Preschool Christmas Party Activity

Okay, I'm actually using my blog as a journal right now to organize my thoughts. This next dull post is in no way meant to entertain you. You have been warned.

For Kennens preschool Christmas party, I think I am going to have the kids do a gift exchange. I was thinking of asking the each parent for $3 for pizza or happy meals, but those two things dont really say 'Christmas' to me. Presents say Christmas to me. That and baby Jesus. 8lbs 6oz baby Jesus.

Instead of pizza, I will have the teachers send home a note with the kids that says 'Come to our Christmas party on Wednesday and bring a wrapped $2-$5 gift for your child to exchange with their friends.' I will also go in a few days before the party for the kids to make homemade 'wrapping paper' with paint and handprints on paper lunch bags. These lunchbags will hold the picture ornaments that I made with popsicle sticks and starlight mints. The kids can then give these 'wrapped' gifts to their Mommy on party day. Oh, and I think for the gift exchange, I will have the kids do musical chairs and each child that is 'out' will get to choose a gift from the table.


Here are some pics of the ornaments that I made:


I didn't like the way the gold turned out in Kennens ornament, so I made the rest of them red. The ornament below is going to be filled with a picture of one of Kennen's classmates, but I need to re-order the pictures from Walgreens. Kennen took the prints I had and chopped them up into tiny little pieces. Tell me how you really feel about your little friends buddy!:


I thought about taking the wrappers off the mints. But I know how Kennen tries to eat everything...even if it's hot glued down, so I decided to keep 'em wrapped. Cute, huh? Who is a totally crafty suburban Mom? This girl!

Because it's her favorite color?

Ugh, Kimberly has pinkeye again. AGAIN! Oy vay!

Bad news is that I'm scared I'm going to get it. Ewey eweeeewwwwwwwwwwww! Good news is that she is here to keep her brother occupied. :) And I am going to send them upstairs to clean their rooms. I really don't have much faith in it being 'clean' but maybe they will surprise me. It's time to toss out more toys anyway to make room for Christmas presents.

While they are doing that, i'm going to wrap presents and oh, get this! I am literally one load away from completely slaying my laundry monster! I'm doing a happy dance as we speak.

I'm going to sweep, mop and vacuum the floors today too. Isn't my life totally fucking fascinating?

Tonight is the last night of Hanukkah and then Christmas is only 14 days away! Yipee!

Bung Chow

So I have major writers block and every time I sit down to write, I draw a blank. I think I'm too stressed out about the holidays or something. To find inspiration, I perused through all of the pictures I have saved on my computer. I found pics from a party we had a few months ago when my good friend Patty was in rare form. She is too cute to keep these pics private, so here they are...meet Bung Chow!

She is a mother:

A friend:

A, um...wife...get a room you crazy kids!

And just an all around fun girl!

And she even tolerates my husband that nick named her Bung Chow.

I'm really not sure where or when she earned her nickname. But it's her moniker and even Kennen calls her 'Chow'. She is a great friend and a great neighbor. She can always be relied on for a cup of sugar...or a beer. She keeps a well stocked fridge. :) She is a giver and always puts others first. Patty you so totally rock!

Am I too sensitive?

Tonight was gymnastics night for Kimberly. I had Kennen with me and he was being a stinker. Actually he was being well behaved for a 2 year old but he got hurt and was upset about that, and then he was upset that I wouldn't let him eat teddy grahams off the floor. Anyway, whenever he gets upset his speech regresses. I have finally been able to get him to use proper consonants but tonight he was a whiny ass vowel using boy. Uh eeeeeeiieieii uh uh oooohhh. I tried correcting him the way my SLP taught me. I break down the word, I delete a consonant if there are two next each other, for example he needs to say "dow" for down. But he was saying "OW! Owwwwwwwwww!" So annoying. I wasn't going to force the issue while I was trying to keep him quiet during Kim's class so I just played sodoku and ignored him as he went off on his vowel monologue.

As annoying as this was, there was a lady next to me that kept trying to talk to Kennen. She would smile at him but he would just scowl and look away. Ugh, lady please leave him alone, he is in a mood tonight. I didn't say anything, I just minded my own business in hopes that she would mind her own business. Instead she started chatting up the lady next to her about how she went to a seminar this weekend about autism spectrum disorders. It was FASCINATING! She learned so much about Speech Language Pathology and the Kaufman method! She was sooo relieved to learn that her son didn't fall into the autism spectrum. He made eye contact and had interpersonal relationships! Oh Lordy me.

I was pissed. Maybe she just so happened to remember that she just learned everything there is to know about developmental delays, but maybe she was judging my son speaking in vowels. Maybe she tried to make eye contact to diagnose autism. Maybe she spoke loudly of her newly found wealth of information to pique my interest and find out what was wrong with my son. I took some deep breaths and let my frustration fade. I know my child. I have worked my ass off for a year jumping through hoops to try to get him to talk. Now we are even adding occupational therapy, which by the way has really helped him with new words. My child is beautiful and I don't have to explain his 'issues' to a stranger that notices them.

It's cool though. My son is potty trained and her son was older and in pull-ups. >:)

I'm so excited!

