Mind games

Do you remember the big news story about the H1N1 flu outbreak a few years back? That totally changed my life. Not because I got the flu, and no one in my family got the flu. Heck, I don't even think I know anyone who got the flu that year! But it changed my life because it made me incredibly anxious about illness in my family. I wish I could sue the mass media for all those hours lost due to anxiety, worry and total lack of sleep.  Or else for the cost of a lobotomy so I could just cut that memory out of my brain.

Yesterday, Kid#2 came home from school. His teacher has promised the class end-of-month class parties (what for, I have no idea - the teacher seems to be very generous with candies and parties and such...) and they didn't have it last week because of Terry Fox run, and then a PD day. And they didn't have it on Oct 1 because two kids were missing from class, and they didn't have it on Oct 2 because 5 kids were missing from class. Kid#2 says he doesn't know where they were. I'm suspecting flu. And they're in a portable - you know how those germs get around...

So did I sleep last night? Hardly at all. My heart was stupidly tight with anxiety about flu and barfing and missing work and school and caring for the kids. My skin was tingling. My brain was in overdrive. My heart was beating as though I was working out. The best part? The kids are fine and healthy and so am I. But I'm still totally done in by idiotic mind games.

Help?

Wretched rainy Tuesday

You can tell this is a slow week for me, can't you? Because I'm actually blogging again. Don't worry - that will change. It's just a quiet dip.

Our weeks packed with extra-curricular activities are filling up. Kid#1 has archery, speed skating and fencing. Kid#2 has gymnastics and piano. Both are trying out for the competitive soccer teams (we'll find out in another week or two how that went - neither are optimistic. This is the wake-up call they get going from being a solidly good player on their own house league team to trying-out for positions against the top 20-30 kids in their age range across the city... Good thing to learn now!)

Otherwise, we seem to have settled into the morning school routine fairly well. Both boys are good at looking after things like getting all their schtuff together in their backpacks and managing their own agendas, lunchboxes, various school books and so on. Seems like those years of training might have paid off?

Of course, as a friend recently pointed out, we're in that sweet spot between sunblock and snowboots. I can just usher the kids out the door in whatever they are wearing - no need to scramble to find sun hats and apply the SPF60. Also, no need to scramble and find the hats, mitts, coats and boots. Definitely a seasonal sweet spot!

(Though - Kid#1, who is pre-teening, is adverse to any extra bits and pieces and tends to venture out into the natural environment wearing just whatever he was wearing inside anyhow, so maybe there are blessings in that too...)

May the raindrops today not fall on your head - unless you want them to.

Sunny Saturday

Kid#1 at soccer try-outs. This is the third time (I think) he's tried out for the competitive team. He's got perseverance, but not that aggressive edge that the coaches are seeking. We'll see how it goes. Almost erupted into an argument this morning about whether or not *we* (the parents) wanted him to go try out or not. I can't count the number of logical fallacies in this, but what I think it boils down to is his own ambiguity about trying out. At the try-outs in the past, he has been hovering on the edges of the play in what might otherwise be called "strategic positioning". He puts himself in the position of being passed to by another player on his team. However, while he's a good defensive player, he doesn't do the offensive moves and rarely goes after the ball when an opposing player has it. My sense of these coaches is that they like to see players go in for the attack, which Kid#1 doesn't do. That said, I admire that he's trying out again so we'll see.

Kid#2 goes this afternoon for his competitive team soccer try-outs. Kid#2 has the passion for the game (and the sportsy temper to go with it) and is a lot more coachable than Kid#1. Also, Kid#2 has the distinct advantage of trying out in the first year of the competitive league. Kid#1 missed that because we were in Boston, so he was trying out the first time against kids who already had a year of competitive play.

So Kid#2 has a decent chance of getting on the team so we may become bona fide soccer parents. Still no mini-van.

Stay tuned...

Family vacation - so did it get better?

Sorry to leave everyone hanging. It's been a busy time, and while my plan was to update the blog every couple of days while we were on vacation, that just didn't work out. Two reasons: sometimes we were out of wifi range (e.g. camping) and when we were in a hotel, we just all crashed asleep at the same time (except for one night when I had to write a report for work and I worked in the dark but I still think the glow of the laptop screen kept the kids awake...)

