A few Christmas traditions

 Sunday afternoon, Mr Park and I loaded the family in the suburban and headed to the big city. First, we stopped by the zoo to see if the ice skating rink was up like it has been in past years. No go. The kids were a little upset but I was relieved because I don't ice skate anymore and it was too cold for me to sit and pretend I was interested in anyone iceskating. Next we headed to our favorite chinese restaurant and ate steaming hot bowls of hot and sour soup and stuffed ourselves at the buffet. Well, ok, I stuffed myself. The kids have learned their lesson with chinese food and are starting to get the concept of moderation. Plates were cleaned, ice cream cones finished off and fortune cookies cracked open and read. Here's what mine said...

I'll let you know if anything crafty develops around here this week. After supper, we drove through some old neighborhoods known for their Christmas lights. Mr Park popped one of our favorite Christmas cd's in the player and then, as we passed a house decked out in old school, traditional house lights, he announced that the Christmas spirit had hit him. Here's how the conversation went...

Mr Park: Ahhhh, it just hit me.
Me: What?
Mr Park: The Christmas spirit. Just now. Ohhhh, I love it! Has it hit anybody else yet?
April: I got it! It just hit me!
Autumn: Me, too!
Anna: Ooooh, me too!
Me: Really, Anna?!?
Anna: No, I'm just kidding. I don't feel anything yet.
John: Let's roll down the windows until we're freezing to death.
Mr Park: What about you, Pam.
Me: I've had it since October 31st.

Right as we were all getting hit in the face with the Christmas spirit, one of my children announced that she had to go to the bathroom. And not just a little. She was in emergency mode when she decided to tell us. (Aren't they always?) We finished the tour in super sonic speed and went to search for a bathroom. The first place we saw was a donut shop. We pulled in and Mr Park decided that we needed to add another tradition to our list. We let the kids pick out a donut, drink hot chocolate and use the potty. Speaking of traditions, weren't they just made for kids? My kids love them and are always looking for more to add. On our way out of the donut shop parking lot, they saw a carwash and said, "Can we make it a tradition to get a carwash when we look at Christmas lights every year?" That's about how often I wash my car, but no, I gotta draw the line at a carwash tradition. 

This year, the gas station where we usually get our tree, didn't have any. So we went to Lowe's because we needed some other things, too. We picked out a tree, got a couple extra strands of lights, some beautiful half priced poinsettias and a water filter for our icebox.

I know I said I wanted to be fully present when we did all of our Christmas stuff, but I have to confess, I did lose it a little toward the end of the night. The kids were getting tired and irritated with each other and I knew the night wasn't near over. We still had to get the tree in the house, put it in the stand, pull out the lights and string them on the tree. And by the time all that was done 2 out of our 4 kids had fallen asleep in front of the fire. I let my oldest girl put some ornaments on the tree before we called it a night.

We woke up to a light dusting of snow on Monday morning, so I decided we only needed a light dusting of school work and a heavy dusting of the house. We did laundry, cleaning, organizing, and more decorating. But first, my girls started the day with a science lesson. Namely, water and it's different forms!