Short December

There are only three weeks of school in December. The teachers have to cram a months’ worth of learning into 15 days. Then if there are snowstorms, there are less days of school. On top of that, there are Christmas programs, plays, art projects, the Christmas store, and finally class parties. I need to get on calling the parents together to help with the parties. It’s a crazy few weeks coming up and I need to give everyone enough warning so they can know what to expect. And for the moms and dads that work and still make time for their child’s school stuff it is real important to have that time to request a day off or switch with a co-worker.

Yesterday we hit the ground running so to speak with setting up the tree in the kindergarten class. We decorated the room and had the kids make some snowflakes. I took their picture for a project for the parents that I think they will all appreciate. I even did the afternoon kindergarten because Nikolas’s friend Maggie is in that class and she asked if we would take their pictures too. How can you say no to a sweet little face? You can’t. So, I stayed late and took their pictures too. I made extra cards for her class too. What is 25 extra homemade Christmas cards? No problem. But, if it were anyone else besides Miss Maggie asking me, I would have probably said no. She is such a sweet huggy girl and always so happy to see the boys and me when she sees us around the school.

They are having the Christmas program in two weeks so they are practicing the songs they will perform everyday so they somewhat remember it when the moment comes. My son is a big ham, so I am not worried about him freezing up on stage. In fact, it is quite the opposite where I am worried he will be a little booty shaking show stealer. I rather hope the teacher puts him in the back row so no one can see his little booty shake. When music starts, I don’t think he can help it.

Talking Turkey

Thanksgiving Table 2010

My son asked me the other day if it was in the constitution to have turkey on Thanksgiving. They are learning about the constitution in class and he wondered what else it said. I explained that although turkey is the traditional dinner for that day, that no in fact there is no law telling you what to have for dinner on any particular day. Then he told me he does not really like turkey or ham. Come to find out none of us really like turkey that much. So, instead of cooking a big bird that will eventually go to the dumps after the leftovers mold in the fridge for a few weeks, we are doing something different. This year instead of making the traditional dinner, we are going to slow cook a pork loin and have enchiladas on Thursday.

Oh, I cannot wait. The whole house will smell just like my grandmacita’s kitchen on Sundays. I miss her so much sometimes, but she lives on through her cooking. My grandma and my aunts taught me how to cook. They would include me in the tamale or enchilada assembly line. My Grandma would add the cooked beans to the hot oil and let me mash them up adding broth from the beans and salt, and always tasting. She taught me how to make tortillas from scratch and the trick to having them come out pliant instead of like a cracker. There are three Mexican restaurants in town but only one of them smells like I just walked into my grandma’s kitchen when I go there. Joel’s is THE best place to get some Mexican food in this diversity-deprived burb. No matter what you order vegan or meat it is good. They make tofu wanna-be-chicken tacos taste just like chicken. If you closed your eyes and did a taste test, it would be hard to tell the difference between the tacos.

Thanksgiving has always been an off holiday for the family. By off I mean that my mom used to always end up working the holiday to get Christmas eve and Christmas day off, my brothers go to their in-laws for dinner and since my in-laws are a few states and a country away, we ended up going to my Auntie Mimi’s or friends for Thanksgiving. Friday we shop. Then on Saturday, we would have a turkey dinner with my brothers and their families. This year, since no one had to work the holiday we were going to have my parents over for dinner, but then we told them we were not going to have turkey. My mom acted like I said I was going to eat the dog for dinner. So they had an early Thanksgiving last week with my brother and his family and they are going to cook a turkey breast for the two of them instead of eat a non-traditional dinner. Ya know, some people are just set in their ways. I like to switch it up every now and then in ALL areas of my life, so things stay fresh. Besides, if you stop experiencing new things what do you have to get excited about? Yeah that’s right I am switching out Perry Como Christmas music for Justin Beiber this year. Well it is a six CD player, so maybe Perry could stay in the mix.

OH SNOW!

The days before Thanksgiving and the snow is now leaving. It is not going quietly; it will make the biggest, messiest, hard-to-drive-in, slushy on its way out. The temperature is above freezing at a whopping 34 and the rain is coming down hard. The poor snow does not have a chance, just like any car without four-wheel drive or studded snow tires on right now. Good luck trying to get out of the driveway. School is cancelled. The bus driver called at 5:45am to let us know, only I didn’t hear the phone (being asleep and all) so we made the trip to school anyways. I should have had a clue when I saw Mrs. Taylor’s car still in her driveway. She is a teacher at the school and a good neighbor. At Halloween she always decorates her house up and has spooky sounds coming out, then she gives out the king size candy bars and this year she gave out a monster-sized cookie too, fresh baked from her oven. But you know, teachers get days off and have sick days too, so I trekked on to school. I saw a kid from Nik’s class going to school as well, so I just followed the shush ruts to school. We get there and the parking lot is empty and not plowed, the school is dark. So I pull up next to the car I followed to talk to the Dad doing the drop off.

D-Did the bus driver call you?

M-No. I don’t think so, I didn’t check the phone this morning.

