The stockings are hung, the presents are wrapped, the house is clean.  I have a little time until Ross is due back from the Christmas Eve late service so I’ll write a few words.

I took the kids to the 5 pm service at the GUC tonight which was lovely as usual.  It would have been even better if I’d been able to see it, but Ingrid is in age range where trying to get through a church service is futile (from 6 -18 months is the worst, I think). She knew Dada was up front and uttered several loud and “Dada”s during the service.  She was determined to get up front and relentlessly tried to get there for the whole hour.  So I had to leave for a good bit of it and felt bad leaving Simon on his own, but he had the Battleship app on the iPhone to keep him company.

I put her straight to bed when we got home, then Simon, Ross, and I had pizza by candlelight, watched a kid’s version of the Christmas story, and Simon went to bed without any fuss.  He must have been tired! 

This December Simon’s preschool teachers invited parents in to share holiday traditions, and I couldn’t really think of any particular ones to share, so I just brought a couple of stories and read them to the kids last Thursday.  I read a version of the Nutcracker and brought the music for the kids to dance to, but my CD didn’t work.  So that was a flop.  But the kids didn’t really seem to care, and Simon didn’t care either.  He was just happy I was taking him to work with me for the rest of the afternoon.  So I guess it wasn’t that much of a flop.

Last Wednesday while at work and remembered that Santa’s sleigh is on certain El trains in Chicago, so I looked up the schedule and realized if I busted it I could make the very last one of the season.  So I picked up the kids, stopped at Walgreens for some cash and emergency snack supplies, and we ran the block from the Walgreen’s parking lot to the South Blvd El station.  I was really hurrying because I’d told Simon it was a surprise and I didn’t want us to get to the platform and have the surprise be just the cold wind of a regular train passing us by.  I was carrying Ingrid (stroller was in the garage at home), and dragging Simon by the hand as fast as his little lets could go.  But he was into it - it was a surprise!  So, we finally got to the station - in time. 

I should know after years of using public transportation that if you are about to embark on the stairs going up to the platform, and the train is not there yet, you have plenty of time.  No need to sweat the last few steps.  But I was in such a mode of hurrying, that I was zooming up the steps as fast as we could go and my foot slipped on the slimy, grimy steps coated with biological waste and who knows what else.  Since I was carrying Ingrid I couldn’t really break my fall so my knee hit the steps.  Hard.  It hurt like hell but I couldn’t exactly collapse there in pain so I made it up the rest of the way, then sat on the platform for a few minutes thinking how stupid that was.  My kneecap is still purple.   In honor of the Purple Line, I guess.

Anyway, what else have we done this month?  I had the idea of talking about a different character in the Christmas story each week for Family Home Evening.  So we did angels, shepherds, animals, and wise men.  I guess we forgot Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.  Oops!

I have noticed a behavior pattern associated with FHE.  I’m sure it’s not unique to our family.  Simon is totally into FHE and is excited when we get to have it, but yet when it’s time for FHE he gets totally rowdy and ignores everything we say and basically becomes impossible, and even Ingrid starts getting crabby.  It’s like they sense we are trying to do something organized and have a natural reaction to thwart it.  So we just keep it really short and get to the treat part as quick as we can.  It’s better than nothing, right?  We made & decorated sugar cookies one week and Simon rightly pointed out that Christmas is about love so we added a heart-shaped cookie cutter to the bell, tree, and gingerbread man and decorated them with pink frosting and red-hots.  I’m like a kid - frosted sugar cookies are still my favorite cookie.  We put some in the freezer to save for Santa, and that’s what Santa ate tonight.

This year I’m enjoying not going anywhere and looking forward to a week and a half off.  It’s nice to take a break from the routine and remember Jesus’ birthday.  My blog entries are going to slow down even more over the next few months because I’m teaching a class for 10 weeks starting Jan 3, and it’s going to consume all my free time.  I have every night from now till mid-March mapped out with what I need to read and write, and there’s not much time for anything but that.  So I’ll let you know how that goes...  Merry Christmas!