You may, at this point, be asking why bring a laptop on vacation?

To which I reply, doesn't everyone?

But seriously - I knew I had to write this work report and I ran out of time to do it before leaving. Also, we didn't exactly book accommodations ahead of time (because we were so weather dependent) so it was just easier to hotwire and such as we went. Not the way I usually like to travel, but hey - I'm becoming more flexible with old age.

So did the holiday get better? From a car point of view, yes. It didn't explode, so that was good. Also, we're amazed at how much we saw on basically one tank of gas. Our little Echo  might be slowly dying, but it still gets good mileage!

From a family point of view, well it was status quo. The kids fought daily - maybe even hourly on some days. I didn't sleep well on any night, which added to the stress and exacerbated my natural uptightness. Not a good thing. Some activities (La Ronde and Valcartier water park) were definite winners. Some activities (wandering Old Quebec City and touring La Cite d'Energie in Shawinigan) were less so. (Excusez-moi d'avoir manque des accents... I can do them in Word, but my keyboard shortcuts don't seem to work so well here on Blogger...)

One thing I will say - the Best Western in Quebec City has the worst hotel restaurant I've ever been to - and that's saying a lot. In some ways, serves us right for being lazy and wanting to stay in the hotel for dinner, but it was over-priced bland food with extremely slow service, considering we were nearly the only people in the restaurant.

The other thing is I really wish my kids were more adventurous eaters so we could go to restaurants that serve more worldly cuisine. Kid #1 will eat basic North American fare - hamburgers, steaks, chicken, etc, but nothing international except for plain pasta. Kid#2 will eat cheese omelette, grilled cheese sandwich, plain cheese pizza, plain pasta and, occasionally, chicken fingers. Honestly, I have listed all of the main courses that restaurants serve that he will eat. And usually restaurants don't serve cheese omelettes. Just one of these days, I'd like to be able to go to a Greek or Chinese restaurant with my kids and have them not complain. I'm thinking maybe by 2032. Maybe...

We got home on the Sunday of the Labour Day weekend, as I was coming down with a brutal head cold. I'm so glad we gave ourselves Monday with nothing to do (except consume copious quantities of cold-fighting medicine and vitamins for me) because we needed the break from our vacation! Does anyone else ever have that?

And now we're back at school. It's been four days, the kids have good teachers, and so far so good! Fingers crossed that the next 10 months work out so well!

Family vacation - day one - it can only get better

Ah well - you're going to think I do nothing but complain, but here goes.

Day one of family summer vacation.

We spend several hours packing the car. This is because we're not really sure what we're going to do. We have a couple of destinations in mind: Montreal, Quebec City, some far-away random water park that the boys really like called Valcartier. We pack for camping, for hotels, for rain, for sun, for heat and for cold - because we've looked ahead in the 10-day forecast and we're getting all of that.

We finally leave and the air conditioning in the car doesn't work. Now, we don't often take car vacation trips, so I had actually taken the car into the garage two days before we left, because the a/c was only working for a few minutes, and then it would conk out. So I actually  had planned for the a/c to be fixed so we'd have a nice cool car to drive in for the hundreds of kilometres we planned on travelling. I was being "pro-active" - I think that's what they call it.

So when the a/c conked out, it was really upsetting and I had a hard time getting past this. To help with the heat in the car, Hubby decides we should pull off the major highway to a road side rest stop and get some cold drinks with ice. When we pull into the rest stop, we hear a really loud noise. We figure this is because we're pulling into the 18-wheeler parking area because that's the only place that has shade and, as we all know, 18-wheelers make a lot of noise.

Nope - as you probably know - the noise was us.

We call road side assistance and figure out that it will be a long time before they can come to tow us. We have found a Canadian Tire in the next city over - about 20 km away - and we decide to forego the tow because the mechanic is leaving in about an hour and a half. We drive.

We get 10 km before smoke starts coming out of the engine. We pull over on the shoulder of the major highway. Hubby grabs the extra-large winnebago-sized Sprite that Kid#1 ordered and throws it onto the car engine to stop the smoke. No flames, but impressive smoke. Then he throws water on it, to wash off the Sprite. I'm sure our car engine never tasted so yummy.