I just bought tickets for Kimberly and I to go to the Nutcracker this weekend! She has no idea and I can't wait to surprise her with it! Tee hee, it's moments like these that I'm glad I have a daughter. Or, I guess it's moments like these that Jeff is glad we have a daughter, otherwise I would drag him to the Nutcracker. We are sitting in the first row of the balcony. Apparently these are the 'cheap seats' but I love sitting up high. I think it adds to the experience and I think it will be fun for Kim to be able to see everything and be able to look over the ledge. My cousin once took me to Phantom of the Opera in AZ and we had first row balcony seats and I really felt like I had the best seat in the house. Anyway, tickets were only $12/person so now I will have a little extra to buy Kimmy-girl something in the gift shop. A little Clara holding a nutcracker? An evil mouse king for Kennen?

Hanukkah

Tonight at sundown Hanukkah began and we (I) made latkes and we (I) ate them. My Mom called while I was trying to feed them to my kids. I had to speak loudly over their whining, but I did manage to apologize to my Mom for ever having turned up my nose at any meal she prepared for me. She told me that I was a good kid. And that I was potty trained at 18 months. :D I think she chooses to sprinkle fairy sparkle dust over her memories because I was punk to her when she came home from working a long day and I wet the bed until I was 6. Okay, 7.

Jeff didn't eat any latkes because he is back at old faithful...the low carb diet. So it was Happy Hanukkah to me. I bought the kids webkinz because they came out with a Reindeer and a Penguin! The Penguin waddles! Too cute! And the reindeer came with Santa's sled. How fun is that? I do have to vent that the webkinz online menorah did not light tonight at sundown. Hopefully this is only from the confusion of the dates. Hanukkah is listed on any calendar as starting on the 5th, but really that means it starts at sundown on the 4th. Make sense? Yeah, I don't get it either but I am going with the flow.

I have an old book that my mother in law gave me called, "Across the Threshold." I love this time of year, because after I pull it out for the latke recipes, I love to peruse the pages. The Jewish religion, while full of deep traditions, is quite practical. There is this website called JewFAQ (which my sister in law thinks is hilarious btw) and it really gave me a better understanding of not only what the jewish traditions are, but why they do them. It really is a sensible religion. No vague and confusing, 'died on the cross for your sins,' talk. I really don't understand what a man dying on the cross 2000 years ago has to do with my sins. It just seems 'magical' and I dont get it. Judaism makes sense to me.

Ugh, I'm too tired to come up with a clincher for my blog. Oh wait, here's one...Peace out yo'!

Everything is bigger in Texas

including my Christmas tree. It was labeled a 7-8 foot tree, but I think it had an unfortunate accident where its pointy top was cropped. It is 6 feet in diameter and maybe 8 feet tall. It's roly-poly. And it makes my heart beat with holiday happiness.

I picked out my tree and I was so excited. It was so full and it looked huge for a 7-8 foot tree and even the guy there was like, 'Whoa'. After I got it home, I realized that my tree stand wouldn't fit my mammoth tree trunk so I had to go back to H.D. And then Kennen fell asleep in the car in the 3 minutes it took to get there.

Home Depot has their tree selling station in the parking lot, so I drove up, picked out a tree stand (that fits up to a 12 foot tree) and asked the lady if I could pay for it there. In the meanest, most hateful voice she could muster she said, "We don't have a way to take your money. You can pay for it in the garden center". Shit. Kennen was asleep in the car. I didn't want to wake him but I couldn't walk away and leave him. She sighed and turned her back to me and ignored me while I tried to get her attention to help me. Then some guy turned on a saw and my helpful employee walked away. Kennen was sleeping in the car so I just decided to drive over to the garden center. It's amazing the attention shoplifting gets you. I got in my car with the tree stand on my lap, preparing to drive 30 feet to the garden center and she came running over to my car, "MA'M! MA'M! I CAN CARRY THAT OVER FOR YOU!" That's when I told her I wasn't interested in stealing a tree stand and I tried to have her help me but she disappeared into the mini-forest of Christmas trees and that I just was driving to the garden center because my son was sleeping. She actually apologized profusely and smiled (!) and said she would be happy to help me. That must be part of their loss prevention training. 'Smile at the little deviants and pretend to give them the benefit of the doubt.' Bitch.

But! But this is where my story takes a turn! This is where I tell you that me and another lady both park right at the cash register of the garden center. This is where someone actually smiled, genuinely, and said, "We must have the same idea...get in and out and fast as possible." She already had a flat of yellow flowers in her hand. I said I have to keep an eye on my son because he is sleeping. Then she let me go in line ahead of her. Then we talked about flowers. And how gardening is good for your soul. Then, bless her heart, she gave me a $10 off coupon. It's funny how the kindness of strangers touches you. She was salve to my jaded soul and I wanted to hug her and say thank you for restoring my faith in humanity. But instead I paid for my tree stand and told her 'Merry Christmas'. Amen

So, my tree is phat. It has no point. But with a little scheming from my neighbors, I duct taped my star to an old broom stick and stuck it down into the top of the tree. It kind of works. :)

Here...see for yourself:

Ummm, this corner wont work because I can't get to the hallway.



Sorry they are so blurry, but have you ever taken a picture of a lit tree? The slightest movement causes all the lights to blur. Oh well. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...