The difference between being a stay at home mom and a working mom has been staggering for me. One thing that I remembered from last year was how CRAZY the time between Thanksgiving and December 18th (my last day of teaching before Christmas break) was. This year was no different, in fact it was even more crazy!
All three of my kids started basketball right after Thanksgiving. That means Max has practice Tuesday and Wednesday 6:30 - 8:30. Sam has practice Monday and Thursday from 6:30 - 8:00, and Lucy had practice Tuesday and Thursday from 6:00 - 7:00. Add to that, Lucy's average of 2 games per weekend and Max's 2 weekend tournaments (4 games each), and it was more than I could handle.
Don't forget all of the regular Christmas jobs that everyone else has, buying gifts, shipping gifts, wrapping gifts, creating photo cards, picking up cards, buying stamps, addressing and sending cards, baking cookies, getting a tree, decorating the tree, getting the house decorations out of the attic, decorating the house, etc.
It is also the busiest and craziest time at work. Our school puts on two evening Christmas performances, one for the pre-K through 4th grade and another one for the 5th grade through 8th grade with the middle school play included. As much as I love to see my kids dressed up and singing Christmas tunes, it is a lot of work behind the scenes for the teachers. Tons of schedule changes and two 14 hour days at work in a row! Did I mention that the kids are getting a little amped for Christmas at this point? It makes for some truly exhausting days at work.
Needless to say, I did get to do a couple of fun things during the past three weeks, but I have to admit, that my heart was not usually into taking pictures. In fact, I was lucky if I made it to any event and actually stayed awake! So here is a quick run down of the past three weeks of CRAZINESS!
A white trash Christmas!
The first Saturday of December was the day of the "Civil War" (UofO vs.OSU)
It is also the day that we usually get our Christmas tree. I also had a very good friend who was recovering from surgery at this point, so I gladly offered to watch 2 of her 4 kids that day. Needless to say, we did not make it on the "Norman Rockwell" Christmas tree cutting trip this year. Nope! This year we piled all of the kids into the car during a break between football games and ran down to the Grocery Outlet Parking lot and picked out the first tree we saw. Round trip house, to tree lot and back to house 15 min!
We were actually cracking up at ourselves. I guess we are just in survival mode at this point.
The boys even had time to play a little football in the parking lot while we were waiting for the guy to tie our tree to the top of the minivan. At this point the boys were begging us to get home as fast as we could so they could watch "The Apple Cup" and the USC vs. UCLA game. Their priorities were not about getting the perfect Christmas tree that day.
We also got invited to a very nice auction.
We ran into our good friends the Hoffmans there!
I love this picture because Gary Hoffman is the only person in the world who can make Pancho look small. Ha ha!
Even though we had a ball that night, I was very tired and I forgot to take many pictures. I did not even get a picture of the people we sat at our table with, the Hakalas, the Fitzpatricks and the Speers. We did have a great evening with them and we came away from the auction with some cool items too!
My parents had a Christmas Party at their house.
My Dad hired some real carolers to come sing (The Hanson Family Singers).
It created such a fun Christmasy atmosphere!
It was fun to visit with many of my parents friends who have known me since I was born!
I love seeing my parents having such fun with all of their friends, good food and festive music. I have so many memories of my parents fabulous parties growing up.
Like I said, we had an average of 6 basketball games to go to each weekend in December.
Luckily, Lucy's season is really short. It starts right before Thanksgiving and ends the third weekend of December. So after Christmas break, I will only have to get 2 kids to practices and games instead of three!
Lucy was really happy to end her first ever season of basketball. I think she enjoyed it, but I am not sure if its her sport :). She loved the pizza party and getting her trophy though!
I went to watch my good friend Steph sing in an absolutely beautiful Christmas Concert at her church.
She did such a great job and I was so proud of her.
This picture was taken from my iphone (like I said, I did not always get the best pictures)
This picture was taken in the hallway at O'Hara, on our way to the first Christmas Program (Pre-K - 4th).
Lucy was very excited to sing!
Pancho was home driving the boys to their various basketball practices, so I took a video for him.
Lucy, Emma and Lauren before the show!
I love how much Lucy loves to sing. She has been practicing these songs at home, in the car, and I can even hear her singing in her bed before she falls asleep.
Lucy's class.
Lucy is in the back row on the far right. She is the tallest one in her class.
Lulu and her friends celebrating after the show.
Max's program was the next night, but I didn't get any pictures, because I was working that night!
Yup! My class was the one on stage, as well as the 6th, 7th and 8th grades. The middle schoolers put on a very cute play of "A Christmas Carol". Many of my students from last year had starring roles, so it was very fun to watch them playing their parts.
I forgot to mention that Pancho and my Mom's Birthdays were during this time as well. Pancho's is December 10th and my Mom's is December 15th. Luckily, I have the most understanding Husband and Mom in the world. They are always willing to let me put off their combined birthday celebration until after school is out for Christmas Break.
Bet you are glad you survived. I think my favorite part of the blog is getting the Christmas tree in the middle of the parking lot. Looks like the kids had a blast and there really isn't anything more important than that!
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