Winding It Down

Today is the Evil Twin's last day of work until January 5. Thanks to holiday time and some well positioned vacation time, he managed to score a big chunk of time off. Yay! Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that we can actually stand to be together solidly for all those days.

Sometimes, I think there is such a thing as "too much togetherness".

Anyway, today is also what I THINK should have been Buddy's last day, but he has to go a full day Monday AND Tuesday. I get the 180 day rule for school attendance, but really... I think 2 days into June would be preferable to cutting it so close to Christmas. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it unless we get so much snow, school is cancelled on those days.

So, that is my schedule for the next few days. Then, Christmas break! Yay. I am so ready for it. Typically, I don't like change, but I do like breaks from the normal routine sometimes. And, I'm ready for this break.

Last night, we had Buddy's school Christmas play.

That is almost too much people interaction for me. Apparently, everyone thinks the Christmas play is THE event of the school year, so grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. are all invited. The result is that the gym is over crowded - people are standing up and standing in aisles to photograph/videotape their little darlin' and it seemed like when I could HEAR anything, it was mostly all the people around me snorting and snotting and carrying on.

I swear, I have stayed healthy this far this year and if I wind up with a cold or worse because I had to be around a bunch of filthy germ wagons last night, I will be royally pissed! Royally!

Of course, Sissy wouldn't sit still and that just added to the drama. But, really, who can blame her? My ass was numb after an hour on the metal folding chair and I was ready to get the h-e-double toothpicks out of there as quickly as possible.

The play (what I could hear or see of it) was cute, but the next time I have to attend such a function, I think I'll slip a lump of coal up my butt. Most likely, I'll have a lovely diamond to show off later. That's how tense those things make me.

Anyway, the highlight of the evening was that after the play - and since we were already out and about - we decided to go to our little town's Festival of Lights. At the city park, they have a Christmas light display each year and we had never been.

It's neat because you just drive along the path and get to take in all the lights. There is one location where you can stop and get out. Santa is there with hot cocoa, but since we already saw Santa at Tamarack, we just kept driving.

So, you wind all up in and over the park and let me tell you: when they say "Festival of Lights", they ain't kidding. It was sooo elaborate. The kids loved it. The Evil Twin and I admired it and it just made the previous stress of the evening melt away!

We've decided that touring the Festival of Lights will be a yearly activity from now on.

And, now, I can sleep well knowing that when I die, I have had at least one full hour knocked off of my time in purgatory. I "gave at the office (school)" last night!