Day 1576. This morning it was the alarm that woke us all up. Randy got up to make breakfast for the kids, while I had to get up to make Sammy's snack box for kindergarten. Tammy was the only one still in our bed sleeping. Before I lay back down next to her, I helped Emmy open his advent calendars. Randy always opens Sammy's advent calendar with Christmas songs at the table with him, while feeding him.
Tammy was up before I could lie back down and then opened her advent calendar as well. I tried to get some more sleep and got lucky after closing the doors. Tammy and Emmy were on their tablets until Randy returned from kindergarten and went downstairs with them. As for me, my alarm went off at 9:30, as I had a student at 10 am. I taught until 11 am, then went to the kitchen to make our soup for lunch. After I was done, I went downstairs so we could decorate the Christmas tree together. The kids were really excited about that. Before I came downstairs, they had cleaned up the room.
Randy was making knots into the strings attached to the Christmas chocolates for the tree, while I started with the string lights to be put on the tree. Tammy and Emmy were helping me. There was a power point right behind the tree, and that's where I started, on the bottom on the tree, winding it up to the top. One kid was on one side on the back of the tree, and the other on the other side, so that the one kid could hand the string to the second and then to me again. It was real team work.
Once the lights were done, Randy put the star on top, then we started on the golden and red balls. I put the hooks on, and the kids put them up. I did put a few higher up myself, where the kids could not reach. And the kids were having a little bit of a hard time putting the hooks on, but they were having lots of fun. After the balls, we started on the chocolates. At one point Randy left to go pick up Sammy from kindergarten, and we continued a little bit longer. However, we did not get everything on the tree by the time we went upstairs for lunch at 12:15.
I finished the soup up, then put them into dishes, and then Sammy arrived, so we all sat down to eat. Sammy loves his new horse he can ride on so much that he's obsessed with it. It was the first thing he talked about coming home, and he wanted to ride it right away. However, it was lunch time. We put the horse right next to him, so he could pet it, but he wanted to sit on it and refused to eat because of that. And so he did not eat much today.
After lunch, the kids got back on their tablets and Sammy on his horsey. I had to get to my computer to prepare for my 2:15 student, as I only had 45 minutes left. I taught until 3:30 pm, but the kids were back upstairs by 3 pm and making lots of noise and trying to get into my room, disturbing my class. Then there was some drama and crying. After I was done, we finished dressing them and all left the house at 3:40.
We took two subways, then walked to the ice-skating rink. We both worked on putting the ice-skates on the kids, as well as their helmets and gloves, then walked to the area, where the classes are taking place. Their teachers were right there on the ice, receiving them for their class. The rest of us walked to the wall, where we could see what they were doing.
Sammy wanted me to take him out, so I did. However, he was pretty cranky and didn't even enjoy his tablet for long. And suddenly Emmy was next to us, with his teacher. She said that his shoes were too tight, so Randy loosened them. A few minutes later they were back so that Randy could loosen them more. They sure seemed to be too lose, but they stayed that way until the end.
Tammy had sat in my lap to sleep on both subways on the way to the rink, saying she was tired and that she didn't want to go ice-skating. I was really proud of her how she did what the teacher asked of her and just continued doing so. She hardly ever fell any more. As for Emmy, it was a different story. After coming out twice, he still didn't seem very motivated or concentrated. And he was falling a lot, always asking the teacher to help him out. He also had an issue with his glove that he asked his teacher for help with several times. And he didn't really seem to do what he was supposed to at times. But he was having fun.
Just after 5 pm they were coming off the ice for their break. Sammy had already been very insistent about going home for a few minutes, but I wanted to see what the kids were doing on the ice and was at least gonna stay until break-time. Once they had come off, Sammy and I left to go home. The first subway was an old train, which he didn't like at all, but I promised him we'd take a new train home on the second subway, which was the longer ride. The first subway that came was an old one, but we didn't get on. He was so appreciative. The next subway 4 minutes later was new, and we got on. He enjoyed pushing the button after leaving each and every station.
By 6 pm we were back home. Sammy started playing with his horsey and with his tablet, while I turned my computer back on to get some stuff done. Then I started making their dinner. At about 6:40 Randy and the kids returned, and everyone sat down to eat. Then they continued eating in the bathtub. We continued our nightly ritual with advent calendars, a story, brushing their teeth, a prayer and going to bed. Randy sat down by them, while I went to the kitchen to make my food. After having eaten, I went back to work. I'm really tired, so I'm hoping to get to bed earlier tonight. It's midnight now and time to do the dishes before going to bed.