Now we call road side assistance for a tow again. Good news! Because we're on the side of a major multi-lane highway, we're now priority. They'll be there in 30 minutes (which later turns into 45 minutes - they helpfully texted us to let us know. Guess we weren't that much of a priority.)

When the tow truck comes, the driver very helpfully tells us that we shouldn't be at the side of the highway in the shade, because it's poison sumac or poison parsnip or poison potatoes something or other. My 10-yr-old, who has been to wilderness camp, tells us it's just goldenrod. All I can say is, we hustled out of there, but to his credit, no one has broken out with anything yet.

Entertainment for the kids: watching the 10-yr old Echo get hooked up to the tow truck.

Further entertainment for the kids: riding in the tow truck.

Entertainment for me: the tow truck has air conditioning. (Except I broke a nail pretty badly digging around for the seat belt. The driver didn't wear his at all. Nice role model for the kids.)

We get to the Canadian Tire about 30 minutes before the mechanic goes off for the day. He was really super helpful and looked at our car immediately - and came back almost just as immediately with a very broken serpentine belt.

Now I don't really know a serpentine belt from a spark plug, but I gather that this is what happened: the air conditioning compressor completely seized up (despite, or perhaps because of, the repair two days earlier), which meant that the serpentine belt, which connects much of the engine to the rest of the engine, stopped rolling nicely and had to rub around the seized-up air conditioning compressor. This, of course, causes friction, which causes smoke and which causes the belt to break, which causes our engine to stop working.

We get a new serpentine belt, which the mechanic installs to by-pass the air conditioner (so yes, the engine works but not the air conditioner) so we get back on the road.

After a few kilometres, Kid#1's nose starts to bleed. A lot. We pull over again.

Finally, after what has been the longest drive of my existence so far, we pull into Montreal. Our hotel has no parking. The room that we've been given is a smoking room. I'm sure there are other things that I'm forgetting. You know - sort of like how you forget the pain of childbirth.

The next morning at breakfast, Kid#1 has another big bleeding nose.

It can only get better from here, right??

Either that or I'm never going on a family vacation again. Ever.

I need a vacation from my vacation!

Mother's Day re-do please

I think I'm just going to cancel Mother's Day next year, for all of our benefit. This morning started with Kid#1 mysteriously and randomly going into Kid#2's room at whatever early morning o'clock to steal his blanket. Then Kid#2's alarm clock mysteriously and randomly went off at 7:30am. Both Kid#1 and Kid#2 deny responsibility. Let's just say I believe Kid#2. In any case, this completely robbed me of my Mother's Day sleep-in, which I had been coveting as I'd been sleep-deprived all week, and expect to be sleep-deprived again all this coming week.

Then Kid#2 planned a Mother's Day scavenger hunt in which I had to find three cards and several bits of paper, each with one letter on them, that spelled out "Happy Mother's Day". It's a really sweet and creative idea, but not the energy I wanted to put into Mother's Day, especially after missing my sleep-in. However, I did do the search and admired his extravagance and creativity. Three cards was pretty cool. (Ok - that little bit I don't need a re-do on. And Kid#1 gave me a very funny plaque that he bought and it says "Don't make me use my crabby mommy powers". It's getting a lot of laughs on Facebook...)

Both kids managed to have to use the bathroom during my shower, so it wasn't exactly a relaxing experience - fluctuating water temps at each flush and the requirement to keep up civil conversation through a shower curtain. They were, however, decently behaved during church.

After church, I suggested lunch out and we went to a local breakfast diner sort of place. Kid#2 ordered Orange Crush and pancakes, and promptly threw it all up at the end of brunch. Seriously. It was coming out his nose. He is now resting at home and says he feels "75% instead of 25%" so I suppose that's something. My relaxing afternoon involves going grocery shopping. At least I will be by myself. I'm hoping for an early night as I have to be up at 6am tomorrow morning.

I hope your Mother's Day was substantially better. I think this is all highly over-rated...

Three things I hate about taking the train back to Kingston

1. In the departures area at Union (which is perpetually under construction and was probably a bad design 1000 years ago when it was built), the train to Kingston is almost always at gate 17, way at the back on the left side. There are chairs nearby, which is supposed to be the advanced boarding area (like, for families or people in wheelchairs) and then the first class lounge a little further on (for those first class people). Then, the pleebs like me line up at a sign that helpfully says "Gate 17" even though it's about 20 feet away from the escalator that takes passengers up onto the actual platform.

