But I was having so much fun

Emma: Mom, you know that door in me mere's (grandma's) hall.  The one next to the door to my room.  The one with the big lock on the the handle.

Me: Yes

Emma: What's behind that door

Me:  That's where me mere keeps her skeletons.

Emma: Oh, cool.  That's where she keeps her Halloween decorations and her costumes.

Me:  No, skeletons.  Actual skeletons.

Bob: Gross!  Me mere keeps dead bodies in there??

Me:  No silly.  Skeletons are just bones.

Bob: I bet me mere glued eyeballs onto the skeletons!

Emma:  I bet me mere has dog bones in there!

Me: She probably does.

Emma: ......I'm going to ask me mere about this.

(The Truth:  It's the door to the furnace.  It's had a kiddie lock on it for as long as I can remember)

Tis the Season

I've been feeling a little Grinch-y this year.  Neither family wants to continue the Christmas traditions we have become accustomed to and so I'm thinking of starting my own.  Or just randomly making them up.  I have a few ideas and a few are still stewing.  A few months ago, I came across this War on Christmas article and it has been on my mind ever since.  I've been silently waging my own Christmas battles for the past few years.  So many around us immerse themselves in Christmas from the day after Thanksgiving until that can't possible stand it and Dec 26th all the decorations come down.  Someone always asks me why the heck our tree is still up and decorated on January 4th. 

The twelve days of Christmas really don't start until Christmas day.  And they end at the Epiphany, the 6th of January.  This year, I think I will participate in advent more and leave the anticipation and excitement of Christmas to Christmas.  Having a child's birthday just 6 days before Christmas is probably a good deciding factor too.  I don't want him to feel like his birthday is lost in the hustle and chaos that is the holiday season.

This year, there will be no black Friday shopping, advent will be fully embraced, the tree may not get decorated until just before Christmas.  And all will be right in our world.

The first of many

Growing up, my mother used to look so forward to the first day of school and getting some piece and quiet from the 5 of us, that it was like Christmas.

There were made to order breakfasts and gifts under our pillows when we returned from school that day.  Even the kids looked forward to it.  Long into our college years we would remind our dear mother that school was starting and we should be rewarded for being such good studies.

This week, the girlchild started Kindergarten.  As excited for her as I am, I wish I still have a few more years of school-less children to take random middle of the year vacations with and not worry about what they are missing in school.  Soon she'll be reading and writing and doing complex math and I'll be saying, I don't remember how to do this or that, it's been soooo long.

A good friend told me how she took first day of school pictures with her boys so they could see how they grew and changed each year.  So, here is my first, first day of school with my kids picture, many, many more to follow:

Add this to the things I never thought I'd have to say

I'm not sure what number I am on officially, so lets start with 9.

9.  I have a very STRICT no peanut butter in my bed rule.

(Uttered to the younger thing when asking to eat his apple slices and peanut in my bed so he could also watch The Littles.)