Random Stuff Fri... er Wednesday - Christmas Edition

Things have been crazy for the last week and a half. I apologize for my incommunicado-ness. We recently suffered a death in the family, followed by a death in the family of some close friends and needless to say, I've been pretty tied up.

That being said, I have decided that despite how much I love hearing from you guys via blog comments and getting those emails in my inbox letting me know you find my randomness even a little bit amusing, I just have too much to catch up on for the holidays and also too much to just keep up with for the next couple weeks after having spent the last week and half on other things, so I am bowing out of blogging for the remainder of the year today with these last bits of randomness. (And omg, that is a holy mother long sentence, but I can't even think enough to fix it, so please forgive me that too, okay? It is the holidays, the season of giving and forgiving right? Okay, cool. Thanks!)

So anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. The randomness. Here goes!

1) My holiday from work started as soon as I was done with my work on Thursday afternoon. It was about 4:00 PM. And I was totally on vacation, I swear. You know, even though I was working on Friday morning. And Monday afternoon. I was still, totally on vacation. However, my boss rocks and so he said that I could carry my time I ended up not using this year to next year, so woohoo! I get extra vacation next year.

2) The whole month of December, 5yo's kindergarten class had Holiday Readers come in to read to their class. Different parent and grandparent volunteers read all sorts of winter and holiday stories to the kids and one of the kids in the class (w/teacher's & other parent's help) was even able to get her Dad, in the military and currently stationed in the Middle East, to read them a story via Skype one day! I think it's an awesome program and as soon as I'd worked out when my "vacation" was supposed to be, I totally signed up. So on Monday (before going into work) I read a cute little book called A WISH TO BE A CHRISTMAS TREE to 5yo's kindergarten class. It was super fun and I wish I had the opportunity to volunteer more at the school, but it doesn't work so well when you're a full-time working mom whose hours overlap school hours. *Steam roller of guilt drives by and smushes me*

3) That being said, I also volunteered for the 5yo's Christmas party at school. Yes, they had a Christmas party, not a pc "holiday" party. The over-PCness of everything sort of irritates me. I mean, most holidays nowadays are so commercial that unless you go overboard stressing the religious parts of things, kids aren't going to notice anything if they aren't a part of a particular religion. At least not until they are older. And making a big deal out of things just confuses kids more in most cases, I think. Okay, that's my 2-cents on that subject. I actually meant to use this point to talk about the Christmas party. It was fun. I love getting to be a part of the class activities and it's amusing just to watch 5yo's awesome teacher have this perfectly organized chaos. She's amazing and I am so glad she is 5yo's teacher!

4) So speaking of yesterday, 5yo had her first experience of the alarm clock not going off on time. Well, that would be because someone (*raises hand* yes, me) forgot to turn my alarm clock on - hey, I'm technically on vacation! - and we ended up runningrunningrunning and got her to school just in time. Barely. But for once, she was up and dressed and eaten and everything without any whining or dawdling. I'm thinking I might fake the alarm being turned off thing just to get her going this smoothly every morning. Is that mean? Probably. That doesn't mean I won't do it. #iamameanmomsometimes

5) This is sort of a poll question. Currently, all the presents under the tree are for other people. Same thing as what happened last year. Last year it was because we got the kids one big present: a play house to share. Some assembly required on Christmas Eve. This year, they each got separate presents, but they are also "some assembly required" gifts. Which means we will be up on Friday night putting things together. That being said, when do you think we need to start making sure gifts are under the tree from us separate from Santa so they don't start to put 2 & 2 together that we just might be Santa because all the gifts show up at the same time? That's not to say we are Santa, of course. Because, dude, he's totally real and if you stop believing, I'm telling you now, you're not getting any presents. Oh, yeah, kidlets are 5 & 2 right now. Let me know what you think.

All right kiddies. I want to wish you and yours happy and safe holidays filled with good food, good friends/family and lots of good times. Happy Christmas and New Year and I will see you back here in January.

xoxo!