There were some topics gnawing at me earlier but they have left off and moved on. Instead you get this: bits! Would it be better with bullets? Does it sound weird to say just bullets instead of bulletPOINTS? Did you understand me anyway or do I do too many PowerPoint presentations at work?
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We have 1 present left to purchase for the kids, and Karin has 1 present left to purchase for her grandparents, and we have 1 birthday present left to purchase for Anders’ mom. I don’t know if Anders is done with his shopping for me. He just smiles and looks mysterious. He has already wrapped one thing and put it under the tree, but he showed me the label first because he was so proud of it: Merry XO-mas to Liz (Merry KISS-mas, get it?) Hee!
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Yesterday, when I left work, I was done with all the current things on my task list, and my action folder was empty as was my inbox. I thought to myself, “I might actually be bored tomorrow at work.” BWAHAHAHAHA! Fat chance! I fired up my PC this morning only to see the emails and requests come flying in…like BULLETS. Aimed at me! *sigh*
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Imagine my surprise yesterday, while still at work, and checking my home email just before getting ready to leave for the day, to receive a Facebook friend request from “Karin Slaughter-Ek”…hmmm…my 10-year-old daughter appears to have renamed herself! She also appears to have added 5 years to her age and be attending a college, how strange. So we had THE facebook talk when we got home. And upon checking the rules for FB accounts, it turns out that minimum age limit is 13. So we continued the talk and segued into the ethics of dishonesty and how it follows you around, especially if you put it out there on the internet. Once you create an account with a fake age, you can’t change it. So she decided to de-activate it and wait. Pats on the back & praise all around! She has a lot of classmates and friends her age that have (faked) FB accounts, so it wasn’t an easy thing for her to decide. She wants in on the action. Urgh.
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Martin’s class (the oldest at the school) performed yesterday evening at Holmby church in the annual Lucia pageant. They had a Lucia procession up the aisle, with his classmate Hilda as Lucia and all the girls dressed in white and the boys dressed in white as well (several of them, including Martin, with the rather silly traditional starboy caps), and all of them holding lit candles. Lucia’s crown included SIX lit candles. As they marched up the aisle singing, I had a moment of panic for how close some of those clutched candles were to the long hair of the girls in front of them but they all made it safely to the front of the church.
Before the performance started, I actually found myself having to squash an appalled reaction to the noise level and rambunctiousness going on among all the kids present. The church was full of schoolkids and their parents and siblings, standing room only along both sides and it was LOUD. Even this completely non-churchy person was taken aback by the complete lack of reverence shown for our surroundings. I know Swedes are not very religious at all, but if this is the kind of attitude displayed, why bother making a point of having this show at the church? I kept wanting to stand up and exclaim something to the effect of “You’re in God’s House, people! Settle the hell down!” At which point I giggled madly to myself and Anders asked me what I was laughing at, which just set me off again.
The sixth graders sang several songs and then a small choir of younger children sang 4 songs and then the whole audience sang along to another handful of carols. Halfway through the performance, Martin abruptly left the stage and went to the front row and apparently sat down. A few minutes later 2 of the teachers scurried with him out the corner door. We couldn’t tell what had happened since we were so far back and we couldn’t get out of the pew we were sitting in the middle of without making a huge scene so we just sat there, craning our necks, trying to see what had become of him. I figured he’d either gotten stage fright or felt light-headed and I figured he wouldn’t come back because he would think it was too embarrassing. But he did! Yay! He came back at the end of one song and got his candle back from the kid next to him and finished the performance. Afterwards, we found out that he had thought he was going to faint from the warmth and had gone to sit down and the teachers had taken him out for some fresh (and very cold) air. Whew!
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Coveting: Beautiful, customizable family trees
Cool as All Get Out: Stop motion artistry at its finest
Almost makes me wish my kids were small again: Crankypants!
Snowy Sparkly Blowy Birthday Wishes to Sam!
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It snowed today: fat and fluffy flakes. The ground is coated just barely with sparkling white but it’s raining now. *sigh* I was momentarily excited at the news Anders passed along that according to the experts we have the best chance in 10 years to have a white Christmas. HOLDING THUMBS! CROSSING FINGERS! (both of which will make it difficult to wrap presents, much less finish typin