parens binubus

• Watched A Christmas Story with the kids on Friday night. I hadn't seen it since either college or high school ... not sure which. I thought it was funny enough at the time, with the whole "you'll shoot your eye out" nonsense, and the tongue freezing to the lamp post. But watching it on Friday, after having read some David Sedaris and those who attempt to follow in his footsteps, the story took on a whole new sophistication. I really enjoyed it.
• Then we watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town, which is like a very close cousin to Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. I'd never seen it before - which is really hard to believe -- there's a Christmas special out there I haven't seen? But it's true. I liked that one, too.
• On Saturday, we lazed around until around noon. Then a friend of e.'s came over, and we went to the kids' school to watch a play put on by the 7th and 8th graders -- Oklahoma. It was a wee bit shocking to me to see kids who seem still-so-young acting as loose women and horny men. The 7th graders are only 2 years ahead of e. They kissed in the play. Yikes!!
• The boy that e. was having trouble with at school ... he and his family were at the play, and his mom approached me. I had thought of talking to her about what was going on, and just letting her know that we were doing our best to get things under control on our end. She said that she was actually the one who pushed the teacher to have a meeting with the kids. Which means she got a call home well before I did. She said it's entirely likely that her kid is 100% of the problem, that he's been in therapy for years (he's 10), and that they haven't talked much about the situation at home. We are probably going to get together and talk some more - she was a bit distracted with approx 4 kids in her charge.
• e.'s friend came back home with us after the play, and we all sort of hung out while Beloved made a cake to bring to the friend's house, as we all had dinner plans together. We then went for dinner and very nice chatting time around a fire with food and wine. We all had a good time. Even though it was 30 out, the kids went out for 45 minutes TWICE to play on the trampoline. The second time they went, it was 9 p.m. Kids are extremely hardy creatures.
• Today we assembled our tree. It is unusual that I have a fake tree. I have many times in my life swore that I would NEVER have a fake tree. But I've raised these kids thus far to be concerned about the destruction of nature, and our attempt at having a living tree failed miserably a few years ago. It died. Profoundly. And the way most real trees are shipped in all tied up and thousands of miles from where they grew, they all looked like crap last year. And we ended up at Target, deciding that a fake tree was an excellent investment for us. [Beloved just told me that he and j. think we should get pine scented air fresheners and hang them in the tree. 1) ew. 2) kinda funny that he said that while I was typing about the decision to go with fake]
  
• We're getting ready to decorate the thing. As soon as we finish watching the Patriots get TROUNCED by Miami. Crap.
  

Labels: holidays, life