The Queen's Rambles

The county has another snow day tomorrow, which means Erik’s Christmas program/party is cancelled. Not fair! Ok, so I admit it would probably be painful to see all the kids trying to sing in unison and my ear drums might burst from the noise, but I’m a first time mommy. I wanted to see what they were going to do! I have no idea if the program will be rescheduled or not. Tomorrow was the last day before vacation, so I’m thinking by the time they get back the kids will have all forgotten the songs. Erik sings snippets of the songs all the time and does a little poem, but so at least one kid has it on the brain. He hasn’t mentioned the program so I hope he won’t be too disappointed.

I’m really hoping that the gym will re-open the childcare tomorrow. They follow the county snow emergencies, but they do have a lot more leeway. Sometimes they are open, sometimes not. I’ll just have to call them, I guess.

We spent a couple of hours out in the now, with me praising e-bay for my fantastic winter boots. Seriously, these are the best boots I’ve ever owned. I don’t remember how I even found the auction, but when I saw 11WW with extra wide calf openings I knew I had to bid. Who would have dreamed that they would be a perfect fit?

I think I need to go buy a supply of gloves and hats for the neighbor kids tomorrow. I know I can’t take responsibility for those kids, but it breaks my heart to see them out there with no gloves, no hats, in regular sneakers. The oldest boy’s coat has a broken zipper. The least I can do is get them some gloves, if I can find a store that still has them in stock. Charity begins at home, right?

At least I was well prepared for winter with Erik this year, mainly because I knew we were spending a week in Sweden and wanted to make sure he could go outside and play while we were there.

After our outdoor playtime, we came in and made cookies. Argh! I hate making sugar cookie cut-outs. Hate hate hate hate hate it! So time consuming! So annoying! And they don’t even taste good! Erik had the notion that we were going to make them, though, and there was no dissuading him.

I decided that I would let Erik pick out one cookie cutter (I have a set of 40 Christmas cookie cutters) and we would make one color of frosting. That helped immensely. I slapped the frosting on, he put the sprinkles on. Everyone was happy.

Actually, the part I hate the most is rolling out the dough and cutting the shapes. This time Erik did most of the preliminary rolling and I just had to go in and thin it out a little more. He did all the cookie cutting by himself. Every last bit. At first I tried to teach him how to plan ahead for maximum cutting capacity, but after a few minutes I decided it didn’t matter. He could do whatever made him happy and I refused to stress about it. The cookies turned out surprisingly deformity free for being manhandled by a four year old. I have no idea how they taste, but who cares? He’ll probably be the only one to eat them. He had fun and that’s the important part. I do try to let him have fun, even though I’m lazy and pregnant and irritable.