomorrow but that there had been a shooting. "At midnight, like the other one?" he asked me. "No, this was different, but we'll talk about it tomorrow." Why in the world do I have to explain to my nine-year-old about mass shootings twice in less than six months?
I would do anything to have to avoid this conversation with the kids and have them go on being blissfully ignorant, but unfortunately that can't happen. Other people are going to tell their kids and they will find out about it at school, so if we don't tell them they are going to hear bits and pieces here and there and come to conclusions by themselves and their imaginations will run wild. Then it won't be just every once in awhile that Sarah turns up at my bedside and it won't be just for a few minutes.
My heart goes out to all the people of Newtown that were impacted by this terrible tragedy. To the parents who have lost their babies and would do anything to hug them and tell them they love them one last time. To the kids who lost friends and teammates and parents and teachers. To the people who lost neighbors and church members and co-workers. The entire community. I am so saddened and angry for these people and for everyone that has to sit down with their children and explain the actions of a crazy man.
None of this makes sense, and none of it is fair and there are absolutely no words that can make this post end in an uplifting way.
I picked Amanda up from school, we ran a quick errand and then came home. When I turned on the t.v. I found out the real story. I watched for a little bit but didn't really want it on with Amanda home, so I turned to social media. I read post after post on Facebook from moms that were devastated and praying and wondering if they should go pick their kids up early from school, just because they wanted to be with them and hold them and make sure they were okay. I knew my kids were safe, but I completely understood that urge to go to them.
When it was finally time to get them I noticed more parents at pick-up than normal, and definitely more fathers. It was comforting and sad at the same time. I didn't want to say anything to the kids before talking to Charlie and felt a strong need to do something with them besides letting them bicker at home so everybody was really happy to go out for frozen yogurt. We didn't end up discussing it with them last night because we had a babysitter coming and didn't want to leave her with the aftermath.
In the middle of the night, Sarah showed up at my bedside. When I asked her what she needed, all she said was "I want to be with you." Normally I would have shooed her back to her room, or reluctantly gotten up to take her myself, but this time I invited her to crawl in bed with me. She stayed for a little bit then had to go to the bathroom and decided she would get back in her own bed. I didn't really say anything to her when she was in bed with me, she just needed some reassurance from me that I was there.
This afternoon Andy and I went out and he asked me why the flags were at half-staff. I told him that we would talk about it with Daddy tomorrow but that there had been a shooting. "At midnight, like the other one?" he asked me. "No, this was different, but we'll talk about it tomorrow." Why in the world do I have to explain to my nine-year-old about mass shootings twice in less than six months?
I would do anything to have to avoid this conversation with the kids and have them go on being blissfully ignorant, but unfortunately that can't happen. Other people are going to tell their kids and they will find out about it at school, so if we don't tell them they are going to hear bits and pieces here and there and come to conclusions by themselves and their imaginations will run wild. Then it won't be just every once in awhile that Sarah turns up at my bedside and it won't be just for a few minutes.
My heart goes out to all the people of Newtown that were impacted by this terrible tragedy. To the parents who have lost their babies and would do anything to hug them and tell them they love them one last time. To the kids who lost friends and teammates and parents and teachers. To the people who lost neighbors and church members and co-workers. The entire community. I am so saddened and angry for these people and for everyone that has to sit down with their children and explain the actions of a crazy man.
None of this makes sense, and none of it is fair and there are absolutely no words that can make this post end in an uplifting way.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Holiday Dance
I'm not exactly sure what I've been doing over the past week, but unfortunately I haven't been on here. Don't get me wrong, I've got a million little stories I want to tell running through my head all day long, but during the day I'm too preoccupied with kids and other crazy things to sit down and concentrate on writing, and at night I get wrapped up in other things that I finally say at 1 a.m. "I really need to go to bed and oh crap I forgot to write in my blog again." Oh well, it is what it is and is only going to get worse and we get closer to Christmas and the kids are out of school and I slowly go insane. But April from New Jersey is coming to visit right after Christmas so she will keep me from going insane by me watching her going insane by being around my kids all day. Bwahahaha. Just wait, lol.
