Christmas Eve is Finally Upon Us.

Well it is now Christmas Eve for our family.  We're running a few days behind but my hubby was picked up by my brave father from the airport last night during a crazy storm we were experiencing.  Now that everyone is safe and sound we can commence our official Christmas.

Looking at the huge boxes of the kid's play kitchen and train set that needs putting together reminds me that it's going to be a very late night for us indeed.  That's if we have the ambition to do it today.  It might be a good project for the hubby and my dad to take part in tomorrow while us girls are busy working on turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  Even hopefully the littlest girl will be inspired enough by her big Christmas gift and spend it pretending to cook us a spectacular dinner in her new play kitchen.

I was feeling a little like the holiday season had already passed us by because we had already said our Merry Christmases and Happy New Years to everyone else on the actual calendar day event.  It was also spent drinking Bailey's and coffee and hanging out with the family.  It's crazy how you can feel like you've already finished the season and not opened one gift or gone through one stocking.  It's proof that the Christmas spirit is still a tangible possiblity without literally "buying" into it. However now that the hubby has returned, I am starting to get fired up in Christmas spirit mode again and am excited to watch the magic unfold for the kids. 

We are just getting ready now to go and participate in the very real and very modern day tradition of the Christmas Eve rush.  In other words we have to go out and purchase some last minute supplies and gifts that have been forgotten.  I'm really grateful this starts off my husband's 3 week stint at home and we will have the remaining few weeks to just kick back and enjoy some time together in our new home before he goes back to work.

Merry Christmas everyone from our family to yours!!

"Holidays"

Even though I'm not quite sure why they refer to this time of the year as "Holidays," I'm going to be spending actual Christmas Eve and Day at mom and dad's house with the kidlets.  Does anyone anywhere ever feel rested T'is the Season is finished? This also means I won't be posting for a couple days.  I may also be skipping a day or two after because we're celebrating our Christmas on the 29th when my husband is back from work and a day of rest under his belt.

I'm wishing everyone (all 4 of you) that read my blog regularly A Very Merry Christmas!  I will return to you soon with a mind addled with Bailey's and Coffee (I hate Egg Nog) and refined sugar products.

Love and good wishes!!

Brain Malfunction

I’m lacking anything interesting to blog about today.  In general I’m having a strange day.  It’s one of those days that I feel completely unmotivated but a bunch of stuff keeps getting accomplished.  

For instance, I was walking around my house this morning and looked down and noticed that the floor was in desperate need of vacuuming, sweeping and mopping.  I had just decided that I was not interested in any of it and then called my mom to see what she was up to for the day.  During our phone conversation I swept and mopped all the floors and as soon as I hung up I vacuumed.   I also folded the remainder of my laundry and cleaned up the breakfast dishes. 

My kids were spending most of the day making a mess of the play room upstairs and I went up there to soothe one because they apparently they need to hurt themselves 80 times an hour.  The room looked like World War 5 had hit.  I asked them to start cleaning it up because I am honestly so sick of tidying that room I was contemplating just shutting the door and not allowing them to ever set foot in it again.   Instead the next thing I knew I was finishing up putting the last toy in its place.

Then early this evening I was NOT in the mood to make dinner.  A good friend of mine sent me a text which started quite the conversation. By the time that chat came to its conclusion I had managed to whip up garlic/rosemary crusted pork chops, rice and steamed veggies. 

In finality I figured I’d come and sit at the computer to update myself on my Facebook friend’s activities for the day and procrastinate giving the kids a bath.  Here I am instead writing in my blog, which I decided earlier today I was going to take a day off from.   I guess that confirms that OCD is not just a brain disorder because whether you are motivated or not your body just takes over and does it for you.

I hope it does the same thing for the bath I’m avoiding having to give my children now before bed. 

Wrap it Up!

I can’t believe I’m actually finished prepping for Christmas this year and with days to spare.  I mean granted we’re not celebrating Christmas until the 29^th here because of my husband’s work schedule but I feel most accomplished today.

The kids and I went for a long walk early this afternoon, well not a long walk in terms of distance but when you are walking with a 2 year old and 3 year old it tends to slow things down a bit and what would normally take about 15 minutes to walk almost took 2 hours.   It was very fun to watch my daughter go to each door and deliver the neighbors Christmas cards.  Watching a child take such joy in sharing and giving is about one of the most satisfying experiences of this entire holiday season craziness.

