Thank God It's Over

So Merry Christmas is over. It's been a CRAZY week. I worked on Monday and Daddy had the kids. Tues and Wed Daddy was out in a plow and I think we saw him a total of 1 hour. Christmas Eve was VERY hard. Holidays are always hard on typical kids - let alone autie's. Since there has really been no schedule like school since last Friday - Sal has been a basket case. All in all she did well till Christmas Eve and then the whole anxiety of Santa and gifts kind of got the best of her.

We made it till 6pm and then went looking at lights. She did REALLY well with that. We had cookies and coffee and juice and drove around looking at all the lights around town. (one of the perks of having someone working for PW - they know where all the good lights are) :-)

When we got home we opened our new jammies, took a bath, checked NORAD to see where Santa was and hopped into bed.

Mabel woke up around 4am and had to go out. As I left my bedroom to let her out I saw through the darkness two little eyes gleaming back at me. "Santa was here" she said. "I hear him". How can you tell her to go back to bed??? THAT would be a GREAT Christmas memory. :-) So, Sal and I went out to the living room and watched the Christmas Story marathon. :-)

Jack woke up around 6 and we set off a bomb to get Daddy up and they set out tearing open gifts. Grandpa gave Jack a set of Wild West 6-shooter cap guns! (we'll be picking his room at the home soon - he's obviously senile) :-) Granpa said he got a set of those every year when he was a boy and he thought Jack needed a gun. :-) Not to mention several things of caps. :-) Mr Chad had brought over a marsh mellow shooter for each child WITH lots a marshmallows! What is it with people?? :-) Mabel loved the marshmallows that came shooting by but was NOT keen on the cap gun. That sent her under the couch as fast as she could get her fat body under there. :-)

Santa also left an Easy Bake Oven (on both Sal and Jack's list). I can tell you - Santa had a tough time FINDING an EBO! In fact, I have it on good authority that he had elves out the night before trying to find the EBO!


Jack got a DSI - a game boy kind of thing that can connect to the Internet. That's all very foreign to me as Santa had Daddy's help on that one.

So after all the wrapping was flung from here to there, cookies and fudge eaten for breakfast and Mom and Dad were near their very last nerve. The kiddies were sent to watch a movie and fall asleep. Sal slept for a couple hours, but she still was a pain in the butt! Question after question about camp (next week) and Dick and Laurena's and even summer. Ugghh. It sounds like no big deal but after you deal with it for a while it really gets on one's nerves.

So it's been a day of playing "In A Pickle" baking cakes in the EBO, dodging marshmallow bullets and watching Mabel squeeze under the couch as fast as possible.

We have 2 more "down" days and I'm not sure who will weather worse - me or Sally. :-)

Christmas, Shristmas

As most of you know, I'm not a fan of the red and green. So much not a fan that I'm seriously considering other traditions - but that's a whole 'nother story.

One thing that sucks about Christmas is the hyperness it creates in ALL kids - let alone my little freak. Sally is FULL of anxiety. The days off of school (ie: schedule disruption), strange things in the house, many social events, I swear they should make anti-anxiety pills just for Christmas.

She has been a busy bee. Last weekend was the trip on the Polar Express to the North Pole. She had a GREAT time and then on Sunday was a birthday party for our neighbor down the street at the pool. She and Jack were WAY over the edge.

We finally got the tree up yesterday and Jack and Sal decorated it. I think another couple years and they could do ALL of the decorating - which would be just FINE with me! :-)

It's been very cold here and Mabel has been allowed to go out back withOUT her chain on. It lasted for about 3 days - then she made a break for it - ended up at the neighbor's across the street. She comes right in and heads for the couch - squeezes her little fat girl body under it (a REAL sight) and stays there till she thinks you're done being mad at her (or she forgets) .

I'm now in the process of making little Chineese take out containers to hold candy for the teachers. Sal has 12 I need to make up and Jack has 2. I really wish I could give Sal's more - they have REALLY surprised me. We heard such horror stories of Jr High and Special Needs that we went in pretty synical. I have to say, we're VERY pleasently surprised. Not by her Cross Cat teacher - I knew from the day we sat in on her class that she and Sal were kindred spirits. I could tell she had a fantastic sense of humor and was really "into" the kids. Not to mention the aides in her room. But I have to admit - ALL of her teachers have been just terrific! Again, we're either babies or fools -isn't that who God takes car of? We sure have been, that's for sure.