Our Week - The One with the School Christmas Program and the School Reindeer Run

You may remember I didn’t have a chance to recap our week last week, so here it is today!  It was a crazy busy one.  Whew!

Monday, December 5

Monday morning, I dropped the kiddos at school and then I got straight to business.  On deck for Monday was a boatload of laundry, a ton of blog work to get ahead before our trip, and some other random odds and ends like Christmas shopping, addressing Christmas cards, and prepping for Olivia’s class Christmas party.

On the way to pick up the kids from school, I was almost to the pick-up line when I heard a loud pop and then some weird shuffling noise coming from one of my passenger side tires.  Sigh.  I pulled the car over, but the tires seemed to be fine, and I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to the car line.  All the way there, it sounded like something was caught in my wheel well, but again, I couldn’t see anything. 

About five minutes later, my tire pressure warning popped on and then I watched the pressure drop, drop, drop as I was sitting in the car line.  Based on the noise I’d heard and the fact that the tire pressure was dropping like it was hot, I knew it was going to need more than air from the gas station, so I immediately reached out to a friend who works at the school, but he was in a meeting, and couldn’t get away to help.  Olivia had to be at dance at 3:45, so I had to call poor Brian at home and get him to drive all the way to the school to change my tire.  For the second time in two months.  Haha. 

By the time the kids got in the car, the tire pressure was down to 10 (normal is 36), so I drove super slowly around the block and into one of the back parking lots at the school that I knew would be empty enough to get a tire changed.  B met us there, and sure enough, we could see an allen wrench sticking out of the tire.  What in the world?! 

Brian got the tire changed and then traded cars with me, so we didn’t have to ride on the donut, and then he headed straight to the tire place to see if the tire was patchable.  Meanwhile, I had to hightail it to Olivia’s dance studio to get her there on time. 

When I went to start Brian’s car, the car alerted me that the key fob wasn’t detected, and I realized that the battery had died in my key fob for Brian’s vehicle.  He’d already pulled away and left, so I frantically called his cell and he had to turn back around to bring me his key fob.  Lol.  Can’t make this stuff up.

Olivia ended up getting to dance only a couple of minutes late, and then Jacob and I got to piano lessons right as they started, so we made it!  Whew!

Jacob and I headed home after piano, and at that point, B still didn’t know if they were going to be able to patch the tire, so I had to hold off on starting dinner in case Jacob and I had to go back out to pick up Olivia.  Just as we were getting our shoes on and walking out the door to get her, B called and said that they were able to patch the tire and that he’d be able to grab Olivia.  That worked out perfectly, because I was able to get dinner started and have it on the table as they walked in the door!  Whew!

Brian came home with the actual item that they had pulled out of my tire, and I was even more shocked when I saw the whole thing.  Y’all, HOW ON EARTH DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS EVEN GET IN A TIRE?!  Hahahaha.  It’s not even possible for it to stand up on its side, and it’s not even sharp!!  Truly unbelievable. 

The rest of the evening was hectic due to all of the craziness, so the rest was a blur of eating dinner, getting homework done, squeezing in a short cardio workout, prepping for Tuesday, and wrapping up a couple more items on my to-do list, and I still couldn’t check everything off.  Some days are just like that, I suppose!

After the kids were ready for bed, we watched an episode of Amazing Race, and then after they were in bed, B and I watched about 30 minutes of Shark Tank while I worked on addressing Christmas cards.  

Tuesday, December 6

Tuesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to work for the rest of the day.  But first, I put out goodies for our delivery drivers!

On deck for Tuesday was more laundry, tons of blog work, addressing Christmas cards, and several other things that I didn’t get to on Monday.  The day flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to get in the car line to pick up the kiddos. 

Olivia’s school Christmas program was Tuesday evening, so she had to miss her dance classes, but she didn’t mind… she was so excited to get up and SING!  The program started at 6, and it was a packed house.  The program used to include PK-4 through second grade, but last year, they expanded it to include third – fifth grade, which I was really grateful for.  Last year, we missed the program because Brian, Jacob, and Olivia all had the flu, and I was just crushed because I was thinking it was Olivia’s last year to be in it.  And of course, we had also missed it in 2020 because they had to cancel it due to Covid.

It's always one of my favorite nights of the entire year… I just love seeing those sweet little faces and hearing those sweet little voices sing about baby Jesus!  So, I was really grateful to be there this year. 

Per usual, the whole program was darling, and per usual, tears came to my eyes while we were watching.  I don’t know what it is about sweet little babies singing in church.  It’s just one of my most favorite things.

Our drama and music teachers put together a fantastic program, and all of the kiddos did such a great job.  When we left, I was feeling all warm and fuzzy.

The program was over at 7, and we hadn’t eaten dinner, so we stopped by Panera with my parents to grab a quick bite before heading home.  The kids got showered, and then B and I watched the last episode of the newest season of Manifest after they went to bed.  Oh, and I tackled more Christmas cards… they’re neverending!  Haha.

Wednesday, December 7

Wednesday was my last full day with nothing on the agenda, so I hit the ground running.  I stopped at Target to drop a couple of returns and pick up a couple of stocking stuffers, I dropped a couple of returns at UPS, and then I swung by the post office to grab some stamps on the way home.

