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.
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