A Morning at Home

The boys have a midday dentist appointment, so I’m remoting in from home this morning (rather than drive in, park, wait for two elevators, get all the way upstairs, get settled, say hello to all the coworkers as they wander down the hall asking everyone how the weekend was, and then packing it all up to leave again an hour later).  And you know what?  I’m taking an hour off and writing a blog post.  In fact, I wish I’d taken a run before I got a shower and dried my hair for eleven hours.  In the middle of a hectic holiday season, what better gift can I give to myself than an hour of relatively uninterrupted peace?  (I am still monitoring email, so . . . always susceptible to the partner emergency, of course!  But I remain hopeful that they are all tied up with the Monday morning small talk as well, and thus I will be spared . . .)

The shopping’s all done, except the teacher/postal carrier/paper delivery boy/trash collector gift cards.  The lights have been up on the house for a couple of weeks now, and the husband (a reader of this blog – hello dear!) has made the effort to turn them all on as soon as it gets dark so that they’re on before I get home, trying to stave off my tendency toward wintertime blues.  We’ve been burning the cedar logs he split from a dead tree he felled in our yard last year – cedar burns very nicely, hot and slow, lots of popping.  I’ve taken the boys for a drive around the neighborhoods to see the lights, and I’m here to tell you that you are tired of life, put some kids in a car and show them some twinkly bulbs and cheap plastic reindeer.  You will learn how to see beauty and magic again – if only in fleeting moments between their whining and brotherly fighting, that is.

I made sugar cookie dough on Friday night after the kids went to bed.  Saturday I tried to roll it out, but it was too dry – side note – I won’t use Alton Brown’s recipe again!  So I let it thaw on the counter, then re-mixed it with some more milk to make it less dry, then re-chilled it over night.  On Sunday midday we baked them, and Sunday evening the boys decorated them.  Very often, our holiday expectations yield disappointment when our kids are kids and don’t interact according to the script.  But Sunday night, they could’ve been a heartwarming Lifetime movie.  There was only one bottle of white cookie icing and yet were no fights, there was minimal spillage, and there were actual moments where each boy appreciated the other’s creative choices.  It’s like they knew Santa was watching or something.  😉

We also had Jack’s first ever piano recital this weekend – that one went a little bit more according to the usual, which is to say that Craig and Liam were both total wiggly squirmy noisy nightmares and I had to exit the recital hall with them post-haste and sit in the car and watch Frozen while the Professor attended the rest of the recital.  We also sent to breakfast with Santa – the kids behaved admirably at this event and we even got a shout-out from an older couple seated next to us, who made a point to come up and praise the boys for being so well-behaved.  We got a nice pic with Santa after waiting in line for approximately one zillion years, as you do.

Sunday was Lessons and Carols at church.  The boys sang in a children’s choir, and had to attend both the early and mid-morning service.  The second service was a repeat of the piano recital – total nightmare – so we ducked out as soon as they had sung their piece.  They did great, though – knew the words, sang ’em loud.  They did the best you can expect little ones to do, especially after a long weekend of having to sit quietly still and behave (at the Santa breakfast, the recital, two hours of church plus one hour of Sunday school . . .)

Now the time has come for my hour of leisure to end.  This is a haphazard recitation of the weekend, but suffice to say it had its highs and lows.  Overall we came out a Holiday Win – I’ll remember their enthusiastic Christmas cookie decorating for a long time.  And I’m looking forward to a little more holiday cheer, including a couple of work Christmas parties and a couple of school Christmas parties, a stroll around our local botanical gardens with its amazing light displays, and a trip to the parents’ house, where a real running train awaits two awestruck little men (the third will not be permitted too near the train platform, lest he destroy it all in his Godzilla/toddlerness).

Lots of love to all.  Hope to write again soon.