Anywho, for the past several days we've been jumping back and forth between holidays. I was telling one of the teachers at Amanda's school that by the time my kids grow up they are going to be so messed up about the holidays, but she said they would be diverse and cultured and that sounds like it won't cost as much in therapy so I'm going with that. Charlie finished putting up the Christmas lights outside on Saturday (yep, it was a two-weekend job) and now we just have to remember to turn them on at night. There are 12 houses in our cul-de-sac and 11 of then have lights on their house and most nights we are the 1 out of 11 that forgets to turn them on. We do get credit for having them out at all, however, and don't look as bad as the bastard across the street who didn't decorate. I said at Halloween how impressed I am with our neighborhood with how many people participate, it continues with Christmas lights. Not everybody has them, but a large majority of people do, and they look good. There's nobody like the Griswald's and nobody that just has one week string of blinking lights around their tree. Most of them look classy and well-spread-out. I'm once again so happy that we chose to live where we did.
So Saturday night was the kick-off to Hanukkah. Charlie is trying like crazy to get Sarah to remember the Hanukkah story and why we light the candles for eight days, while I'm just trying to teach Amanda that she has to be quiet during it. She will learn, the other two did, but it's amusing to watch her. She has had a breakdown almost every night either before we light the candles, after we light the candles or during the present opening. Charlie requires that we all hug and say "Happy Hanukkah" each night after we light the candles and before the kids open a present and that is almost too much for her. She does not want to hug Andy because she doesn't like to hug boys, or at least that was her excuse tonight, but by Charlie's rule she has to hug everyone or she doesn't get to open anything. Then deciding which present to open is a huge decision. This is my fault. In past years I have been so late in the game with wrapping that I usually just go upstairs right before and wrap one present each and bring it down. This year Charlie helped me and we wrapped them all before Hanukkah started. Even Andy is a little overwhelmed by presents under the tree (yes, I get the irony) this early in the month. After opening the present the kids are required to say thank you which again causes angst for Amanda. Christmas at my parents house my kill her.
I also took the kids to see Santa this week. Luckily they all asked for things that I already had. Usually they don't know exactly what to ask for and I kind of guide them into asking for things I know they will get. Or I just tell them to tell Santa to get them what he thinks they would like, since really Santa knows best. I wasn't sure whether or not Andy was going to want to do Santa this year and whether or not he still believed, but he's still all in. I know for two reasons. First, if he didn't believe and knew what we going on, he wouldn't be able to contain himself and would be giving all sorts of hints to Charlie and me that he is smart and has figured it out. So much so that it would be extremely annoying. Second, he said that he still believes in Santa. That was the main giveaway. He wasn't excited about getting his picture taken with Santa, but he did it for me anyway. This may be the last one I get. Thankfully it was the easiest picture taking experience I have ever had with the three kids and the picture turned out great.
Finally Sarah had her family tradition presentation at school. There was a lot of stress in getting ready for the presentation, mostly for me. Every time I asked her what tradition she wanted to talk about, she said she didn't know. I gave her three or four to pick from, but no decisions. When she finally decided, she said it was to hard to remember every and she couldn't do it. I really hate it when my kids say "I can't". It drives me nuts and I have no patience for it. I'm pretty sure I did it as a kid, even though I don't remember, so I thank my parents for putting up with it and not killing me in the process. Charlie helped her some, because she is way more receptive to him and he has tons more patience than I do, but it still looked like she was going to bomb. I went this morning and watched her give the presentation and she did an excellent job. I was so proud of her. I knew she could do it all along, which is why the "I can't" stuff was making me so mad. So happy that's over.
This weekend we will make cookies and chocolate covered popcorn for the teachers (don't be too impressed, the cookies are that pre-made dough I bought for the school fundraiser in the fall and we're using microwave popcorn) and then four more days of school. I still have a ton of gifts to wrap, but I'm sure I can do it. Otherwise there will be a lot of gift bags under the tree this year.