The last chore I had to finish up with was wrapping gifts.  This is probably my least favorite job out of the festivities.  Wrapping gifts is such a strange idea.  I understand it adds to the excitement of the present but truthfully it seems ridiculous.  You spend a bunch of money on paper, bows, tape and string that just gets ripped up and tossed in the garbage.  Not to mention the billion hours it takes to try to figure out how to wrap each gift.  I’m not making it up when I say that a friend of mine on Facebook was literally sending out a plea to all the parents out there on exactly HOW you wrap up Hot Wheels cars packages.  I was ever so grateful with this post because there was in fact a really helpful answer.  One of the people who replied said that you wrap two of them together face to face.  There wasn’t an answer though for the Littlest Pet Shop toy packages that are my daughter’s request from Santa.  Trust me if you can hold off on getting your kid one of these buggers I’d avoid it at all costs.  I must have had to re-wrap it at least 10 times.  I’m not even tempting fate by putting the gifts under the tree until at least Christmas Eve, I don’t think the kids could handle themselves.

Wrapping is a very time consuming activity in normal situations but when it comes to trying to wrap them with kids in the house it becomes a sporting event.  I know that most people would suggest that I wrap these gifts at night to save myself some hassle.  I’ve actually been attempting to do so and that’s why I haven’t finished it until today.  Most of my shopping was done over a week ago and I have had good intentions to sit down every night and do all the wrapping.  My trouble is by 9:00pm (just after I put my kids to bed) I’m done.  I don’t have any fuel left in the tank.  If I’m not asleep by 9:30pm these days then I know that the morning won’t be pleasant.   I did get a few gifts wrapped one evening and half a bottle of wine consumed which resulted in a hangover (I’m very lightweight when it comes to my alcohol intake) and two presents needing to be re-wrapped.  It just doesn’t seem worth the pain. 

Today I figured I would attempt on getting the rest of the gifts done.  By taking the kids for a walk this afternoon I assumed that I could get a little bit of a reprieve from them as they would be a bit worn down.  I was wrong.  They were still as curious as to what I was up to.  They were still trying every way possible to drive me crazy.  I’ve decided that the only thing worse than wrapping gifts is trying to wrap them while keeping two curious toddlers at bay.   I didn’t even have any wine to smooth over the process.  I believe that drinking wine is never a good idea in the day when the kids are running full tilt, I feel like I have to treat my life like a potential on-call ambulance driver just in case they break their bones or worse.  People reading this might think I’m paranoid, that is unless they know my children.

None-the-less after several bribes with Christmas treats, screaming fits (on my part), drinks of milk, trips to the potty and a new Dora movie the deed was done.  I can actually say that I’m finished all the hard work of the season and plan on sitting back and having a Bailey’s and coffee or two…well as soon as my hubby returns from work so I know we have a designated emergency services driver!

Good-Bye Sentimentality

I’m worried for our generation of children.  There is a certain sentimentality that I think is going to be wiped out shortly.  As doomsday is upon us it appears that there is no fire raining from the sky but in a small way I think that people were on to something.  Not a drastic, lets pick one day to decide the end-of-all-as-we-know-it scenario but more along the lines I’m agreeing with some of the predictions that we are dawning on a new era.

I quite frankly hadn’t given it much thought up until last night.  I have been passing the tabloids off as another reason for gullible people to lose their dollars and conniving, slimy people to take them.  I mean this is coming from the girl who at the tender age of 20 years old decided to boycott Y2K and spent the night learning how to play crib instead of going to a wild party or hiding in a bunker.  What triggered my thoughts was actually an event I’d been anticipating all year.  The watching of “The Hobbit”, or I guess the first part of an inexplicable trilogy of someone else’s interpretation of “The Hobbit”.

I’m very much a truest.  Not even sure if I can use that as a word in this context but I like things to keep to their word.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m flexible to an extent, if there is just reason or cause to change things and as long as they still hit the right notes then I’m quite reasonable.  The Hobbit however last night was a mix of both.  There were some really amazing parts that made me feel like the book was coming to life before my eyes and then there were some parts that had that distinct sour taste of Hollywood oozing from them.  I’m not going to hash out the details.  There will be so many opinions either way but I do want to talk about what this means for our children.

The reason The Hobbit is so near and dear to me would be my mother’s fault.  She not only instilled the desire to have my nose stuck in a book more often than not but also the love of all things Hobbit.  When I was a little girl my mom used to read books to me.  I’m sure she read a lot of preschool books to me while I was still pooping in my pants but these aren’t the books I’m talking about.  Once I was old enough to sit still longer than 30 seconds and without filling my diaper she began to read novels to me.  We started out with stories such as “Charlotte’s Web” and "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" as I grew we moved into books such as “Tarzan” and “The Hobbit”.  Even though by this age I could already read these books to myself, she still took the time to bring these stories to life for me.  She would snuggle me into her bed all warm and cozy then magically began to paint the picture, she would painstakingly read each character with a different voice and patiently explain the ideas or words to me that needed explaining.  These were easily some of the best times and memories of my life.  You would be right to assume I was not only thrilled to be going to see “The Hobbit” on the big screen last night but I was able to go with my mom.

