Snow Day!

Well, we finally got our first real snow storm of the season. All the schools in in the state were closed yesterday. It was a very fun day of sledding, cookie making, and tree decorating. Between all that and his birthday coming up on Friday, Bug was in "overdrive" all day long, over-the-top excited. He even wrapped gifts (some of his baseball cards from his collection) for everyone and put them under the tree. Then he insisted that we open them right away. Sadly, he had a meltdown at bedtime that resulted in him not being allowed to watch an episode of "Daniel Boone" that we rented. The poor little guy couldn't stop crying. It's so for me hard to stand firm when he cried, because he so rarely does. He has to be really, genuinely devastated before he cries. It breaks my heart. Boo, on the other hand, is our little drama man, and can cry at the drop of a hat. But I stayed strong, and after a while Bug calmed down and we had a nice snuggle and read a book together. Both boys were outside again by 7:30 this morning to do some more sledding before heading off to school.

I taught today for 3rd grade. For some reason, subbing this year has been so hard. I'm not sure if it's me or the kids. They've just been wild, and difficult to manage. I need to brush up on my classroom managemnent skills, I think.

I had a talk with the boys yesterday about gifts for Christmas. The last few years, The husband and I have been really discouraged by the material aspect of Christmas. Between ourselves and the grandparents, the kids end up with so many gifts that it takes them literally HOURS to open everything. Last year, I spent the entire morning trying to keep up with gathering up all the wrapping paper and packaging, while the boys ripped open present after present after present. That's when we decided, enough is enough. So this year, we're getting the kids each 3 gifts. We decided to do 3, to represent the gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. We also told the grandparents that we'd like them to scale back. They were very understanding. Of course, Santa will bring them each a few nice things too. But I explained to them that we want to focus on about, being grateful, and enjoying the love that we share as a family. It might just be the best Christmas ever.