A Zooper Day

The day before Thanksgiving was suppose to be very nice. Since the kids were out of school, I took the day off work. Steve and Cole had to work. The rest of us headed to the Columbus Zoo. The temperature rose into the 60s. It did feel a bit strange having a picnic outside while wearing short sleeves on the day before Thanksgiving. Stranger yet, they were playing Christmas music all over the zoo. You gotta love Ohio weather.

 

O Christmas Tree

Whoever came up with the idea that setting up the Christmas tree was suppose to be a great holiday family tradition? Of course, the ornament part is fun I guess. It is all the steps that have to happen before that sometimes leave me wanting to pull out my hair. This year, it seemed like the motto for the day was "If something can go wrong, it probably will." I don't remember another year that was quite so bad. The lights were the worst! I got so frustrated that several strings ended up in the trash. After all that, I had to take a little break before calling the kids in to help with ornaments. I wasn't exactly caught up in the spirit of Christmas. Ha! It reminded me how great it is to be a kid. You really get to experience all of the joys in life with little of the frustration. The kids came in, oohed and aahed about how pretty the tree was and set to work on the ornaments. It makes all the effort worthwhile.

 

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Halloween.  It already seems like a distant memory.  That's what I get for trying to update this blog 6 weeks or so after the fact.  A few days before Halloween, I bought a couple of pumpkins to carve.  I usually let the kids pick what they want carved on the pumpkins.  My only stipulation this year was that they had to be "easy".  I didn't want to be the only one sitting in the kitchen for hours after they got bored and quit.  Riley really wanted a pumpkin to go along with her Dorothy costume from the Wizard of Oz.  Trent was interested in helping at all.  Reed wanted to help but didn't care what we carved.  We had three pumpkins so the tin man, scarecrow and lion seemed like a great idea.

The week or so before Halloween was beautiful with temperatures in the 60s and 70s. A day before our trick or treat, the temperatures plummeted. On trick or treat day, it was cold and rainy. So much so, that we were still debating whether to take the kids out an hour before it began. The kids would not hear of skipping it or catching trick or treat in another city that had postponed things to later in the week. I layered up with two pair of socks, long underwear, sweatshirt, coat, hat and gloves and reminded the kids that they better remember the sacrifice I was making for years to come. ;)    Luckily, the rain stopped before trick or treat began. Trent went out with one of his friends. Cole stayed home to pass out candy. Steve drove Reed, Riley and I around. We would get out and walk to 10-12 houses close by one another and then take a little break to warm up in the van. The kids lasted over 90 minutes of the 2 hour trick or treat. Between Steve driving us some instead of just walking and the fact that there were only about half the amount of kids out as normal, the kids ended up with A LOT of candy. They were so glad we went.