As I sit here and write this I am looking around my home and there is not one sign to be found that it was just Christmas days ago. Over the weekend my husband had a sudden burst of energy (ha ha) and decided to un-decorate. Everything is packed up and put away in the basement until next year. The only thing that remains are a few stray pine needless that seem to elude the vacuum cleaner (fake pine needles I might add). Some how a few of those little buggers find a way to hide all year long, no matter how much cleaning I do.
Without fail my husband left behind some holiday things too. It always happens. No matter how careful we are to get every single decoration around our home we always end up leaving something behind. Last year it was a small plush snowman who tried to hide behind the TV. This year it was something more obvious, a Santa place mat that I kept on top of the kitchen counter as a decoration. It’s almost like a game (or in my husband’s case a quest) not to leave anything behind. In all the years we’ve been married it’s never happened.
Now our home is “back to normal”. It amazes me how bare and empty the place normally is. With the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) our place is usually decorated from top to bottom. And now there is nothing. It’s really rather sad. I think I need to find some Winter decorations.
The other weird thought is that tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. WOW! Where has the year gone? It’s bad enough Christmas was just days ago, which seems like ages ago to me, but now it’s going to be a whole new year? WOW! It’s like you blink and another year has passed. Seems like yesterday my kids were just babies and this year I’ll have two in middle school! I wish there was a way to put the “brakes” on life and just stop it for a few years so that I can mentally catch up. Sigh…
So now I have the fun task of entertaining my kids all week. I hate school breaks when the weather is not so nice. It’s too damp and cold to go to the parks, ride bikes or ride their scooters. So we need indoor activities. But there is only so many times you can go to the mall. My son doesn’t like going to movies so we can’t do that. It’s just so hard to find stuff to do.
Today we’re going to the mall for my daughter and then to Toys R Us for my son. They have gift cards from their Uncle and $20 each from their great-grandfather so they want to do some shopping. Well, more so my daughter then my son. He really couldn’t care less. He’d be happier just to hang around at home and play with his Moon Sand. But my daughter is a typical girl – have $$$ – MUST go shopping…
After we hit up the mall and Toys R Us I’ll take them over to the Friehoffers Bakery Outlet store. There you can get things like boxes of cookies, bread, English Muffins and similar things for a fraction of their regular cost because most expire within the week. It’s not like a box of chocolate chip cookies will survive in our home more then a day, so I have no worries about them lasting up to their expiration date. I don’t normally go out of my way to give the kids junk food. I always make sure they eat very healthy. But every now and then you have to let kids be kids and enjoy some junk food. So I take them to the Friehoffers Bakery Outlet and let them pick out something (cookies, cake, donuts…) to enjoy.
Next stop after Friehoffers is a place called Rockland Bakery. It’s a HUGE bakery which supplies a lot of the baked goods around the county and beyond. There you can get fresh bagels literally out of the oven. I mean, you literally grab them as they fall out of the oven on to the conveyor belt. They are burning hot! You can’t get any fresher then that. Best of all they practically melt in your mouth. You don’t need butter or anything on them. Usually we grab a dozen of them (they are less expensive too because you are getting them from the source) and the kids have one for lunch. The moment they strap their seat belts on they are grabbing one to eat then and there. They are usually hot when we get to the car, but that is the best part. They are so fresh and yummy!
So today is covered as far as entertaining the kids. Now to make plans for the remainder of the week. Ha! Easier said then done.