Week in Review

Sit down and put your feet up. This is an incredibly long post!

Whew! What a week! The last week of school before Christmas is always crazy-busy and this year was no different.

Sunday started off with a light dusting of snow. Snow flurries were in the forecast but when flakes started falling, and kept falling, and kept falling and then started sticking, we were all excited and pleasantly surprised! It wasn’t much but it was still pretty to see.

Falling snow never ceases to amaze me. There’s just something so magical about it! Makes me feel like a kid again!

Monday morning I took some time off work to serve The Boss’s birthday snacks at Playschool. Remember the birthday girl, Julia? Julia and The Boss both have birthdays within a few days of each other so Julia’s mom and I decided to do birthday snacks for both girls together.

The Boss didn’t know I was coming.

....I think she was pretty surprised and excited, don’t you?

Here is The Boss with Ms. Penny, the Playschool director. The birthday girl gets to stand next to Ms. Penny while her classmates sing a special song to her and then she chooses the number that represents her age to put on the birthday chart. VERY, very special, I tell ya.

Here are the beautiful birthday girls. I can NOT believe they are five! Where does the time go?!?

Tuesday night I had a veryimportanttopsecretmission.

Let me give a little background...

The Playschool that the birthday girls attend has been around for years. In fact, Julia’s own father attended this very same Playschool when he was young as well as many other parents of their current students. It has a waiting list a mile long and it’s an excellent preschool program.

Each year the children do a Christmas program. Grandma Sandy even takes a day off school in order to attend. The fellowship hall is always packed with parents, grandparents, siblings. Folks try to get there early to get a good seat. Or to get a seat at all! The children are dressed in their Christmas best to sing their songs that they’ve worked so hard on.

So you get the picture. The Playschool Christmas program is a big deal!

Well, this year there was a twist. Rather than have two programs....1 for the Monday/Wednesday/Friday children and a 2nd for the Tuesday/Thursday children, they decided to combine the 2 and have one big program!

Parking and seating are an issue with 2 programs so you can only imagine the scramble for seats that would ensue.

Soooooo Julia’s Mom and I made a plan.

(ok so the plan was actually mine. I won’t put the devious part off on her, but she did confirm that it was a good idea!)

It just so happens that I’m a member of the church that houses the Playschool.

It just so happens that The Chef is on staff at the very same church and you know what that means......

He has a key.

So what if , just what if Grandma Sandy used said key to sneak into the fellowship hall the night before to uhhh....er...well......

Drag a whole bunch of coats out of her closet and save seats on the very front row for my family and Julia’s family!!!!

Now....before you cast judgement, let me say that there can be a few nice perks when your profession is working in a church. A pricey salary is not one of them. But utilizing a key at an opportune time is! At least in my opinion.

The Chef was reluctant to let me do so because he didn’t feel it was fair to the other families until I texted him a picture of this....

Apparently someone else had the same idea I did! Only she’s NOT a member, does NOT have a key but that certainly didn’t stop her from saving SIX seats for herself! And they were on the very side that I’d planned to save!!

WHAT!?!

(by the way I have no idea when or how this lady pulled this off but that’s beside the point)

When I texted this picture to The Chef, he suggested that I save not only enough seats for US but for all our neighbors, people we’d ever met, and every one of our dead relatives. HA!

Of course he was kidding.

So the next morning I dropped kids off at school and drove straight to the church to make sure my coats were still there (they were) and got ready to hear The Boss and Dogos sing!

Here is Dogos. She loved jingling her jingle bell bracelet and was proud to show it off!

Now this next picture will show you how very different The Boss and Dogos can be.

Dogos is having the time of her life. Singing, jingling, smiling.

The Boss, on the other hand, looks like she’d rather be standing in front of a firing squad.

The Boss is painfully, painfully shy.

Dogos just goes with the flow.

Three years worth of Christmas and end of the year programs and I’ve taken a day off work for every single one.

Do you think The Boss has ever even entertained the thought of singing even one tiny little note?

NOPE.

But bless her heart I can’t blame her. The apple does NOT fall far from the tree. At that age, I seriously doubt Grandma Sandy would’ve even stood on stage. In fact I know I wouldn’t have. My own grandmother used to have to go to Sunday school WITH me.

So, go ahead and be shy, Boss. I’ll still take a day off work to come see you in every program even IF all you do is suck your thumb! You just keep right on singing your heart out at home!

Here’s a picture of the whole group. Aren’t their Christmas outfits beautiful? Each and every one was to die for.

Seriously, you’ve never seen so many smocked outfits in your life! If one were actually able to total the amount of money spent on the boutique-purchased ones and/or the hours spent smocking the hand-sewn ones, I’ve no doubt the grand total would be absolutely shocking!

Wednesday night was the children’s pageant at church.

Thursday was Polar Express Day at school. All K, 1st and 2nd grade students AND teachers wore pajamas and watched the movie in the gym!

Thursday night was the Kindergarten teacher party at my house.

Earlier at school that day, we decided that we were so comfortable in our pajamas that there was no reason to change so everyone wore pajamas to the party, including two of our retired friends who still celebrate with us every year!

Now remember the bedsheet on the window?

And remember how I was going to make some drapes?

And remember how I was a few days away from a full-blown panic attack?

Well, as time for the panic attack got closer and closer, I said forget making any drapes and ordered some.

Thanks, nearby department store!

The picture above is one that I took after my K friends left and to replace the picture I intended to take while we were all eating and having fun.

Oh well.

The Chef made shrimp and grits and oh my mercy, was it good!

After we ate, we all went back downstairs for an ornament exchange.

I LOVE the ornament that I got!

It’s just beautiful. On the other side it says....Prince of Peace.

It’s absolutely perfect.

After my K friends left I had to make a Gingerbread Man for school the next day.

If you recall, our class Gingerbread Man has been on the run since Thanksgiving.

Well, the time had come for the Gingerbread Man to finally return to our classroom. We knew that since he’d been on the run all over the U.S. that he’d have to find some clever way to get into the building and the only way is through the office so we alerted the secretaries early Friday morning.

Sure enough, Ms. Ellen caught him trying to sign in and get a Visitor’s Pass so she caught him and she delivered him safe and sound to our classroom!

He sure did taste good!

Next up? The Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade Christmas program!

As you can see, one of our little K friends was a little tired during the 2nd grade part of the program!

Friday night The Chef and I went out to eat to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary!

On Saturday, after such a busy week I did absolutely nothing but sit by the fire, enjoy the company of my family, and watch videos of Survivor contestants once they’d been voted off and gotten to Ponderosa.

Sunday night was the youth Christmas party at our house!

And that’s my week!

I can’t believe it’s already the week of Christmas.

I’m looking forward to family and friends coming in town.

I’m really sad that our North Carolina crew can’t make it this year. This is the year that they should be coming. It won’t be the same without them. But I’m hoping for a visit with them during the spring or summer when things won’t be so busy and we’ll have time to enjoy their company more.

Now I’m off to finish addressing Christmas cards. I took the picture in early October. Good thing I’m just now sending them out! Oh well.

Merry Christmas!