Walking away from the movie was a bit of a let-down, it was not even because the movie wasn’t exactly what I expected and I was disappointed.  It was more because I’m wondering if I’ll be able to instill any of the same sentimentality into my own kids.   

About one month ago my new babysitter had come over to hang out with the kids as a “we’d both like to know what we’re getting ourselves into visit”.  When she was leaving she was talking about having to write a paper for school and how she was going to have to do some online research before she could start.  I then realized what a different world it is out there.  I asked her if she did any research for her papers in the Library at school.  She sort of laughed and said that they had certified websites they could pull their research from but rarely looked in books.  She had never even heard of the Dewey Decimal System.  That was a huge shock to my system.  I know that I’m not young anymore but it wasn’t THAT long ago.  I know for a fact that my parents used the Dewey Decimal System and my grandparents knew what it was.  Finding out there are kids today who have never even heard of it was an eye opener.

Every single book that I hold dearly in childhood memories is now a major motion picture.  They are cartoons, video games and bed sheets.  While all of this can seem fun the world is just over accessible today.  Some of the reasons these books seemed so special was their lack of convenience.  It was possibly a book you had to take out of the library which eventually needed to be returned, it was a book read to you one chapter a night that left you longing to hear what happened next, it was the product of imagination and childhood fantasy.  Today its force fed to you through pre-views, movies, games, toys, posters on the wall, actors in the tabloids and bad re-runs.   There is no reason a person needs to use their imagination any longer because Hollywood does it for you.  My mom always said it’s important that you make a kid read a book before watching the movie.  I’d love to instill that principle but it’s going to be bloody hard to do when my kid won’t even know what the Dewey Decimal System is.  I’ll have to get them a kindle and order the books on wi-fi and sit and force them to read it before visiting their friends who bought the movie the week prior.

It makes me sad to think that there might possibly be no movie out there in 30 years that my kids will want nothing more than to go see with their mother.  Today might not be the end of the world or even day one of this new era but I believe we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg and cannot fathom what the next several decades are going to look like.

Baby Its Snowing Outside

My little WeatherEye started flashing a lightning bolt in the bottom screen of my computer monitor last night so I had warning.   The rain and wind last night and through this morning were pretty intense but since the big rain droplets the temperature has dropped slightly and now has started to snow.  The kids are extremely excited and really want to go out and play in it but at the moment it’s not that nice fluffy play in snow.  It’s that wet gross snow that only comes when the temperature hovers at the 0 degree Celsius (or for my American friends 32 degrees Fahrenheit).  In other words my children are bored and as designated mommy it’s up to me to come up with some activities for the kids to participate in. 

This morning’s activities involved “Art Craft” as my daughter likes to call it.  We decided to paint.  I drug the supplies from the cupboard and basically just let the kids go to town all over some extra-large blank paper.  My daughter could possibly sit there all day and paint, my son however was bored after about 10 minutes.   

 I think that’s one of the toughest things about entertaining the kids right now.  Their interests are completely different, partly I assume because each kid is different but one is a boy and one a girl and then they’re different ages.  The only thing they both seem to enjoy doing at the same time is watching TV. 

The TV is such a topic of discussion these days.  Do you let your kids watch TV?  How much TV do you allow them to watch? What kind of programs do you let them watch?  Before I had children I had it in my head that I was going to be the parent that didn’t allow them to watch any more than an hour a day.  Since I’ve had kids and reality has set in that number has varied quite a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I am attempting to ensure that they don’t spend every waking hour in front of the idiot box.  It’s tough on days like this.  I always have good intentions to utilize my time with them appropriately and try to involve them in several activities.  Then of course when we do things like painting, playing with play-dough, reading books, doing house chores one of them has to be uncooperative.  The only way I get 10 minutes of peace and quiet is to put on the TV and let them zone out while I finish cleaning up after whatever activity it is we just participated in.