Everytime - I mean every single time - that I take the train, people line up at the entrance to the escalator. These people do not need advanced boarding - they can clearly stand just fine in line, and there are no kids to be seen. Not even a teenager. And they are not in first class. I know - I've travelled on Via 1. They call in a special first-class-lounge-only announcement that the train is boarding, and you walk to the escalator, present your ticket, and go right on up. No standing in line waiting for those first class people.

So who are these people who line up at the entrance to the escalator, pre-empting those of us who actually line up in the right place? I have no idea. I tried to ask once and received no good answer. The guy I asked was bald and had a nice goofy smile. He isn't there anymore.

2. Upon arrival in Kingston, there are never enough taxis at the station. Never. There is a reason for this, although it's a bad one.

In Kingston, there are three taxi companies. For the sake of argument, let's call them A, B, and Amherst. Amherst is the smallest of the three. It also has the contract for sitting and waiting at the train station.You know what happens every single time? Those 3-5 taxis fill up with people, and the remaining 20 (or, say, 200 for certain trains on certain days) people have to wait. And we call the other taxi companies, who come, but it takes 10-15 minutes because they're not allowed to stand at the station.

The situation, of course, is worst when it's cold and snowy. One evening, it was the last train in on a Sunday - and that train is always filled. There was a visiting delegation from some southern tropical island. The snow was blowing fierce, these people were badly dressed for a Canadian autumn, let alone a winter storm, and the station was shutting - because it was the last train to come in on that Sunday night. I mean, really??

Half a freakin' hour later, taxis finally came for the last dozen or so passengers. I could not believe it.

One time, a taxi pulled up and asked if I was waiting for a taxi for Charles. I should have said yes, but I was honest and stepped back and let the person who ordered that specific taxi take the ride. Next time, I called and asked for a taxi driver to pick me up - I gave my name. I was told they don't do that at the train station. Can't get a break.

And it would be sooooo easy to fix this. There's got to be an app for that!

3. When I finally do get a taxi, she charges me the baggage fee. I mean, it's only 55 cents, but still. It was a mini-van. I opened the back sliding door. I hefted my own suitcase and backpack over the captain's seat into the van. I sat in the front seat. When I got dropped off at home, the driver asked me if I was "okay" carrying my own bag. I opened the back sliding door. I hefted my own suitcase (and backpack!) back over the captain's seat and took it myself to my front door.

What was I paying the extra 55 cents for?


If Via ever wanted to improve their customer service, call me. I'd even volunteer my time to let you know what you need to do. And after that recent accident, I'd suggest they do something pronto.

The latest boy toy

As part of our ongoing basement renovation, we recently got a new Whirlpool stacking washer / dryer. It makes nice little beeping noises when you turn it on and off. The dryer has a little light in it to make it easy to see the clothes. It's a nice shiny grey colour. And my husband really seems to like using it.

Honestly, if I'd known that a new washer / dryer would encourage Hubby to do the laundry more often, I would have bought it years ago!!

It isn't always the parent

Kid#2 was egregiously bad at the before-school program today. So bad that he's now on a one-day suspension. He's been bad before, and got a warning - this was the proverbial straw on the proverbial camel. Then, while talking with the principal about it, I learn that actually this behaviour has been going on for a while - only we didn't know about it.

The caregiver at the before-school program was apologetic - she knows that we're working hard with him on his tantrums, and she feels bad that she has to suspend him. I say that's not the problem - it's not her fault, and it's a logical consequence and I hope it will help him to learn. Furthermore, Kid#2 will be paying us for missing that day of before-school programming. Out of his own money.

There are so many things about this scenario that bug me I can't get into it - but I know that everyone will wonder where the parents went wrong. Because, you know, if a young kid acts out, then clearly the parents have messed up.

He doesn't watch TV - or violent movies - or play video games.
We make him do his homework and piano practice.
He is not allowed to beat up his brother, not even in jest.
When he has a tantrum at home, we help him work through it.
When he gets frustrated, we help him name it and label emotions and think about solutions.
We make him write apology notes when he messes up.

