December 1

My children have decided that because it is freezing and snowy that it is now winter. And I have to agree with them. The calendar be damned. It's winter.

Last night in a very uncharacteristic move, my children eschewed the television and computer in favor of going outside and having a snowball fight, building a snowman, and making snow angels. While they behaved like normal little boys (who replaced my children with these?), I made tomato soup in one pot and chicken noodle in another (thank you Campbell's), and then made five sandwiches with lunch meat Dereck had gotten earlier at the store: two roast beef and swiss, one american cheese (grilled in a skillet with butter, as per request), and two ham: one with mayonnaise, and one with mustard.

I also made hot chocolate. I am going to be keeping the hot cocoa business in silk underwear this year. Tom and Joyce: ya might want to stock up on hot cocoa (we just make it with water) and straws. For some reason, they like their hot cocoa sucked up through a straw.

Yesterday I completed my Christmas shopping except for teacher gifts, and Tommy wants to make gingerbread men this weekend, so maybe we'll do that for teacher gifts. Except for Sam's teacher, who is also a drinking buddy-- for him, we are getting a bottle of rye bourbon. And, no, I am not going to send it to school with my child. I'll give it to him at karaoke. Yesterday I met Barbara for lunch and we discussed the political wisdom of getting teacher gifts. We both have children for whom that is a good idea.

We went to karaoke last night, and we both sang two songs: Stray Cats and then Meet Virginia, for Dereck, and Piano Man and Fire and Rain for me. R was there, so it was great to see her, and for once, I was just relaxed and enjoyed it. Go figure. I didn't feel like I needed to be at home reading, or guilty for being out on a week night-- maybe because we are submitting the grant today, so there wasn't any point in NOT going out.

So, the Hanukah parties are starting next week-- Sam has a birthday party this weekend. I'd like to make it back down to St. Luke's this weekend, but I think we need to stay here and mellow out-- the children need weekends at home before they travel again in less than three weeks.

I need to start thinking about packing, because despite the many boxes being hurled through the universe to a Pennsylvania farm, there have been many little packages arriving (thank you E-bay, for making it possible to have a Star Wars Christmas) at our humble abode as well. And these things should probably be wrapped before we try to move them so they can remain secret-- though the kids are almost old enough to figure out that Santa uses the same kind of wrapping paper I do even though I try really hard to wrap the gifts in separate wrapping paper-- one kind for Santa, one kind for grandparents, and one for parent gifts.

Our computers are starting to act funky-- the internet keeps going out, so I'm going to post this while I can.