An Important Lesson

Christmas was nice and quiet in my house. The kids were spoiled and I'm counting the days until school starts again.

I do think it's important that my children continue learning during vacation. I don't want them to be ignorant and lazy. Fortunately they have a natural curiosity about the world we live in.

Yesterday my six old asked me, "Mom, what are tighty whities?"

After choking on my tea I asked where he had heard it. It's in the commercial for the Disney movie "G-Force."

I reluctantly explained what "tighty whities" are. The next hour was filled with giggles and tattling. "Mom, he said tighty whities!"

Proud Parent Moment #643 is brought to you by Disney's G-Force.

Garden d'Lights

Last night we went to the Botanical garden that was decorated for Christmas. It was called "Garden d'Lights." It was beautiful. And crowded.

The kids were given a piece of paper with a list of animal to find in the garden. We found a spider, a slug, a monkey, 2 doves... all but the three geckos.

Here is a picture of my kids in the beginning, looking with amazement at one display.

The grapes were one of my favorites.

I also liked holding mars this big red ball.

After waiting a few minutes the kids were able to pose for 5 seconds in front of this tree.

Winter Break

Today was the first official day off from school for winter break. I had little choice but to take my kids to run a few errands. I had to pick up a prescription, go to the grocery store and stop by the bank. 2 hours later I came home with 2 whiny kids, a bag of groceries, a migraine, a rented video game and a case of beer.

I was planning to rent the video game. We don't rent video games very often. I was surprised by how much it costs. $8.75. I gasped slightly when the cashier told me that amount. I handed over the money and commented that it was expensive. The cashier replied that he hears that a lot and then said, "It's not really that much when you consider that a new video game costs $65-70." Really?? Where does he shop?!

His comment made me wonder if I'm really that far out of touch. My husband always says how cheap I am. Is he right? So I went online and I checked. I couldn't find any Wii video games that were over $50. Well, there were some that came with an extra controller or a mat or those kinds of things, but nothing over $50 for just a game. In fact the game that my kids picked out was $16.97 new on Amazon.

After we came home my kids started playing the video game. It took about 3 seconds for the first fight to start. I didn't know that the game they picked out is a one-player game.

My husband opened a Netflix account last night. He said it would be nice to have during the break. It took me 30 minutes to figure out how to access the instant streaming section on our TV. The kids watched one movie for 5 minutes.

It wasn't long before I heard, "I'm bored."

Has anyone started a back-to-school countdown yet?

No More 5 Year Old

My youngest son turned 6 yesterday! I feel so old when I say that it feels like he was born yesterday. But somehow overnight he became 6.

Here are a few pictures from his birthday.

And here's one from his party with his friends last Saturday.

Good Morning

This morning I woke up at 5:46 when my 5 year old came into my room and said, "Mom, I wet the bed." I can't think of a better way to start the day.

I helped him get changed and put new bedding on his bed and tucked him back in. Then I crawled back into bed and laid there till my alarm went off just before 7:00. Then I said to my husband, "I can't believe our 5 year old wet the bed. He hasn't done that in a long time." Mr. Cookie was surprised to hear me say that. Somehow he managed to sleep through everything.

At 7:30 I discovered that my 7 year old had been watching TV and still wasn't dressed for school. His punishment is no TV after school today. He says, "I don't care. I have chess club and cub scouts today so no time for TV anyway." He was right.

My kids were ready for school 7 minutes before it was time to leave. That was 7 minutes of fighting and whining.

On the way to the bus stop there were still a few chunks of ice on the street. The ice is a magnet for my kids. They immediately ran to it. And fell. With wet pants, my kids finally got on the school and I happily waved good-bye.

I returned home to the huge pile of laundry including wet sheets and blankets. There is an equally huge pile of dirty dishes. I started to clear off the mountain that is taking over the counter. I opened the cabinet under the sink to put a wrapper in the trash. I found a tissue stuck to the inside of the cabinet door. A used tissue. A nice wet and sticky tissue.

That's just the first two hours of my day...

Are You Ready for a Challenge?

That's what my 5 year old said to me tonight. "Mom, are you ready for a challenge?"

I was cutting his toenails at the time so the question seemed out of the ordinary to me. But not to him. He said, "The big toenail is huge! It's a real challenge."

Sure enough, the big toenail was bigger than the others. Whew.... I'm glad to report that I was up for the challenge.

Winding Down

I know a few of you have been wondering if I'm still here. I'm happy to say that I survived my busy week. And with only one migraine.

I'm pretty sure I got an "A" on my Japanese final.

I didn't fall in my "Thriller" ice skating performance.

My son's 6th birthday went smoothly. The cake that I made was a big hit. In case you're not familar with Super Mario Brothers, the cake is the 1-up mushroom.

Today I wrapped presents and prepared packages to send to my in-laws in Japan.

I am looking forward to having a week with my kids in school and no classes for myself. Santa still has a some shopping to do! Then I'm going to hibernate until June.

