Christmas Arrivals

Gifts are already coming in! Today we received a package from Grandma & Grandpa Patch. John put it under the tree and was content to make us wait until Christmas. I reminded him that we sent their gift wrapped for Christmas and they had already opened it so he let us get into it. Good thing too because there were Christmas tree ornaments in there and we wouldn't have been enjoying those until next year had we waited. They were shiny and pretty. Big S said "I bet she polished them!". There were also a present for each of the girls and a bit of cash for Johnny. The girls opened their gifts and were thrilled to find their very first musical trinket boxes. Like the classic spinning ballerina kind. They could hardly stand to keep their boxes closed while we ate dinner! Great gift idea.

Shortly after we got another late-evening knock at the door. This time it was the 10 year old girl next door who has befriended both the girls over the past few years. Kaelyn brought the girls Christmas gift bags with labels addressed to each of them and from herself. I always thought her name was Kaitlyn. I feel bad I have been calling her by her name the wrong way all these years! She got super-soft stuffed animals for the girls. Lil S received a pink and white unicorn and Big S received a cute puppy (stuffed). They were thrilled again. I guess the whole evening was exciting.

My poor butt spent about 3-4 hours cleaning their room by scooting around on my butt (it's too hard to bend over or get up and down repeatedly). It's still not finished. My room is a disaster too. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that my body won't give me the strength and endurance to take care of stuff I need to take care of.

We'll be celebrating Christmas a few different times in a few different ways this year trying to appease our children and everybody else.

Wiggles' birthday is also coming up! She will be 2 on December 23rd.

Big S' is learning about contractions and it was a part of her homework tonight and she acted like she had never been taught in that area. Which is possible, she missed a whole week of school from being sick sometime in the last month. The problem was asking her two write the two words to replace the "underlined word". The "underlined" words were in two different sentences and they were two different problems. The first word was didn't and the second was isn't. I tried to explain it to her and she just kept saying the word over and over again looking at me funny. So after a long time of thinking she is foolish, I decided maybe I am doing something wrong. So I asked Lil S to listen to the problem and I did the same thing in front of Big S and Lil S got it right away (isn't = is not). So then I went back to Big S with "didn't". She still was not grasping it. So I asked Lil S, and again the first time "did not". Frustrating. It makes me so sad that I can't figure out how to make her understand how things work. Lil S gets it, so it's not something I am doing wrong. ... It's just sad. She's a very bright girl, she just doesn't learn well by instruction-only.

I got off the beginning subject quite a bit. I'm done now.