It's all good, I'm not going to stress. It's going to come whether we are ready or not, and I'll be ready. Sleep deprived, but ready.
Anywho, for the past several days we've been jumping back and forth between holidays. I was telling one of the teachers at Amanda's school that by the time my kids grow up they are going to be so messed up about the holidays, but she said they would be diverse and cultured and that sounds like it won't cost as much in therapy so I'm going with that. Charlie finished putting up the Christmas lights outside on Saturday (yep, it was a two-weekend job) and now we just have to remember to turn them on at night. There are 12 houses in our cul-de-sac and 11 of then have lights on their house and most nights we are the 1 out of 11 that forgets to turn them on. We do get credit for having them out at all, however, and don't look as bad as the bastard across the street who didn't decorate. I said at Halloween how impressed I am with our neighborhood with how many people participate, it continues with Christmas lights. Not everybody has them, but a large majority of people do, and they look good. There's nobody like the Griswald's and nobody that just has one week string of blinking lights around their tree. Most of them look classy and well-spread-out. I'm once again so happy that we chose to live where we did.
So Saturday night was the kick-off to Hanukkah. Charlie is trying like crazy to get Sarah to remember the Hanukkah story and why we light the candles for eight days, while I'm just trying to teach Amanda that she has to be quiet during it. She will learn, the other two did, but it's amusing to watch her. She has had a breakdown almost every night either before we light the candles, after we light the candles or during the present opening. Charlie requires that we all hug and say "Happy Hanukkah" each night after we light the candles and before the kids open a present and that is almost too much for her. She does not want to hug Andy because she doesn't like to hug boys, or at least that was her excuse tonight, but by Charlie's rule she has to hug everyone or she doesn't get to open anything. Then deciding which present to open is a huge decision. This is my fault. In past years I have been so late in the game with wrapping that I usually just go upstairs right before and wrap one present each and bring it down. This year Charlie helped me and we wrapped them all before Hanukkah started. Even Andy is a little overwhelmed by presents under the tree (yes, I get the irony) this early in the month. After opening the present the kids are required to say thank you which again causes angst for Amanda. Christmas at my parents house my kill her.
I also took the kids to see Santa this week. Luckily they all asked for things that I already had. Usually they don't know exactly what to ask for and I kind of guide them into asking for things I know they will get. Or I just tell them to tell Santa to get them what he thinks they would like, since really Santa knows best. I wasn't sure whether or not Andy was going to want to do Santa this year and whether or not he still believed, but he's still all in. I know for two reasons. First, if he didn't believe and knew what we going on, he wouldn't be able to contain himself and would be giving all sorts of hints to Charlie and me that he is smart and has figured it out. So much so that it would be extremely annoying. Second, he said that he still believes in Santa. That was the main giveaway. He wasn't excited about getting his picture taken with Santa, but he did it for me anyway. This may be the last one I get. Thankfully it was the easiest picture taking experience I have ever had with the three kids and the picture turned out great.
Finally Sarah had her family tradition presentation at school. There was a lot of stress in getting ready for the presentation, mostly for me. Every time I asked her what tradition she wanted to talk about, she said she didn't know. I gave her three or four to pick from, but no decisions. When she finally decided, she said it was to hard to remember every and she couldn't do it. I really hate it when my kids say "I can't". It drives me nuts and I have no patience for it. I'm pretty sure I did it as a kid, even though I don't remember, so I thank my parents for putting up with it and not killing me in the process. Charlie helped her some, because she is way more receptive to him and he has tons more patience than I do, but it still looked like she was going to bomb. I went this morning and watched her give the presentation and she did an excellent job. I was so proud of her. I knew she could do it all along, which is why the "I can't" stuff was making me so mad. So happy that's over.
This weekend we will make cookies and chocolate covered popcorn for the teachers (don't be too impressed, the cookies are that pre-made dough I bought for the school fundraiser in the fall and we're using microwave popcorn) and then four more days of school. I still have a ton of gifts to wrap, but I'm sure I can do it. Otherwise there will be a lot of gift bags under the tree this year.