Not Me

Some of my fellow bloggers participate in "Not Me" Mondays where you write about things that you would never do. I'm bad at keeping up with this. I did participate once here, but it was a Friday. And I'm doing another today.

I did not use the vacuum to clear off the kitchen table. Not for the stove either.

I did not send out a blank invitation to my son's birthday party on Saturday. What kind of absent minded mother would do a thing like that??

I did not actually consider using the glow in the dark pink silly putty for my son's birthday party. I know how much my boys love pink.

I am not dressing up as a zombie for my ice skating class's performance in the winter holiday show on Friday. And we are not skating to the traditional Christmas classic, Michael Jackson's Thriller.

I am not waiting for the last minute to start finish my Christmas shopping.

I did not eat almost every Christmas cookie that I baked.

I did not calculate what my grade in my Japanese class would be if I didn't take the final instead of actually studying for the final.

I was not secretly relieved when one box of Christmas decorations fell and a few were broken. What a shame that I wouldn't have to find an inconvenient place for that knickknack that an old co-worker gave me 9 years ago and I never always liked.

Yup, those are things that I would never do.

Busy Week

Things are little busy around here. My kids have school until the 18th. Then they are off until January 5th. That means Santa needs to finish her his shopping before the 18th. Santa just figured this out yesterday.

This week is also my last week for Japanese class. My final is tomorrow. I realized this on Sunday. I'm no where near ready.

Friday I'm in a Christmas show with my ice skating class. I need to finish my costume and I really need to practice. Especially stopping.

Saturday is my 5 year old's birthday party. He'll be 6 on the 17th. He wants a Super Mario brothers party. They don't sell Super Mario brother party items in stores. Super Mario brother party supplies are only available online. I ordered everything. They arrived today. Including pink glow in the dark putty eggs. I did not order pink. I called and they credited my account, but I'm still missing party favors. Pink putty eggs will not cut it, even if they do glow in the dark.

My husband's family live in Japan. We send them gifts once a year. At Christmas. In order to get there in time these have to mailed by Monday. This Monday. Again, I realized this just yesterday.

Before I can send the gifts, I need to take a Christmas picture and have cards made. My kids hate this. My husband says he'll take a picture this week. Ahem, moving right along...

My family live in Virginia, and Michigan. I need to send gifts there too. Of course I would need to figure what gifts to get first and then send them.

I know that by next week the rush will slow down. Then I get to spend 3 weeks home alone with my kids. Not totally alone. My husband will be here on the weekends and he is off 2 days for Christmas and 2 days for New Year's. But that still leaves a lot of time for just me and the kids. I need to plan some activities.

I think I'll add a stop at the liquor store on my next shopping trip.

Say That Again

Last night I went to a Pampered Chef party. One of my neighbors was there. She has a 10 year old daughter. My neighbor told me the funniest story about her daughter and I thought you might enjoy it.

On Thanksgiving my neighbor was getting the dinner started. It was early in the morning and her daughter saw the turkey getting ready for the oven. The daughter cried, "Mom, you're not cooking a turkey, are you?"

My neighbor looked kind of confused at her daughter and said, "It's Thanksgiving. Of course I'm cooking a turkey."

The daughter looked down and was very sad. Then she said, "But mom, I wanted to become a virgin!"

After pausing for a minute my neighbor said, "You mean a vegetarian, honey."

More Holiday Confusion

As most of you know, my seven year old is studying the holidays at school. He's learning all kinds of new facts.

Today my five is adding his own version of the classic Christmas carols. Maybe you already know, "Shrek the halls with bows of lolly... Fa la la la la la la la".

Or perhaps you can sing along to "Happy Hondakah"?

I must admit, I didn't understand what "Hondakah" was at first. My seven year old had to explain it. It turns out that my five year old likes Hondas and Hanukkah.

Should I be worried now?

The Holidays Can be Confusing

Let me start off by saying that I don't consider myself to be a religious. I was raised Catholic and my husband was raised Buddhist. Now we are raising our kids to be good, honest, and respectful people. We do celebrate Christmas. My kids know we celebrate Christmas because it is Jesus' birthday. But that's about it.

Now my kids go to school and they are learning more about Christmas. They are also learning about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

At Thanksgiving my five year old said, "When was the first Thanksgiving."

"I'm not sure," I replied.

"That's when the Indians shared their food with the pilgrims," my five year said.

My seven year old joined in, "The pilgrims came to America to get away from the mean king in England. He was trying to tell them what to do."

"That's right, honey." I said.

Then my seven year old thought for a minute and said, "So Thanksgiving is sorta like Hanukkah."

"Huh?" I asked.

He explained, "Yeah, the Jews wanted their freedom so they escaped from Minnesota."

After choking back the giggles, I tried to help him gain a little better understanding of Minnesota.

So should I be worried that my seven year old came home from school yesterday and said, "Guess what mom! I'm the leader of my Kwanzaa group at school! Do you think we can play dreidel?"

Merry Kwanakkamas to you!