Is That You Santa Claus?

The boys entertained us with two band concerts this week. Phillip took the lead with his CHS band concert at the high school. He played percussion for 3 different numbers. He even had a solo part in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” medley. Little stinker asked me 20 minutes before he was supposed to be AT the school that he needed a plain, long-sleeved black dress shirt. My response was to throw him my blackest shirt and advise him to make it work. In all honesty, his band teacher probably told the students at the beginning of the year and then reminded them the day of. Still…he could have texted me right after his class to alert me. Justin found a 3/4 zip fleece Phillip could wear instead of my ladies shirt. I was hoping that natural consequence would stick. Phillip is making strides with his percussion skills. The next day Everett had a band concert with EVMS bands. He played with the concert band and the advanced band. I quite enjoyed seeing many of my 5th grade friends from last year trying out band instruments. Excellent work boys! 

School was a frenzy of sugar highs, classroom parties, and Christmas themed activities. I hosted several Blooket games the students went crazy over, one was about animals and the other favorite about cartoon characters. All I had to do was start the game and keep the crazy to a dull roar. My last 5th grade class on Thursday got to spend the class period writing essays. They were terrible for my substitute last week, the principal even stopped by to lecture them! No fun for you! Each day was a fun dress up day with PJ day last of all. Rita was very popular those last 4 days of school before break. I had no less than 8 students waiting for me each morning hoping to play animals and predator with Rita as the predator’s chariot. Graham asked if he could ride it after break, I told him Rita was not coming back to school as my knee is getting better. He told me to ask Mrs Curtis (his mom) to buy it for him as a Christmas gift. One little girl made me laugh so hard on Thursday. A little kinder ran up to show me her fancy Christmas PJs…she excitedly said, “Mrs Call I slept in these PJs…and I didn’t even change my undies!” Hysterical. 

Evelyn had her last Activity Day on Wednesday. They had a Christmas themed spa experience. The girls ended with a fun round table discussion about their family Christmas traditions. Justin and I walked in to hear Josie telling everyone about “Schmova” her Nelf. We helped explain the Lance Nelves. Justin and I went on a rare Walmart date alone, like together. All the kids had last minute requests for white elephant gifts, candy, chips, and other requests for class parties the last day of school. Josie sweetly gave one of her chocolates to a boy in her class that completely annoys her. She said that he needed it more than anyone else in her class. 

Last week Josie started this hand puppet thing “SHAUN.” Shaun is her hand and fingers curled up like a dog snout. Shaun is very silly. Evelyn secured a purple belt around Shaun and led her around for a few hours. Suddenly, Shaun became two, Shaun and Shaunerita. The girls had me laughing so hard I could barely breathe. Josie also played a couple rounds of Lego Star Wars with Phillip, she is now the Chief Head Honcho of the Ewoks called Chief Chirrupa. Josie and Evelyn keep us smiling and laughing. The new, new fad is Monkey Champange. Amelia was sick with a tummy flu so Justin got her some ginger ale. Somehow the ginger ale morphed into monkey champagne, imagine a loud, annoying chant and you’ll have a good idea of what is going on. 

Poor Amelia was sick with a nasty stomach flu Monday-Wednesday. She stayed home from school melting into the couch. She was feeling well enough to try going to YW activities Wednesday night, it was test run to see if she could hack a full school day. She was really invested in the choir gift exchanges. She spent lots of time and thought into the gifts for her two peers. She made a fun ramen bowl for one guy and some cute thrifted “old” items for another girl in Con Brio. The girl said she liked 

“Old things” which for Mia was really stressful to interpret. 

Thursday was a RS progressive dinner. I was so tired after school that going out for the evening sounded dreadful. The youth singing on Sunday came over for one more practice. Carson practiced a cello part, which sounded lovely. Basically, 4 YM and 4 YW showed up to practice so I closed the group and made those who showed up the ones that would perform. I practiced for an hour conducting the song and memorizing the tenor part to sing along with the boys. We sounded quite amazing by the end of an hour. Sara convinced me to go to the progressive dinner, I went to the appetizers and then the main meal. I skipped out on the dessert home, went back to my house and up to bed. 

