Catch Up Again: Days 14-17

Okay, it's been a busy week.  It was my last week at work before 23 days off.  That's right, 23.  This is the time of year when I love my job the most. :)  But to make that happen, I was running around like a mad woman wrapping up so much stuff. Needless to say, I'm exhausted, but looking forward to some much needed time off with all three of my boys. So let's recap the past week's holiday activities:

Day 14:  Make puppy chow.  In case you aren't aware of this deliciousness, it's basically wheat Chex coated with melted chocolate and peanut butter, and then shaken in powdered sugar.  It's pure sugar crack.  Anyways, Austin helped me make it and ate his fair share in the process.  And we made some snickerdoodles that came out absolutely perfect.  Jordan, who usually isn't a fan of snickerdoodles in general, consumed about a dozen of them on his own. :)  And Chase enjoyed both treats, as he waited at my feet in the kitchen for more!

Day 15:  Make Christmas gifts for the teachers.  Using the puppy chow previously made, we made these cute little Santa jars filled with puppy chow for each of the boys' teachers.  I was very happy with how they turned out!  I also made these same things for all of my staff and seniors that work for me.

Day 16:  I was able to attend Austin's Christmas party with his class on Friday.  I loved that I was able to be there and see him interact with all the other kids and teachers.  He really is a good kid at school!  After the festivities were over, we left Chase at school while we went to have some Mommy-Austin time.  We got his haircut, and then I let him go pick out a Christmas gift for both Daddy and Chase.  While picking out a toy for Chase, he was easily distracted by toys he wanted for himself, but in the end, we were able to find something great.  And he did a good job on Daddy's gift too.  That evening, I let him help me wrap both of the gifts he got for Daddy and Chase, picking out the wrapping paper, gift tag, and bow.  Although, when Daddy got home from work that evening, he promptly told Daddy that he bought him a new tie!!! Okay, so we definitely need to work on the keeping gifts a secret part, but he was just so excited!!

Day 17:  We went to a cookie swap party at one of my college friend's house.  This is the third or fourth year I've been, and it's such a great idea.  Everybody that comes bakes about 5 or so dozen cookies.  And then we swap and everybody gets to take home a big box of a mixture of some delicious cookies.  And the fabulous hostess got little gifts for the kids, too.  Austin got a Toy Story soccer ball and Chase got a play cell phone.  It was a great party, if you forget the part where I locked my keys in the car (first time in my life!) and my sister and Logan had to drive an hour to go to the house and bring me a spare.  Ugh, it was so frustrating!

Whew, there's your recap. I'm sure this week is going to be even busier.  I've still got some Christmas shopping to do and lots of presents to wrap.  But we've got some more fun stuff coming up this week, including a trip to Gaylord ICE! and snowtubing there, too.  And maybe a trip to Rainforest Cafe if we can squeeze it in that day.  I still can't believe that Christmas is a week away from today, eeek!!