I'm not feeling super wordy today. Jared and I talked ourselves silly trying to keep our 7/8-year-old primary class from rioting in church yesterday, and I'm honestly still in a daze. When there are less than 5 kids in our class it's lovely, but there were nearly 10 this week and it felt more like a dicey daycare than a church classroom. For an extra layer of difficulty, Alice doesn't get a nap on Sunday mornings and she is at the wiggliest age. Dear Santa, could you bring me and Jared classroom management textbooks in our stocking this year, plz and thank u. Alice starts nursery in a few months and our class will get a tiny bit smaller in the new year, so hopefully that will help.
And now, here are some pictures from our lovely week!
^^One of my favorite parts of living in a small town is the Christmas Parade. The local fire department and police department drive up and down every street in our town over the course of a few nights. The vehicles are decked out in Christmas lights, and Santa and Mrs. Claus ride on top of the fire truck. Police officers pass out stickers and the Grinch passes out candy canes. Our small town in Wyoming did this too. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season.
It's been a rainy Washington week. I generally don't mind the rain too much--as long as I've got a waterproof coat to wear I actually enjoy taking Alice for a stroller ride or Savvy for a nature walk in a downpour. But it's been a lotttt of cloudy days in a row now. I'm looking forward to hopefully a few days of blue skies next week.
Jared and I went out on a date this week! It was the first or maybe second time we've ever hired a babysitter since moving to Washington two years ago. Before Alice was born we always did Tuesday afternoon dates while Jack was in preschool, and since Alice was born we've had Jared's parents babysit a couple of times. For our date this week we met Jared's mom at a casino in Marysville to watch a Styx cover band concert (his dad was going to come but had to travel to Japan last-minute for work). It was actually very fun. We don't know much Styx music but the band was really talented and it was a great time. The audience was 95% retiree couples reliving their glory days, and they were very cute dancing throughout the concert. An older gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to dance at one point (I was sitting across from Jared's Mom at a table, and then Jared was next to her but diagonal from me, so it probably wasn't clear we were together). I was caught so completely off guard that I didn't even think and just stood up to go dance!! Jared gave me this odd look and I was like, "Hey, that guy asked me to dance. Should I--shouldn't I?" Jared was like, "Uhhhhhhh? Maybe shouldn't?" I waved the older gentleman to go without me (he looked annoyed) and then I sat down SO flustered through the next song. Jared and his mom were just laughing and laughing. I was pretty grateful it was time to head home to relieve the babysitter since it was a school night. Awkward.
I have no explanation for why my knee-jerk reaction was to just follow this rando when I was literally sitting across from my husband and mother-in-law. Deeply seated people-pleasing engrained in my bones probably. The only situation I've been in like that is when I'd go to cousins' weddings and maybe an uncle would ask me to dance? I'm not even sure that's really happened, but that's the only reason I can think for my reflex. Jared thinks the whole experience was very funny and will never let me live it down. I am forever grateful he reeled me back in because honestly, best case scenario, that would have been a super uncomfortable dance. Worst case scenario, could have been iffy. Yikes.
Hm, other happenings this week. Jack's lego advent calendar continues to be the hero of December. It takes him half an hour to build each lego creation after he opens it, then he plays with it for another half our. It's the advent gift that keeps on giving. Alice is our dancing queen. Any time a song comes on she is either spinning in circles or head banging to the beat, or waving her arms in the air. She is a bundle of fun. Here are some pictures from our week:
Happy December! Two Jack highlights from the week. Highlight #1 was when he made a pet cow out of cardboard boxes and empty toilet paper rolls, then cut a hole for the mouth and spent all week feeding it garbage hahaha. Highlight #2 is this joke he made up yesterday: "What starts with 'f' and flies through the air? It's a freindeer!"
Other highlights from the week . . . we are all healthy again! The house is very cozy for Christmas. It is filled to the brim with paper chains and wallpaper stars and paper snowflakes and festive kindergartner drawings. Childhood magic. We had two ward Christmas parties to attend over the weekend--the first was our own party, and the second was Jared's parents that we attended because Jared's mom was having her debut performance as the lead guitarist in their ward's surprise Christmas band. The lead singer and bass guitarist was a semi-professional musician, and they all knocked it out of the park. Worth Alice screaming the whole hour down in the car.
