Glad to See the Sun Again!

After three days of constant snow, and cold so cold that our shower pipe froze, even with the heat on, I woke up today to see the sun! It is glorious be be out of the gloom, I was simply getting depressed with all the gray. Perhaps I have seasonal affective disorder, I almost started crying yesterday. However, now that the sun is back with blue skies, and bright white snow sparkling all around, I am smiling again. Part of my sadness probably had to do with being trapped in the house. There was too much snow to drive for three days, and we live on a hill that the snowplows completely ignored yesterday, until late afternoon.

So, we spent the day baking. We made Macaroon cookies, brownies, and jello with bananas. This was my husbands idea, since Christmas is coming. I am not a big fan of having tons of sweets around the house, because I know I will eat a little piece here, a little piece there, and before you know it, Mom has eaten half of the desert herself. But, I let him do his baking, after all it is a Christmas tradition. I also over heard him on the phone asking my mother in law to make whoopie pies and snicker doodles. "Tell her to only bring a Few of each," I told him. I don't want to fall victim to those too....

So, last night after dinner, the kids were excited because they knew we were having desert. My husband decided to make a nice presentation with each person's plate containing one brownie with mint topping, one scoop of strawberry jello with bananas, once scoop of orange jello with bananas, one macaroon cookie, and to top it all off, a spoonful of ice cream.

Now, it had been snowing all day, and the kids had gone out earlier to play while the younger two napped, and mom frantically tried to start her Christmas wrapping. Then, our oldest boy went out again to shovel the walk again, so they had worked up an appetite. Dad had not yet snowblowed the driveway since the day before, because the snow had not stopped. I had just spent the better part of the last two hours making Risotto. So, we sat down to dinner, then Dad brought out the desert. The kids loved it, and asked for more jello, and another scoop of ice cream. I wasn't sure if this was really a good idea, but agreed since it was a Christmas time desert, and we normally don't have any desert. But I really should have reconsidered, because my husband decided right after desert was the time to go out and snowblow the driveway. "Now," I asked? "Yeah, why not?" he said. "You just gave them three pounds of sugar and now you are going to leave?" Great. And I was right, as soon as he left the sugar hit, and they all went a little crazy.

Right after dinner is not my favorite time of the day, it's when I have to clean up, do the dishes, clean up the baby, get everyone settled down, and start thinking about bedtime for the kids. I knew they were a little excited, and school vacation had started, so I let them play for a while. I started doing dishes till I heard Thomas crying. I walk into the living room, and he said someone hurt him. I also discovered that he had pooped, and that they had dumped out the puzzle bin, containing 20 puzzles and at least 300 pieces on the floor. A little dismayed, I took Thomas, grabbed the baby, and went upstairs to give Thomas a bath. I started his bath, but he did not want to come out, so I said he could play a little longer and changed baby into her pajamas and started nursing her. This did not last two long before we were interrupted by noise, so I gave up and put her down to play while I got Thomas out of the bath and ready for bed. He didn't want to brush his teeth, but I had to insist due to the sugar just consumed. So I managed to brush his teeth, and get him changed and into bed to look at his books. Then I went back to the baby's room to nurse her to sleep, this time with success.

I headed back downstairs only to discover that none of the puzzle pieces had been put back into their box. So, I told the boys they have to clean up the puzzles. This didn't work too well at first, until I reminded them that they have to clean them up or Santa won't come. So, they started making a game out of it, throwing the pieces into the box. This was not what I wanted to see, with my nightly exhaustion setting in, and the snow blower still groaning loudly. I threw out some more reminders about Santa, insisting that I would call him if needed. Eventually, I layed down of the couch and started falling asleep. One of my sons came over for a hug, and we snuggled for a while. Then the other wanted a turn so I told Patrick to go lay on the other couch while I snuggled Joe. I was too tired to go upstairs and put them to bed, I was just out of energy.

After a power nap, and waking up to noise again, I was ready to mean business and we got the rest of the puzzles cleaned up. Then the boys heard the snow blower stop, and Daddy coming in. Joe ran upstairs, and I took Patrick to his room to get on his pajamas.

Now that they were in bed, I decided to resume my wrapping. I opened my bedroom door that had been barricaded to keep the kiddies out of the presents. My husband came up and took a shower to warm up from the cold (now that our shower was finally defrosted). He was happy to be done with the snow, and smiled for the first time in a while. My mood was starting to improve, knowing that the snow was done. Now that our driveway was free, we would not be stuck at home forever, as it had previously seemed. I asked him if he would mind picking up a prescription for one of the children that we needed for the morning.

So, as I look out now, I am glad to see clear roads, and blue skies. We are out of the darkness, but I won't be giving out any deserts to the kids today, at least not until Dad gets home.