We have a giant playroom in the bonus room above the garage.  When I was a kid if I had an area like this that I could run to, that had all my toys and allowed me to use my imagination as much as possible I probably would have lived in it.  My son is very much like me.  He loves going up there and will spend hours driving his cars around the room or his train in circles around the figure 8 wooden track set.  My daughter however spends every waking moment in the room trying to workout plots of getting out of the room and under my feet.   I thought I would solve this problem by allowing my daughter to paint at the table and my son to play in the room.  That of course backfired immediately.  It also turns out when you have a 2 year old and 3 year old you must be accessible to each of them 24/7 and immediately.  No sooner did I get my daughter set up with the paints then my son started to cry in the play room.  I then left my daughter to her own devices as I went to go investigate the tears which turned out to be a minor scratch on his hand and wounded ego which was easily remedied with a kiss and cuddle.  When I went back to see what my dangerously quiet daughter was up to I discovered a mess that would rival The Chernobyl Disaster and then my son began to cry again. 

So there you have it; two kids not capable of doing the same thing or doing anything separately unless you count watching TV.  Playing outside would be another great option but since it’s still really crappy weather out there that might not be for a couple days. 

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I'd like to take this moment to add to the above.  My dad just stopped in for a visit.  I was talking with him about our dilemma about me not being able to entertain the kids without going completely insane.  He came up with a brilliant solution.  Why not bring the toy train set downstairs and let my son play where I can see him while my daughter paints?  My dad's a genius.  Next time I get enough energy to pull out the paints and other activities that he gets bored of immediately I'm going to do just that.  I'll let you know how it goes.

 

 

Christmas Tradition In Need!!

I have a beef.  I am NOT impressed.  This is serious.

Christmas is being taken advantage of.   Along with all the extra activities; shopping, baking, cooking, cleaning, gift wrapping, photo taking, party going, concert watching, house decorating we are also subjected to a new form of torture.  Really really bad Christmas movies!

As an adult without children you might not notice this influx of horrendous viewing entertainment, you have the option of switching the channel to something less barfy.  However, with children, you usually end up giving in to watching Treehouse or Disney Jr. instead of watching something cool like Dexter or Downton Abbey.  I spent an agonizing 93 minutes getting stuck watching a movie about a talking reindeer called “Blizzard” the night before last.  We originally turned it on because it was directed by LeVar Burton.  For those of my readers who are NOT geeks, he played the character Geordi  La Forge off of the Star Trek Next Generation Series.  He was also responsible for Reading Rainbow (a show I loved as a kid).  Anyhow when I was looking at the info available through my satellite provider while browsing movies I thought we’d give it a shot.  Within about 20 seconds I knew I had made a mistake; but NO I couldn’t pick a new movie.  Apparently 20 seconds is all it takes before your 2 and 3 year old children are hooked and you are now trapped.

I had decided it would be fun to watch one Christmas movie with my kids per night as a sort of lead up to the actual day.  I unfortunately am thinking that I should have stuck to something more fun, something like jumping in my frozen lake or cleaning the grout in my kitchen tiles with a toothbrush.  I am totally interested in starting our own brand of Christmas traditions but I’m pretty sure that this isn’t going to be it.

It’s funny what we perceive as a bad Christmas movie.  When we were kids there were quite a few movies that came out each year and because we didn’t have DVD’s or I guess it would be the VHS recordings of these films, you had to make sure you were watching them when they were airing.  Last year, when looking for stocking stuffers, I came across a trio pack of DVD’s that had some of the Christmas classics that I remembered from my childhood and we bought them.  They were the “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” and “Frosty the Snowman,” animated films all from the 60’s.  This year when we were decorating the tree I came across these movies in one of my many Rubbermaid Christmas totes.  After we were finished our decorating I stuck them into the player to watch them.  My husband was disgusted.  He was looking at the screen with an unpleasantly confused look on his face and asked “Why the hell are we watching this?”  I was stunned.  I could not believe that he had never seen these films.  From an objective point of view they are pretty terrible.  It’s however with glossed over sentimentality that these movies are amazing.  I sat and watched them thinking they were brilliant.  I think I’m going to have to make it my mission to ensure that “Blizzard” doesn’t get put on that reminiscence list for my own kids. 

With that being said “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Christmas Story,” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” need to be played again and again, year after year.  My husband wants to have a few picks too.  I know he’s already listed one that I’m not so sure I’m ready for; “Home Alone.”  There are two reasons that I’m not quite sure this is a good idea.  For one, I don’t think it’s really a good idea to implant any unnecessary ideas into their heads at this age.  The second is because there are 4 sequels to the movie.   There is even a new one coming out this year.  All of these second, third, fourth and yes fifth versions of the movie look beyond terrible.  It might be a landslide I cannot dam once it’s started. 

For now I’ll stick to the safe movies and work on coming up with a new family custom.  Maybe if I give the kids their own toothbrushes they can help me with the grout??