We’re free!
Well, we’re at least free from school for a couple of weeks; and our
holiday has started off great so far – both with our play day and parties at
school and the sleepover we’re having at my house tonight.
The school update for today is easy. We watched a movie; played; had classroom
Christmas parties; and then got set free early to get started on our holiday
while the teachers and staff had their own Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, but there isn’t anything
newsworthy to report; so let’s move on; and get to the first night of our
holiday part of this update.
Michael, Rowen, and Tim all went home first
to pick up overnight bags before coming over to my house, and they all stopped
in to check in with parents at work too; so I had time for a little visit with
Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden before they arrived. We traded the daily reports, and though the
top news story of the day for them didn’t even get talked about with Naomi and
Aiden there; I will record my congratulations here for Ethan and Ehlana. They’ve finished their second year of
college; and will be moving on to their junior year in January. It’s a bit funny that they’ll now be half a
year ahead of Violet, Dillon, and the rest of our favorite sophomores; but they
do have the advantage of working at their own pace – which is particularly
handy when your pace is a lot faster than it is for most people.
And here I am; puttering along in Grade
Nine. I feel so mediocre! ;^)
Mom didn’t ask for a lot of help from us
after my friends joined us; but we did keep the four younger kids with us while
she did some work and cooked dinner for nine.
She wasn’t doing a dinner and a movie night this week, since everyone
has a lot on the go this weekend; but she was good with having a quiet night
for herself – and for Dad once he got home too.
We, the kids and teens, were all ready to have a fun night, though; and
we played or watched movies while hanging out together all evening. Mom mostly did her own thing except for when
we had dinner and for an hour or so after Dad got home – at least when it came
to the rest of us. They went to bed when
the twins and their friends did; but sleeping was not at the top of their
bedtime to-do list.
Enough said there – let’s move along.
Pre-dinner play included some outdoor snow
time. It wasn’t that much above freezing
today, so it hasn’t started to melt much; but it will over the next few days –
and should be gone before Christmas.
That’s the main reason why we went out to play today – and because
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden wanted us to do that with them until it started
getting dark. After having a snowball
fight; running around the yard pulling the kids in sleds; and making snow
angels, we went inside to warm up with cups of hot chocolate while playing
video games in the lounge until dinner was ready. Dinner was an easy pizza and wings meal; we –
the teens – took care of the clean-up; and then the boys played video games for
a while longer until we all got comfortable and watched our first Christmas
show.
There was an intermission when Dad got
home; He and Mom watched a few, classic Christmas cartoons with us; and then it
was time for the non-teens to go to bed for the night. Ethan, Ehlana and their friends didn’t go
right off to sleep either; but I’m also pretty sure they weren’t doing roommate
swaps or anything either.
Give them a few years before they’ll be
thinking much about things like that! ;^)
This is off-topic, but that does have me
thinking about some of our friends and their weekend plans. Rebecca and Lucas were invited to stay with
us tonight; but Rebecca’s staying out at the farm tonight instead for her day
off from the Inn – mostly because Lucas couldn’t get the morning off tomorrow
because he needs to help his father all weekend as they get ready for the
holidays on the farm. No, they’re not
setting up a manger just in case of unexpected guests – they just do a lot of
prep work so that they only have to do the minimum chores on the holidays to
keep the animals fed and comfortable.
They don’t keep a lot of livestock; but most farm families in our area
are mostly self-sufficient when it comes to putting meat, eggs, and dairy on
the table as well as the grains and veggies.
Jenny and Lance were invited too; but they already had other plans with
his family and friends this weekend. The
party scene in Maple Valley is apparently way more exciting than movie and
sleepover nights here.
Our play time might not be party-rated fun;
but we’ve had a great day and I was very happy to have the teen cuddle and
movies time after Mom and Dad went to bed.
We didn’t have a curfew; and staying up late was an option. Watching more action-packed Christmas movies
was an option too, and since the boys were so good about the kids shows
earlier; it was their choice for the three movies we watched during the rest of
the night. You probably don’t need to
guess that a Die Hard movie was at the top of the list; and they went with
number two – Christmas with terrorists at the airport. We followed that up with the comically-bad
SyFy channel’s Twelve Disasters of Christmas because Tim wanted to watch it
ahead of the new Christmas movie they have coming out tomorrow – Christmas Icetastrophe. I’m sure that will soon be a classic in the
SyFy original movie genre, and will end up watching it with Michael sometime
soon; but I’m also not going out of my way to put it on my schedule – unless some
quality alone time with Michael just happens to match up with the show time.
Our final late, late movie was Scrooged,
and while it might not make many top-ten lists for versions of a Christmas
Carol; I still like it a lot. Having a
few good excuses to hang on to Michael a bit tighter during the scary parts is
good; and the comedy bits are pretty good too – even if most of the jokes are
getting a bit dated. Then again, you
could say the same thing about the jokes in the original story too. By then, all four of us were ready to really
just be quiet, enjoy the cuddle time, and watch the show; and it really was
late by the time Michael and I took care of the kitchen end of the snacks and
drinks clean-up and then we did our goodnight hugs and kisses in his room on
the second floor while Rowen and Tim were doing the same in the lounge.
I was back in my room before Rowen and Tim
broke up their mini make-out session on the sofa, but I’d closed the doors to
the lounge first; and took my turn in the bathroom while waiting for
Rowen. We had a quick little girl chat
once we were both in bed with Mandy; but Rowen fell asleep fairly quickly while
I’ve been doing my nightly computing and a bit more family business work than I
expected to have tonight. That wasn’t
any big deal; but it has taken a little time.
I’ve had more sleep than usual this week, though, so I can’t complain
about one late night – and the fun with my friends was worth it!
I am getting tired now, though, and have a
busy work day ahead of me starting in a couple of hours; so I’m going to finish
this up with my Christmas music video picks and get started on my nap time.
Tim reminded me earlier today that there
are a lot of Christmas comedy songs, and he’s right about that; but just for
fun, I’ll pick the Adam Sandler Hanukkah songs for my picks tonight.
May the Magi Force be with you!