Friday morning I was cleared to walk like a normal person. I’ve never walked normally so that is a misconception…but I was thrilled to chuck my crutches in the van and leave them. I was fitted for a new knee brace called an unloader. Basically, it stretches the inside of my knee using tension causing the bones to separate enough to unload the full weight from pressing on the meniscus. It felt really strange to walk around without crutches. The brace causes my leg to twist outward just enough to feel like I’m not walking straight. I was so free that I stopped at Barnes and Noble bookstore to browse around for a bit. That was so much fun! I got some really fun items like an aurora borealis lamp Josie was keening for. I did go home and price check the books and some other items, ordered those from Amazon instead. Amazon was having a buy 2 books get one free, can’t beat that. 

Justin was finally free from work until the New Year! Hooray! Vacation time. We went out to eat at Chik-fil-a as a very special treat. It was time to go see Santa at Cabela’s for the 17th time. I really tried to find another Santa but they all cost $20 to book and then you have a buy a photo package with the cheapest starting at $200. We will stay with the Cabela’s tradition…until Scheels provides one. We got the doggos a Christmas toy, something without stuffing. Fergus loves to de-stuff toys, leaving the guts all over the house. It was time for our gift exchange shopping spree with the Ostlers. We exchanged names the previous Sunday, Dusty organized teams so each team had an adult to pay for the goods. I had Amelia, Evelyn, and Logan on my team. We shopped for Phillip, Oliver, Everett, and Josie. The fun part is sneaking around trying not to bump into anyone else. Our plan is to wrap the gifts then exchange presents after dinner on Christmas Day. The best part of the evening was racing each other home. Dusty got lucky, we got stuck behind a truck going 20 MPH. Justin turned the corner to see a few inches of the garage door closing…on our garage! The stinker parked in our garage. We blocked their driveway and then Mia moved the truck to block their van from escaping our garage. Oh how we laughed! That was a good stunt Mr Dustin. 

Justin and I cleaned our bedroom. This only happens every couple of years. Mostly we avoid Justin’s piles and put things away when they become a tripping hazard. The bathroom was crusty, the closet floor covered with clothes I had difficulty hanging up per my knee. The cleaning endeavor took us ALL freaking day. The kids worked on their bedrooms as well. I reorganized the bookshelf, kicking out the kid books (aka Harry Potter and Laura Ingalls) and replacing those with Justin’s growing collection of professional books. We cleaned drawers, behind spaces, and dusted. I moved onto the bathroom. Justin took a nap. The freaking bathroom was turning yellow. I cleaned the bathtub, the shower, the toilet, sink, and floor. It still was not sparkling. That required a trip to Walmart on a Saturday, not only Saturday but Christmas Saturday. It was not the third circle of Hell, I was pleasantly surprised. I stocked up on toilet sanitizers, dusting thingies, hard water stain removal, power brushes, and heavy duty cleaning stuff. The crusty shower did not stand a chance now. My muscles were sore after hours of scraping and scrubbing…but the result is glorious. I can now eat dinner in my bathroom. The closet bomb was next. I dusted and reorganized the sundry shelf, throwing away all the expired items and putting things back in place. It felt great to finally get my clothing hung up and put away. By the time I put the last item away it was 7 pm. Amelia was an angel, she helped the little girls clean up their room after she finished hers. 

Christmas Sunday was magnificent. Linda was inspired with the narration and the songs for the program. I narrated the Christmas Story from Luke 2 in-between the musical numbers. The youth song, What Child is This as arranged by Sally DeFord was gorgeous. The youth sang like angels. The primary kids sang “When We Seek Him.” That was beautifully done. The Carney’s sang Jesu Bambino with Linda playing on the piano. Sister Rasmussen told the story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writing of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” The story just sits close to the heart, we can all relate to his losses and cries to the Lord about all the anger in the world. Our ward choir was a small group of 3 men, 2 sopranos, and 1 alto, Amelia volunteered to sight sing the song with Sara as an alto. That made all the difference! We sang “Come, Lord Jesus.” The spirit magnified our voices and somehow we delivered a powerful song with voices and Trey accompanying on the flute. Trey is a talented young man studying music at Boise State in flute performance and conducting. The relief after church almost brought tears to my eyes, finally my plate was clear. All the photo editing was done, the choir performances done, school out for 2 weeks, and Christmas just a couple of days away.