It's all good, I'm not going to stress. It's going to come whether we are ready or not, and I'll be ready. Sleep deprived, but ready.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Spreading Holiday Germs
On Thursday as I was finishing my morning errands and on my way to pick up Amanda from school before running my afternoon errands, I got a call from the elementary school. The dreaded call from the elementary school. Sarah was sick. At first they said she was really sick, but they continued to say her only symptom was a 102 fever. No vomiting, nothing else, just a fever. To me that does not denote a very sick child, it just means that I am going to have a cramp in my style for the next few days.
She went to the clinic because she had a tummy ache. They decided to take her temperature while she was there and that's how they got the 102 reading. They must have taken it during the only hour of the day that she had a fever, because once I got her home and gave her some Advil she perked right up. Unfortunately, the school has a 24-hour no fever rule and you can't really trick the school when they are the ones that are taking it. Not that I would anyway. I'm a stay at home mom, I don't really have a good excuse for sending my kids to school sick, unless lazy is a good excuse. So, since they took her temp at 11 a.m., she automatically excused herself from school today as well.
I'm not saying that she's not sick, but the only symptom she has is a fever, and once she's got a little medicine in her it's like she's not even sick. No stomach ache, no ear ache, no cough or runny nose, no sore throat, just a fever. Andy did this once to me for five days, I thought I was going to go crazy. She was actually pretty mature about it and tried to take a nap this afternoon, but then Andy came home from school and started very loudly telling Amanda how to play a game on the computer and Sarah couldn't sleep. Poor kid.
Tomorrow we're supposed to go to see Disney on Ice, just the two of us for some mommy-daughter bonding, so unless her condition gets worse and she's super duper sick I will still take her. She's already said if she feels awful that Amanda can go as her backup (very sweet), but I don't think she'll allow that to happen. Then tomorrow night we're supposed to go to some Lights At The Zoo thing, so hopefully she'll be up for that as well. More importantly, I just hope whatever she has doesn't spread. This is not a good time of year for any of us to get sick, and I certainly don't want to be the new family that gives the gift of illness at the holidays.
She went to the clinic because she had a tummy ache. They decided to take her temperature while she was there and that's how they got the 102 reading. They must have taken it during the only hour of the day that she had a fever, because once I got her home and gave her some Advil she perked right up. Unfortunately, the school has a 24-hour no fever rule and you can't really trick the school when they are the ones that are taking it. Not that I would anyway. I'm a stay at home mom, I don't really have a good excuse for sending my kids to school sick, unless lazy is a good excuse. So, since they took her temp at 11 a.m., she automatically excused herself from school today as well.
I'm not saying that she's not sick, but the only symptom she has is a fever, and once she's got a little medicine in her it's like she's not even sick. No stomach ache, no ear ache, no cough or runny nose, no sore throat, just a fever. Andy did this once to me for five days, I thought I was going to go crazy. She was actually pretty mature about it and tried to take a nap this afternoon, but then Andy came home from school and started very loudly telling Amanda how to play a game on the computer and Sarah couldn't sleep. Poor kid.
Tomorrow we're supposed to go to see Disney on Ice, just the two of us for some mommy-daughter bonding, so unless her condition gets worse and she's super duper sick I will still take her. She's already said if she feels awful that Amanda can go as her backup (very sweet), but I don't think she'll allow that to happen. Then tomorrow night we're supposed to go to some Lights At The Zoo thing, so hopefully she'll be up for that as well. More importantly, I just hope whatever she has doesn't spread. This is not a good time of year for any of us to get sick, and I certainly don't want to be the new family that gives the gift of illness at the holidays.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Kid Quote of the Day
I( was having a stern discussion with Andy about wearing his coat...
ME: One of these days you aren't going to wear your coat and you are going to freeze your butt off.
AMANDA: (Whining) Then I won't have a butt and then I can't wear underwear.
ME: One of these days you aren't going to wear your coat and you are going to freeze your butt off.
