1m2aSandbox

The girls have had their Santa requests
down for some time now, and as I mentioned in an earlier blog
they’re not the easiest – Cora wants a real live tree,
at least partly red, and Maddie wants a specific ballet barre that
is apparently one of the hot tickets this year. I finally tracked
it down on Craig’s List and have it hidden in a bedroom,
while Cora’s real live Christmas tree is tucked around the
corner of our side yard, waiting to be decorated with the red bows
and battery-powered (!) red lights I found. I thought we had all
this wrapped up.


I thought wrong.

Both girls are walking around belting out
Christmas carols at the top of their lungs, and certainly
don’t let anything so petty as not understanding all the
words get in the way of their singing. Here recorded for posterity
are a few of my favorite malaproprisms – let’s just
call them fresh takes on classic songs.

I’m pretty strict on television for
the girls; they get one television show a day, sometime after their
naps, and only if they don’t lose the privilege due to bad
behavior. I’m similarly picky about which shows they watch,
and have a pretty narrow definition of what I consider appropriate.


I should also say here that I didn’t grow up watching
claymation shows the way my husband did, so I was a stranger to the
whole Rudolph/Santa Claus Is Coming To Town line of shows when we
had kids. The Christmas after Maddie turned two, though, I saw them
each over and over as Maddie joyfully picked one out of the lineup
each night for her “bideo”. Last year saw a fond
reunion between Girl and her Claymation Collection, and I knew this
year would be no different. In fact, this year would be even bigger
because Maddie would get to introduce Cora to the wonderful world
of singing reindeer.

I always swore I would never be the parent
who spends a ridiculous amount of money on a toy worth a fraction
of the price, just to satisfy a child’s Christmas wish.
There’s no such thing as “irreplaceable” or
“one-of-a-kind”, and I could easily find a substitute
rather than pay exorbitant prices because of high demand and low
supply. I drew a line in the sand and declared myself firmly on the
side of common sense, of right versus consumerism.


Then Maddie made up her wish list.

We had our big Christmas party this
weekend, a tradition going back years before we had kids.
We’ve always thrown open our doors and invited a big crowd,
spending weeks leading up to the event furiously cooking and
cleaning and decorating. Since having kids, though,
something’s had to give, so I finally threw in the towel and
admitted I need professional help.


No, I didn’t hire someone to bake for me. Bite your tongue.


I hired a cleaning lady.

Maddie woke up yesterday morning with a
sore throat. No big deal, except that there’d been rumors of
strep running through her preschool, and we’re having our big
Christmas party here on Saturday. So it’d probably be better
if we weren’t all contagious. I usually leave these things to
develop or go away on their own, but with those extenuating
circumstances weighing on my mind, I mentioned we might need to go
get a strep test for her.


“If I get a strep swab, will I get a lollipop?” Maddie
asked.


“Yes, of course, hon,” I answered absentmindedly,
knowing how icky those strep swabs are.

Most of you know I’m big into the
whole environmental stewardship thing, and I know I’ve
brought this up before, but I’m telling you, you gotta check
out target="_blank">Freecycle.


It’s a national network of local groups who simply give stuff
away that they no longer need. Rather than see a perfectly good
bike end up in a landfill, someone will list it on freecycle and
the first person to respond will get it. For free. The people who
participate seem to be honest and try to only take what they need,
so the greed thing stays out of it.