Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Waiting for Christmas has not gotten any easier for me in the past 30 years.  Well, okay, I'm assuming that my first two Christmases I didn't really know what was going on, so that's only 28 years of torturous waiting.  I used to alternate between moping and jumping up and down at my mother-in-law's house on Christmas Eve, but now that we have Superboy and Little Miss, my husband wants to do our own family Christmas around our tree here in our apartment on Christmas Eve morning.  Then we travel, when most other people are moping and jumping, and not on the roads.  I find this fantastic!  One less day of waiting!

But it still doesn't change the fact that I have two more days to go before opening the presents wrapped under the tree.  AND I have to act cool because I'm home all day with Superboy and Little Miss, and I don't want THEM to go all crazy. 

It's hard to act cool when inside I am seven-year-old little Angie, bouncing off the walls with excitement.  It especially didn't help that today I was babysitting the two princesses.  And it was raining.

We managed to have a calm morning building train tracks across the living room floor.  Then for lunch we played "Restaurant" in an attempt to get the kids excited about eating leftovers.  But no one was that excited about quiet time and after that the lack of fresh air and running room really started to get old.

Still, we held out until the princesses were picked up.  Then Superboy and I each grabbed an electronic device to fiddle with separately but together in the living room.  And I nursed Little Miss until she fell asleep and I started worrying that she'd chomp down with those two new teeth. 

"Hey, Superboy," I whispered.  "I'll give you another cookie if you go grab the binkie from the crib".  (Note, that's ANOTHER cookie, as we had cookies instead of dinner.  AGAIN.)

Superboy went running to the bedroom.  Then back again to the kitchen, tossing me the binkie on the way.  Then he emerged with three cookies. 

"One for you and two for me," he said. 

"No, no, no, wait a minute," I said.  "You have to give me half that third cookie." (You expected a mom-response, right?  Wrong!  Angie strikes again!)  "And don't tell your dad I gave you cookies for dinner..."

:)  Yum.

Here's an idea for rainy days:

PARACHUTE SOCKS!

Grab a small bedsheet and all the balled up socks you can find.

Everyone holds an edge of the sheet.  Try to space yourselves evenly.

Toss the socks in the middle then wave your arms up and down until they go flying!

Now make the kiddos gather them back up.  Which they will.  Faster than you've ever seen them clean up before!

Repeat as long as you can hold their interest.  Once that flags, grab a couple extra sheets to toss on top the the kids have them them crawl around on the floor.  Call them turtles. :)