Home for Christmas

We basically spent the day packing up and getting ready to travel home for Christmas. The boys kept themselves busy this morning while I threw clothes in suitcases and tried to get the house somewhat cleaned up before we leave for five days (so I don't have to come home to moldy food particles under the table and the like). It kills me to have to spend two hours cleaning the house before we leave, but then I realize that this is the only time the house stays clean for more than ten minutes after I clean it.

M got to eat lunch at school today, and he was so excited to give his teachers the ornaments he had made he ran into the lunch room and told the teacher, "I made a present for Ms. Rhonda and Ms. Deb, but I don't have one for you!" I hadn't thought to make one for the lunch teacher and was hoping to just gloss over that when we saw her, but no, M had to make sure she knew all about it. All I could do was smile.

Later, I asked M and E to go give our neighbor Jim the ornament we had made for him as well as our Christmas card. M was so excited about his errand he went running up the sidewalk as fast as he could, slipped on the ice, and fell really hard...right on the ornament. And it broke. Luckily, Jim is pretty handy and said he could fix it. At least he will have a good story to go with his gift in the years to come.

On the drive to my parent's house we got our first experience with M asking, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" I think we thought people were exaggerating when they told stories about their kids saying that...but now I know they weren't. I have never been so happy to get to my parent's house before. I was out of that van before it even stopped moving.

I think we're all glad to be home for Christmas.