Less Than a Week to Go!

I am going to try to focus on the positives about going back to work. My kids are going to be well taken care of, I will get to socialize with grown-ups, I will be making money again, and my kids will be happy to have me back. There, now that I've said that, I can return to my self-pitying state that I am currently in. My time will be dictated for me, Zach will have to go to after-school care and Zoe to a babysitter, and our time together will be much shorter. It's not forever, but it sure feels like it.

We've been doing a lot of holiday-related things together as a family for the past few days, and it's been a lot of fun. Saturday was hectic beyond belief; we had Breakfast with Santa at Zach's school, then we went out to breakfast, since there wasn't much left by the time we got to school. Zach enjoyed seeing his school friends, making crafts, and taking a picture with Santa. Afterward, we went home, and a man came to install our new AT&T U-Verse cable and internet. He spent over five hours at our house, and we now have more channels than we could ever possibly watch. We even have the Horse-Racing Network! How did I ever live without that? While that was going on, I went and had a greatly-needed massage and haircut. What is sad is that the therapist spent most of the hour working on my left shoulder, and wasn't able to relieve the tension. I need to go back and have another massage, or maybe quit holding a baby all the time. I think I'll choose another massage. I also got my first haircut since April, and it doesn't look very different. After that, I swung by the house, picked up Zach, and took him to a skating party. I went home for an hour, fed Zoe, then went to pick Zach up. We stopped and picked up a pizza on the way home, then spent the evening in front of our TV. My friend Jen came over to borrow a gingerbread man cookie cutter, and I ended up making icing for her. She did take a video of my kids, so I guess I shouldn't complain!

Sunday, we sat around until almost 2:30, then left the house to go and look for a new receiver for our TV. We ended up buying one, then went and parked at HEB. We caught a trolley there that took us along the Woodlands Waterway to the mall, where we bought a couple of Christmas presents. We decided to walk back to Market Street, and took a detour to look at the lights around the ice-skating rink and to eat dinner at La Madeleine. After all of that, we trudged through the aisles of HEB to get our greatly-needed groceries.

Yesterday, my parents' best friends came to Houston, and they came over for a couple of hours to visit. It's always so nice to see people from "home", and they are like second parents to me. I wish we could see them more often, but they have a second house in New Hampshire, and spend a lot of time there.

My plans for the rest of the week include finishing my Christmas cards, wrapping presents, getting some of my baking done, and trying to keep the house clean. Maybe I'll even have time to sit down and read. We'll see. I go back to work for three action-packed days next week, then we are headed to Louisiana on the 22nd for Christmas. Darren has to work on the 26th, but I want to stay longer, so we'll probably go in two cars. I have a lot to get done before then!