I mean, honestly, we work so hard...

Is there room for improvement? Sure there is. And that's why we've asked the school to bring in the counsellors and support staff and assessments - because we're out of ideas. We've tried positive incentives, we've tried logic and rationale, we've tried punishments, we've tried role-playing... The only thing we haven't really tried is corporal punishment - I draw the line there.

I will never never never blame the parents for the way their child acts. Because sometimes, the child just makes the wrong choices. And it has nothing to do with the parents.

What is it with the rudeness?

Trying to wrap my head around this burgeoning pre-teen rudeness that we keep encountering (building on the conversations that we have every single day - see my previous post). What is the point of rudeness? And why does it grate so much?

I think I know why it grates so much - it's just not necessary. Ever. I honestly can't think of any situation that calls for rudeness. Anger, sure. Disappointment, of course, Frustration, yep. Rudeness? Nope - can't think of any reason to be rude - ever.

Of course, I have been rude - it's typically the outcome of extreme frustration. But my pre-teen (who will be 10 in about 11 days) seems to get to this point extremely quickly and unnecessarily. So why is rudeness the outcome?

Is it a show of superiority? (You're beneath me, so I don't have to even try to be polite to you.)
Is it a necessary pre-condition of teenagerdom? (They won't let him into the club unless he's rude beyond belief to his parents.)
Is it because he lacks the social skills to do anything else? (Well, all the grade 6 kids do it, so therefore it must be ok...)

I'm really befuddled. Why why why so rude?

Only 9 more years....

Conversations we have with the kids every. single. day.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this. We have the exact same conversations with our kids every single day. Every single one of them.

Every morning: how it's important to keep us moving so we get out the door. How it's important to wear boots in the winter. How the kids should have mitts and hats. Maybe neckwarmers. Because, you know, it gets cold around here in winter.

And since the school read-a-thon, we have the morning conversation about how reading does not replace breakfast.

Every time we get in the car: little car means little voices (we drive a sub-compact). Every time, before we get two blocks, we have had this conversation - out of necessity. This is cause #1 of my hearing loss. Which is not severe enough to avoid the need to have this "little car means little voices" conversation.

Every time Kid#2 is playing nicely by himself: telling Kid#1 to stay away and stop intruding and pushing himself and his agenda on Kid#2. Because it *always* ends up in a fight. And then we *always* have to tell Kid#1 to stop being so rude. To us.

We can hear the fights coming a mile away. It sounds like this (all kid quotes to the other kid)...

• I can do it - let me show you... (meaning "let me take over and do the cool thing that you are currently messing up")
• Stop - giggle giggle - stop!! (meaning "I think you should stop your annoying behaviour, but it's kind of funny, but I really want you to stop even though it's funny" - which means a yelling match and tears will erupt soon)
• Stop shining that in my eyes!
• whenever Kid#1 immediately repeats the parental instructions that were just stated to Kid#2...
• whenever Kid#2 needs to move towards a specific goal, and stalls out - which is every time he needs to move towards a specific goal...

Oh I could go on - I'm sure every family has this. Today's post was brought to you by the letters R U D and E - which is another conversation that we're having every single day.

I'm sure I'm not alone in losing my marbles over this too - right?

Sucky hockey

I'm going to sound un-Canadian with this post but... We were at a hockey game that was really bad. Home team was losing 5-1 when we left after the second period, and the little girls behind me were screaming at 200 decibels, and when that wasn't enough, they bought vuvuzela horns and blasted them. I was pretty sure that one of them was going to knock my kid over the head with it, while blaring 300 dB in my ear...

Big hockey fight after 2 minutes on the ice which was just stupid, and Kid#2 asked me why everyone was happy when the two hockey players were swinging punches at each other. I couldn't answer that one to be honest.

You know, there's something depressing about OHL hockey that I can't quite put my finger on. Feels sort of like being at the zoo - gratuitous entertainment and fighting, and this hockey mom who was yelling out as though the players and coach could actually hear her - and would actually take her advice if they could...

I appreciate it's part of our Canadiana and all that - but really? A fight after 2 min and the arena loves it? C'mon - we can do better than that...

I want a weekend re-do

So at some point this past Friday, our phone line went dead. D. E. A. D.

