Another Busy Weekend

It was a long weekend. You would think a snow day on Tuesday would help me recover, but I don't think so.

Our company Christmas party was on Saturday. It was a family event in the morning and since Kenny is co-chair of the committee he had to be there bright and early. The committee gave us a wonderful gift, a night in the hotel where the even was going to be held! Nothing is more exciting to a 5 year old, at least ours, than a night in a hotel room. It was a really nice suite. According to Nate it was "totally awesome." We were on the 14th floor. We hoped for a ballpark view, but got a view of the mall instead. Nate really liked gazing at the lights. He made a pallet on the floor and stared out the floor to ceiling window until he fell asleep. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and stared out the window of the bay house at the lights across Galveston Bay. When it was time for Kenny and I to go to bed we pulled out the sleeper sofa (or transformer bed) and moved Nate to it. He really likes sleeping on sleeper sofas. I guess he's not old enough for it to hurt his back yet.

We all had a great time at the party. It was really tailored for kids around Nate's age. There were bounce houses, cookie decorating, caricatures, and photos with Santa. There was a chocolate fountain to keep the moms happy and a bar for the dads (and maybe the moms). Nate was afraid of Santa for some reason. We finally got him to take a picture right at the end of the party.

Our church had its annual Christmas program on Sunday. It went very well, Nate did great when he was at the front of the church. I wish he would have behaved as well when he was sitting in the pew with us. The Pre-K and Kindergarten kids recited a poem, sang "God Loves Me Dearly" and the chorus to Mary's Boy Child.

He did so well that we had ice cream for dinner. We had a late lunch and I didn't think he would eat much dinner anyway.

Since it was still fairly early and we didn't have much else to do, we took Nate Christmas shopping.

Nate seems to be lacking in generosity. If we go to buy a gift for someone his first question is "are they going to buy one for me?" My plan was to help remedy this by letting him buy gifts for everyone at the Dollar Store this year. I thought he would have fun looking for something for all of his family members.

I will give you that he was really tired, but the trip was less than ideal. He would find one thing and want to get it for everyone. Then he threw a fit because we weren't buying him anything.

I pushed him even further by having him wrap the gifts that night. Again, it was not the magical, generosity inducing activity I had imagined. Maybe he'll find the joy of giving when his gifts get opened. Everyone who gets one of his dollar store gifts, please gush even though its probably a piece of junk.

Monday was a good day for us. A mall is being built just down the street and that has driven rodents into the homes in the area. We acquired a giant rat in our garage. He did $1,600 worth of damage to my car and he chewed up the dog food box. I kept seeing the seen in Lady and the Tramp where the rat crawls up to the babies room. Luckily the rat stayed in the garage, probably because we kept him well fed with dog food. Terminex finally came on Monday and set huge traps to catch him.

Nate and I were decorating a gingerbread house when I heard a snap from the garage, then some banging around. I was never so happy to see a dead rat as when we looked in the garage to make sure that the commotion was the rat getting caught.

The gingerbread house turned out really well too.

We got to spend today at home. We had a pretty strong cold front come through and it caused more problems than were expected. While our office didn't close down, several of the area schools did. We decided to stay home rather than chance the icy streets, at least this morning. We were able to get out some this afternoon, which was wonderful. Staying in a house with a 5 year old all day is no picnic. It reminds me of how much respect I have for stay-at-home moms, because I don't think I could do it.