It is 9:30 on Sunday night, and one kid is still doing his homework. Not because he had a lot, but because he forgot about it until approximately 8:45.
Anyway, it’s been another full weekend. A few highlights:
A Friday afternoon run in the snow. I really dislike the treadmill, so if it’s possible to run outside, I’m seizing the opportunity. On Friday, that meant running through what started as light snow…then got a lot heavier. The kids’ school bus was an hour late. Fortunately, that gave me time to shovel the driveway.
The boys saw Star Wars. My husband had to turn around immediately upon coming home on Friday night to bring them – the trip home took approximately 90 minutes longer than expected. They gave it a thumbs up. I used the post-2-year-old-bedtime slot to work. I was actually happy about that — a good sign one is in the right job (or isn’t really into movies).
The first wrestling meet. My husband took our 8-year-old to his first meet of the season. He won both his matches! On points, too, rather than pins, which means they were hard fought.
Karate belt graduation. The 10-year-old and 6-year-old both advanced to their next belt levels. The 10-year-old got a trophy for his age group for showing great improvement. The 6-year-old proceeded to cry the entire way home about this…since she hadn’t gotten a trophy. We discussed this, though, and by about an hour later, she was in a place where she could go congratulate him. I’d call that progress. (I was chasing the 2-year-old during the ceremony, so I saw none of it. Sigh…)
New York! My husband and I had a date night of sorts planned to go into NYC on Saturday evening to go to the Met and then to a colleague’s holiday party. Then the 10-year-old pleaded to go, and successfully argued that his siblings would be OK with him going and not them, so we used some more Amtrak points and brought him. The museum was gorgeous as usual, and we explored some random modern rooms that I hadn’t seen before — including a three-series painting on a time motif by Jennifer Bartlett. Then to the party and then… the trip home. We were on the 11:05 train, and it was delayed half an hour. My husband and son slept so I stayed up so at least someone would notice when we got to Philly. In bed 1:45. Ugh. But G was watching the other kids and stayed over, so she got up with the 2-year-old, mercifully (though I still had to get up at 8:15 for church).
My parents. They came Sunday, and are visiting for a few days. They were on 2-year-old duty a lot of Sunday – much appreciated.
Skiing. Not for me – my husband took the three big kids to a resort in the Poconos on Sunday. I think it got the kids excited about the ski season, which is good, since they’ll be doing a fair amount of it this winter.
The Nutcracker. Approximately 25 minutes after they got home from skiing, I took the three big kids to a performance of the Nutcracker in downtown Philly. There was some wiggling, but they made it through without too much complaining. A little complaining. But we got to take our photo with the Mouse King.
Fondue. I got home from the Nutcracker to find that my husband had made my parents fondue. I had the leftovers. It was good!
As for need-to-dos, I did run twice, and sort of cleaned my desk on Friday, but we did not do the present triage (seeing if the kids have equal piles and who still needs what). That has to happen this week since the wrapping really needs to start…
Photo: Blue hippo in the Met. Always a favorite (and it’s in one of our counting picture books)
I mandated that all gifts had to be done and wrapped by Dec 15 but I’ve missed that deadline by a few days. Just by one gift, though! So not too bad.
Our weekend was packed too but I think we are reasonably ready for the end of the year where I’ll be juggling some light work, family, travel, and lots of traffic.