We found out about it because my MIL was trying to call us about coming down for a visit, and our line was busy. Which is weird because it's never busy. Especially when we're not home. But, you know, oh well - maybe we didn't hang a phone up properly or maybe the contractors did something. And, you know, it will be fixed when they leave.

Except it wasn't. They left, and the phones were still D. E. A. D. Like, not even a dial tone! And there was - GASP!!! no internet. I just about went D. E. A. D. myself.

So coming home on Friday, after a big ice storm on Thursday (which meant the power was out at the kids' school which meant I had to go back and get them and spend the day with them which was when a friend invited us over to her house to spend the day with her and her kids who go to the same school and were also home for the day because not only was the power out but buses were cancelled, even though the school was originally supposed to be open... WHEW!!), I was already a bit frazzled and told Hubby that I was at the End Of My Rope.

I was already maxed out and approaching insanity. That was before the basement flooded. Several times.

So it seemed that, not only were we destined to spend the weekend without phone or internet (because, you know, Bell can't come until Monday evening... and that was after I pushed for something sooner than Tuesday...), it transpired that our washing machine, which the drywaller said he was going to hook up on Saturday so I could do laundry on Sunday, was not actually hooked up.

Unless you count hooking up the water into the washing machine, but not the actual hose that allows the water to drain out of the washing machine. So Saturday evening, when I try to do laundry, it floods the basement. And clogs up the drain. And Hubby has to heroically clean it all up with his ShopVac, which honestly, he doesn't get enough chances to use.

And then, somehow, this furthermore means that when I take my shower Sunday morning, it also floods the basement - even though the shower is on the second floor and the basement is - well - in the basement. And then it someone further transpires that when we flush the toilet, it floods the basement. And then I break down and cry because I have been maxed out since  Friday, after the ice storm and losing phone and internet, and now I can't even flush the @#$&")&@#$&!!!! toilet without flooding the basement - well, you'd freak out too, right? (Make me feel better - just tell me you'd freak out too...)

So the emergency plumber who probably charges several winning lottery tickets per minute to come on a Sunday comes out on Sunday and snakes out the drain, while the contractor waits to see if it's him or us. Turns out, we still don't know. The drain is clear and we suspect that the snaky thing pushed construction material stuff out of the drain and into the sewer pipes under the road. Contractor suspects that it's just natural build up of gunk over the years and has nothing to do with the construction in our basement. Emergency plumber can't settle the debate and so wisely just leaves by the back door.

I make Hubby tell the story about the drywallers who, when constructing his new lab at the university, shoved pieces of cut drywall down the newly-built drain pipes, causing a flood the first time that the pipes were used. Contractor stops smiling so much.

Contractor leaves, pipe is cleared, we are able to - hallelujah! - flush toilets and take showers. Hubby takes the kids swimming at the local pool anyhow. And takes soap and shampoo, not just because health regulations require it.

Monday - Bell shows up before their time slot and I catch the repair guy as he's leaving. Turns out that the phone wire was "pinched" in the new drywall. He fixes it and - hallelujah! - we have phone and internet again. I talk with the drywaller as he is leaving a few minutes later. Oh he doesn't know what the Bell guy is talking about - yes, he had to move a couple of phone lines, but hey, we wouldn't want a screw put through them, would we? I think, would it kill you to eat humble pie and apologize and say you're sorry for our difficulties and inconvenience. Apparently it would. I remind him that, assuredly, we wouldn't want screws put through our phone lines, but it didn't seem to matter since we were already without phone service for three days. He maintains his superior attitude.

Drywaller is at two strikes now in my book.

And I have internet.

Not much to say

Not much to update you on these days. Ski trip to Vermont went well. I stayed in Kingston and worked and put in five days' worth of work into four. That went well. Kids are now back at school and that's going well. Hubby is working too hard at professing (teaching two courses this term) but it seems to be going well. We're all slightly sleep-deprived but hey, nothing new there.

The basement reno goes on - we are having difficulties with our new on-demand water heater that keeps flashing out error messages and won't heat the water. I really hope that gets fixed soon. On the other hand, our bathroom floor in the basement was recently jack-hammered and remade so that we get a shower down there, which will be nice - as long as we can take hot showers...