The rest of the morning was spent finishing up addressing Christmas cards, and I was able to get them in the mailbox before our mail carrier came – woo hoooo! – and then I got a lot of work done on the blog. 

After lunch, I spent an hour or so packing for NYC.  I was able to get myself totally packed (aside from items I can’t pack until the morning of) and I got Olivia mostly packed as well.  It was quite a challenge trying to squeeze everything we needed into tiny little carryon suitcases.  Haha.

After school, Olivia had her final checkup at the ENT for her eardrum surgery and everything went well.  When we arrived, the lady at the check-in desk warned us that it was going to take a long time because they were super backed up, and then the triage nurse gave us the same warning, so we were prepared to settle in for a long time.

We ended up getting in and out in less than an hour, so it wasn’t too bad at all, and the kids kept themselves occupied by looking at dollar bills with the doctor’s fancy equipment.  Lol.

They tested Olivia’s hearing, and the doctor said her hearing is perfect in both ears, and that her eardrum has healed, so she can finally get her head wet now.  She’s been having to wear an ear plug in the shower for the last few weeks because they told us she couldn’t get water in her ear. 

On another note, and not a great one, her nodule on her thyroid is already back again (they also did surgery to drain it a few weeks ago along with her eardrum surgery), so we’re back to quarterly appointments to monitor its growth.  Ugh.

I mean, we knew this was coming, but I was praying that it would somehow miraculously just not return.  We’re just grateful that it’s benign, though.  It could definitely be worse.

After her appointment, we all headed home, and the kids got started on homework while I packed some more for our trip.  We had breakfast for dinner when B came home from work, and then I got back to packing.  I also got in a good stair stepper workout. 

The kiddos played with Lego while I did all of that, and they challenged themselves to find a random Lego minifig and create a big version of it out of regular pieces.  They ended up doing two of them and they came out soooo good.  They are just so creative, y’all!  (And please excuse the poor lighting.  Definitely hard to get good pictures once the sun goes down.)

After the kiddos went to bed, I finished rounding up all of the stuff for the school fundraiser, and then I spent the rest of the evening cutting out snowflake temporary tattoos for the fundraiser.  Haha.  While I did that, B and I finally nailed down the rest of our itinerary for NYC, and B booked all of the tickets for all of the attractions we’re going to see.

We ended up going to bed soooo late, but ‘tis the season!  Too much going on!  Haha.

Thursday, December 8

Thursday morning, the kids made another Lego creation... 

And then I dropped them at school and headed back home to work on blog stuff for an hour before I had to be back at the school to go to Mass with Olivia.  After that was done, I whisked back home, changed clothes, ate a super-fast lunch, photographed the house for my Christmas home tour, loaded the car with every single thing we needed for the fundraiser on Friday, and then I headed back to the school.

The rest of the day was spent setting up for the fundraiser.  We did a Reindeer Run for the whole school, but it was a fun run around the football field, not a full mile or 5K or anything.  We had Santa Claus, face painting, and a hot chocolate bar, too.

We were able to get everything set up by the time I had to be in the car line, so I was able to drive around and get in there just in the nick of time. 

After that, it was voice lessons for Olivia, dinner at home, and then a bunch more packing for our trip to New York City.  I ended up staying up super late to get everything done, and then on top of that, I couldn’t sleep, so by the time I got out of bed Friday, I’d only gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep.

Friday, December 9

Friday morning, I ended up waking up at 3:30 AM and my mind was racing with all of the things that I knew needed to be done before the Reindeer Run, so I ended up getting out of bed at 4:55 AM… before my alarm even went off.  Sigh.

I was out the door right as B was getting up, and before the babies ever got up, and I was at the school before 6:30 AM.  It was soooo foggy Friday morning, so the visibility wasn’t good, and everything we sat out was soaking wet with dew, but we managed to get everything up and running on time for the first group of runners at 8:20 AM.  The rest of the day was a blur.  We had each grade scheduled for different timeslots throughout the day (babies at the daycare all the way up through 12th grade), so I was running around constantly, making sure things were running smoothly at all of the stations, refilling hot chocolate bar items, etc. 

Olivia’s class came out at 8:50 AM, and I was able to watch her run, and be with her for hot chocolate and Santa, and then it was back to work.  Jacob’s class came out at 12:16 PM (so precise – haha) and I said hello to him and then let him do his thing.  The middle schoolers and high schoolers didn’t do the fun run, instead they did “Reindeer Games” – cornhole, football, ladder ball, soccer, spike ball, etc. so he was busy hanging out with his friends. 

The whole thing was over a little after 1 PM, and that gave us just enough time to get everything taken down, cleaned up, and put away before the car line started.  We ended up getting done a few minutes earlier than anticipated, so I even had some time to sit in my car and take my shoes off and rest.  Haha.  I was soooo tired and my feet and back hurt so bad.  Not to mention it was HOT Friday.  It didn’t feel very Christmas-y.  Haha.

After I grabbed the kids from school, we headed straight home to finish packing for New York City, and we all went to bed super early since we had an early flight.  Saturday and Sunday we were in New York, so I’ll leave those days for another post!

 

Happy Tuesday, y’all!