D-Well, I guess we have a day off. (Cheers from the peanut gallery)

M-Oh yeah. I get some help with the cleaning! (groans from my car)

We come home and they get to work cleaning. They made their beds, opened the curtains to let some light in, they even vacuumed their bedrooms to try to get back in the good Wii graces, to no avail. I found some kitchen towels that needed to be folded and put away. Even that did not work to earn the Wii back. Last night they both got the Wii taken away from them again. Nik decided to wipe everyone’s license on Mario Kart and erase the brand new race courses we had just unlocked after playing it since summer. Joe lost Wii privileges because he chewed a hole in the Wii remote cover like a teething puppy. I am on the third day of a monster headache and have little patience for whiney crying children who bleat at me.

WCC-When can I play the Wii?

M-NEVER EVER AGAIN. Don’t even look at it.

Now I have to live with the punishment. The Wii is my friend. When they play they forget all about me except when their bellies remind them it’s time to eat. I can get my projects done for the upcoming busy holiday season. Right now I am working on Christmas cards for the kindergarten classes.

Homemade Christmas cards

They will write inside “Merry Christmas Love, (insert Child’s name here). Then I will take their picture with a Santa hat on in a little Christmas background next to a tree and they will have that picture inside the card. The next project is making paper stockings for Joe’s class. I tried having him “sew” it up himself with the yarn, but it was too much for him to handle. So that means I get to do them all, then let them decorate them. The stockings with be for the party at school. Then they will have something to hold all the candy and prizes they win. Back to the crafty grindstone.

First Snow of the season

11/17/11 First Snow of the season

11/17/11 First Snow of the season

The first snow was just a little frosting of snow barely an inch, but then came the real storm and we got over a foot of snow- a month before winter officially starts. School was cancelled, the boys rejoiced at the thought of no science and all Wii all day. We have a huge ski mountain at the other end of town, and they are making their earliest opening for skiing in 25 years today. WOW! That is saying something. This whole town survives during the winter on the tourists pouring into town to ski on the mountain, and the unemployed survive on snow removal for the neighbors who live without plow (like us). The alternative is to get out there in the cold white stuff and work up a sweat shoveling it yourself. No thank you. My back, fingers, and I thank our good neighbors profusely with some cash every time they come to plow, and then some home baked goodies at Christmas.

Front Yard 11/19/11

Well the sunbird has lived its last day with our family. Last night after dear Hubby got off work he braved the slick streets of Post Falls and went shopping for the week, then when he got to our road he tried four times to get up the unplowed, un-sanded, 6% grade hill that is our road and did not make it. Finally, he called me to come get him. So, I got all my snow gear on over my pajama pants and drove down the road to get him and his car full of groceries. He hooked up the tow chain and I pulled him right up the hill to home. Man, I love my four-wheel drive bucket of rust that I call a car. I just dragged that car the quarter mile down the driveway to home just as if it was nothing. My hands were frost bitten from knocking about eight inches of snow off my car just to get into it and warm it up, but other than that no injuries. DH was pissed though. He was cursing the white stuff and the sheer amount that had fallen at once. His little front wheel drive sunbird was not a good snow car. This morning he got up early and went to trade it in for something else. He found a good Subaru with four-wheel drive that will serve him better on his commute to work over the state line.

Its sunny today but the temperatures are supposed to bottom out in the single digits tonight. The news said 8 degrees for tonight’s low. That means the moon and the stars will be shining bright with no clouds in the sky. I love nights like that when the top layer of snow gets crunchy and looks like glitter in the moonlight. Time for me to dig out the extra blankets and Christmas decorations out of the closet. I think I will bake something cough*cheesecake*cough too just to warm the house a little and get in the spirit. After all, there are only 36 days left until the big man slides down the chimney.

The Destroyer strikes again

So we got He-that-shall-be-beaten–like-an-egg also known as the DESTROYER, another pair of frames. After they had been bent, bent back, bent again, and finally broken. He had brand new frames. So today, the first day of school since the NEW frames, he loses them. We searched the classroom, music room, lunchroom, lost and found, and the office. No glasses. No case. The case has his name and teachers name clearly written on it, so hopefully someone will find them and return them to the teacher. Until then, I don’t even know what to do with him. He can’t see the board at school without them, so that means the TV and the Wii are out too. It makes me crazy insane mad frustrated when he does this stuff. I don’t know why I should be surprised that it happens, from birth we nicknamed Nikolas Ning Ning the Destroyer. He would wreck everything, and did. There are so many but the one that sticks with me is the time he had just started walking and he wandered into the bathroom upstairs at my moms. He took the whole roll of toilet paper and just ripped it to shreds. He probably ate some of it too, but mainly he ripped it up and threw it in the air like confetti. Then he laughed as it floated down on him like snowflakes. Mostly he would do things with poop that were so horrific that my mind has blocked them now. I did save some incidents on video for future blackmail though. Now I can add this to the list. I am sure this won’t even be a blip on the radar of the stuff this kid will pull later in life. I know this is just getting me ready for the mayhem to come. I fully expect him to get “Most likely to need a bail bondsman before graduation”. He will be seventeen when he graduates high school. Scary thought.
So the bus driver calls and saves the day. They fell out of his backpack case and all- no damage. And she will return them to him tomorrow. Yea!