'Tis the Season

At 5 am Sunday morning, K crept silently out of bed making sure not to wake L sleeping between us as usual.  An hour later after driving to two separate Toys R Us stores, K completed his Santa mission successfully.  I work up to his cold hands holding my face and his lips on my forehead. He excitedly whispered, "I got it!"

Yes, our sweet little L, who puts up with so much around here, will gleefully open the hottest toy this Christmas season (although he had no idea when he put it on his list)...You read that right...We are currently in possession of a Green LeapPad Explorer!  K was so proud of himself and it has propelled us into the holiday season.  Presents have been bought (almost done) and we currently have two blow up polar bears in our front yard and lights on the front porch and bushes.

Work got so bad last week that I finally just gave in the towel and let the annoying, young team lead win this battle she was raging without me actually realizing it was going on.  It's just not worth it. I need to keep my job, but I don't need to prove myself to a bunch of self-righteous jerks.  I took leave on Thursday and Friday and only answered emails if it was absolutely necessary.

D was a big star last week.  Not only did he rock it out playing percussion (drums, xylophone, and wood block) in the beginning band at school, but he was the star of the school play and did an amazing job as the Shepherd Boy.  His cousins (C's kids) were also in the play as penguins and the whole night was so much fun.  He rounded off this week of performances by reading the responsorial psalm at the school mass on Friday morning.  He was relieved to get back to his roots on Saturday morning and scored 12 points in his first basketball game of the season.  I was a very proud mommy last week :)

The little kids had their last day of school today.  We had an 11:30 dismissal and headed over to my 95 year old Grandpa's nursing home with my sister C and her 3 kids.  While the kids surprised him and then kept him occupied in the library, C and I decorated his door with "snowflakes" with pictures of all of his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids...it was absolutely precious.

We've got dinner at friends' houses both tomorrow and Friday and I'm looking forward to just hanging and having fun.  I'm trying so hard to not let the stress keep me from enjoying the holidays and being the mom/aunt that I want to be for the kids.  Let's face it....these monkeys are worth it...