Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Home Again

I made it back to Abq just before the storm (woke up to snow & ice on my car this morning). There is a mountain pass just across the NM-CO border that I must cross in order to make it home from the Springs, and I am always worrying about the weather. There was a huge snowstorm last night, so my reserve command was kind enough to release me a little early in the day so I could speed my ass off to beat the storm home. And it's only December!

In other news, things are quite stressful at home. I have been worrying a lot about my school aged kiddos since I think they are both getting screwed by the public school system and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it.* I don't want to go into too much detail here, but C & T are both getting teased in school for various reasons. And, as a mother and as a kid who was once picked on myself, my heart just breaks for them both. You just want your kids to have a wonderful childhood and to avoid all the horrible things you went thgrough as a kid. I want to give them the best possible future, and I feel so helpless. It just makes me feel so sad...

Anyway, now that it is truly the holiday season, I have started the kids on my usual X-mas excitement kick. Every night we watch a different Christmas movie (Rudolph, The Grinch, Charlie Brown or Garfield Christmas, etc.) and open the advent calendar (hey, any tradition that encourages the eating of chocolate is one we all should adopt ;) Then we sit around the tree and either read the various holiday story books (there's a whole bunch of Hanukkah ones, too...I'm an equal opportunity holidayist :) or count up all the presents under the tree. And we still have three more weeks to go! As a child, I just loved the feeling of anticipation that came with Christmas, and I love seeing how excited my own children get.

Example of Pu Family Christmas Joy:

We are watching Rudolph...enter Abominable Snowman...I grab Jocelyn and squeeze her pretending to be afraid...
Me: *gasp* Oh no, it is the Abominable Snowman. He is so scary!
J: Eeeee! Scary Nomabable Snowman!
Me: Is he going to eat Rudolph??!! I think he likes to eat reindeer.
J: *firmly* No! We will eat him first. He will be yummy like snow. Snow is yummy.
C: Um, what about his teeth? He has really big teeth.
J: *pauses thoughtfully* Then we will give him Alex.


So I leave you with some happy holiday pics:











*Thanks to all who commented on my previous post about the NCLB Act, especially those who aren't my normal audience. It is comforting and yet incredibly frustrating to know there are others facing these challenges. One can only hope that the Obama administration will turn their attention to our abysmal Education Dept; however, I think they'll probably be quite busy with just keeping the country afloat. I have just about given up on public schools altogether. I am seriously considering homeschooling, if only we can figure out a way we could afford it.







5 comments:

alexis said...

that is really discouraging to hear the schools are so bad!! And private schools are NOT cheap. :(

stef said...

I am so sorry to hear about the girls being teased. That is something I worry about. But in preschool? That seems early for that sort of thing.

Laura said...

So glad to hear you made it home alright! I was worried when that storm came in Monday afternoon.

I bought the most hilarious holiday book the other day. It's a play on the Christmas Carol called "Hanukkah Schmanukkah". The main character is Scroogermacher and he loves to yell at people in yiddish. I had a lot of fun trying to put on my best Jewish accent as I read it to Boris--thankfully he thought it was funny too and wasn't insulted by my blatant stereotyping ;)

The pictures are great and the tree looks beautiful! What beautiful kids you guys have!

Anonymous said...

Super glad they let you out early - I have great fears about driving the NM roads in winter especially after my horrifying last leg coming to Albuquerque the very first time in '93

As far as the kids all I can say is your mother and I totally experience the 'helpless parent' role. If it is any solace, in spite of helplessness and frustration, our kids seemed to turn out fantastic.

Finally, it is so heart warming to see that J is still firmly grounded in her opinion of A and his role in the household.

Susanne said...

So sorry to hear about the kids.

I think watching Christopher get bullied by an older kid ( http://theblogofloki.blogspot.com/2008/03/rollercoaster-that-is-motherhood.html) was seriously the saddest moment in my life. I bawled the entire way home after that play date.

I know this might be a little far fetched, but when we lived in NM I had a private tutor (Korean college kid). We were REALLY poor, so I know it couldn't have been that expensive. Let me know if it's something you're interested and I can call the KWA and see what they have available out there.