AMANDA: (Whining) Then I won't have a butt and then I can't wear underwear.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
Last weekend when we were driving home from the airport we noticed that a lot of people already had their Christmas lights up. So as we pulled into our neighborhood, instead of going straight to our house we drove around looking at the lights. Amanda kept saying, "Christmas is here!" and I tried to explain that it was still several weeks away, but she could not be deterred. How come Christmas wasn't at our house yet? We assured her that we would be putting up all our decorations the following weekend.
This weekend we put up our outside lights, for the first time in several years, and our trees. Yes, I said trees. A couple of years ago I got the kids their own small four foot tree. I did it because I was sick of all their school made ornaments junking up my tree (I am not sentimental that way) and because I got a fabulous deal and got a tree for under $20 a couple days before Christmas at Target. Oh, I could go on and on about the many reasons I love Target.
We've tried live trees in the past and it was a total disaster, so by the time we reached Andy's first Christmas we had moved on to artificial trees. A few years later we found out Charlie was allergic to cedar and I stopped feeling guilty about the fake trees. I am so thankful for that allergy and it's ability to wash me of all fake tree guilt.
Anyway, we put up the kids tree and decorated it on Saturday, but the kids were a little done with decorating after that so we put up the main tree but didn't decorate it until today. It went pretty well, except everybody was mad that they didn't get to put the star on the top of the tree (Charlie did it) and we broke two ornaments. Even Amanda did an awesome job putting ornaments on the tree and there were only three or four placess that had more than three ornaments on one branch. I may have said this in the past, but now I totally and completely understand why my Mom would rearrange all the ornaments after we decorated the tree when I was a kid. It offended me at the time, but I get it now. The one difference is that when I move the ornaments, it will be after the kids go to sleep instead of right in front of them right after they put them on. Love you Mom!
So all of our decoration are up except a few outside lights. It doesn't matter that we have tubs full, the kind that we really wanted to use we didn't have enough of so Charlie had to run out and get them today and then didn't have time to finish the outside. We'll take care of that next weekend. We started our advent calendars today (yes, a day late) and had the Christmas music blaring. Now all we need is the snow.
Starting next weekend we'll take a little Christmas hiatus and start Hanukkah and then the mass-presents-in-the-month-of-December begins. The kids are excited, we're not beaten down yet, it's all good.
This weekend we put up our outside lights, for the first time in several years, and our trees. Yes, I said trees. A couple of years ago I got the kids their own small four foot tree. I did it because I was sick of all their school made ornaments junking up my tree (I am not sentimental that way) and because I got a fabulous deal and got a tree for under $20 a couple days before Christmas at Target. Oh, I could go on and on about the many reasons I love Target.
We've tried live trees in the past and it was a total disaster, so by the time we reached Andy's first Christmas we had moved on to artificial trees. A few years later we found out Charlie was allergic to cedar and I stopped feeling guilty about the fake trees. I am so thankful for that allergy and it's ability to wash me of all fake tree guilt.
Anyway, we put up the kids tree and decorated it on Saturday, but the kids were a little done with decorating after that so we put up the main tree but didn't decorate it until today. It went pretty well, except everybody was mad that they didn't get to put the star on the top of the tree (Charlie did it) and we broke two ornaments. Even Amanda did an awesome job putting ornaments on the tree and there were only three or four placess that had more than three ornaments on one branch. I may have said this in the past, but now I totally and completely understand why my Mom would rearrange all the ornaments after we decorated the tree when I was a kid. It offended me at the time, but I get it now. The one difference is that when I move the ornaments, it will be after the kids go to sleep instead of right in front of them right after they put them on. Love you Mom!
So all of our decoration are up except a few outside lights. It doesn't matter that we have tubs full, the kind that we really wanted to use we didn't have enough of so Charlie had to run out and get them today and then didn't have time to finish the outside. We'll take care of that next weekend. We started our advent calendars today (yes, a day late) and had the Christmas music blaring. Now all we need is the snow.
Starting next weekend we'll take a little Christmas hiatus and start Hanukkah and then the mass-presents-in-the-month-of-December begins. The kids are excited, we're not beaten down yet, it's all good.
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