So that's about it. What's new with you?

Good news

Kids apologized (after urging from their dad) and Hubby didn't berate me for mistreating the kids. All's well and me & kids had some hugs before bedtime.

Hubby & kids headed off to VT today and arrived safely, despite some poor driving conditions. A storm is coming in and, of course, the skiers are thrilled. Me, I'm working this week. Meh. :-)

Christmas and all that

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent in Kingston. We managed to survive, including both boys being shepherds at the church pageant, and didn't kill each other too much. On Christmas morn, both boys were up at 7am-ish (so a somewhat reasonable hour) and ran downstairs to organize their prezzies and then came upstairs to get us. Well, actually I think we went downstairs first because we really thought that they would start opening things. Our kids aren't known for their sense of propriety on these occasions.

Boxing Day - my parents came into town and we had a nice dinner with them and relatives (Aunt and Uncle) with our second Christmas - a few gifts for the boys and an IOU for us (we know what it is - it's a lovely painting from my talented cousin and it's coming in the mail...)

Dec 27 - drive to Ottawa to be with the in-laws. Normally this fills me with dread because it's stressful being in someone else's house, on a rickety screechy bed that wobbles horrifically every time the Hubby rolls over... and with both boys sharing a small bedroom so that when one wakes up, so does the other... But this year, it filled me with dread for an entirely new reason: Hubby had booked an overnight at a cabin in the Gats. "At least," he tells me, "it has electric heating." I can hardly wait. We have our third Christmas with the in-laws -  more prezzies for the ever-spoiled kids.

Dec 28 - potluck with my Hubby's friends. My kids wisely listen to me and bring books and games, as there are no other kids. They keep asking, as if the answer will change. I lose patience several times.

Dec 29 - ski through the Gats to the cabin. We, of course, are skiing on THE coldest day of the season so far. "At least," says my ever-optimistic husband, "there is snow!" Which is true - because a few days earlier, we might have been hiking in. Ottawa (and the surrounding area) has not had much of the fluffy white stuff, except for the storm we drove in two days earlier.

To be fair, the cabin was quite nice. Room for 17+ to sleep, mostly on bunk beds. I, however, sleep very poorly the first night in a new place - especially when sharing the room with my kids. Another family was supposed to join us, but had to cancel due to poor health (they have since recovered). Next time, my kids have planned for several other families to join us. As long as I learn how to sleep with earplugs, I should be fine. Better yet - book me a room at the Chateau Laurier, and I'll stay there. On the other hand, I didn't fall down once while skiing, and there were some nasty hills. My snowplough definitely improved on that trip. Did I mention it was a 3km (2 mi) ski each way?

Dec 30 - we ski back to the car and head home. First item of business: hot shower! Did I mention that the cabin had no indoor plumbing? no running water? And only an unheated outhouse? Well it did.

We spend the evening with more family - another few small prezzies for the boys, including a book called Larry the Loon that comes with an "alternative ending" that parents are supposed to read first - except no one told me that, or told my 7 yr old son, who sat reading the book quietly in the middle of the room and then turned to me with tears in his eyes and asked "Mommy, what does it mean that Larry the Loon will wake up in heaven?" Yes, apparently the book is about a loon who gets hit by a car and the alternative ending, which is also the read ending, has Larry getting euthanized. Lovely.

Dec 31 - back home where we all stay up until midnight. Well, hubby sorta makes it. He's getting more dad-like as he ages, and spent a couple of hours stretched out in front of the fireplace, "resting".

Jan 1 - rain. Boys get antsy and at one point throw a bunch of socks at me. Which would be funny except that I asked them several times to stop and they didn't. Because, you know, when they ask me to stop doing something, it's really ok with them if I keep going. (not)  So I yelled. A lot. Because sometimes, that's the only thing that catches their attention. I don't think they care. And no one apologized. Clearly better parenting is in order.

Tomorrow Hubby and the Kids head off to Vermont for a downhill ski extravaganza at Smuggler's Notch. I hope I feel a little more charitable towards the kids by then because if they died, I'd hate to think that my last encounter with them was yelling over socks. Anyhoo, I'm back at work on Tues. And that's our vacation so far. I'm looking forward to the quiet.