A Christmas Story

I have a serious love/hate relationship with this movie and watching it is not part of my "holiday tradition." It embodies everything that is wrong with how Americans celebrate Christmas and I cringe every time one of the little kids swear but who doesn't want a BB gun for Christmas? And who doesn't remember having those internal monologues as a kid and thinking your logic was perfectly sound?

However, some person (who, out of the goodness and generosity of my heart shall remain nameless) watches this movie and accused Erik of reminding them of Scut Farkus. Scut Farkus?, you may say, Who is Skut Farkus?

He's the really mean bully that Ralphie eventually beats up. I had to watch the movie to find this out and this name caller is totally wrong. Erik looks nothing like Skut Farkus! But Jacob does...
Coon skin cap and all, well, no yellow eyes. And then as we watched the rage well up in Ralphie's eyes as his dreams of getting an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time are dashed along with receiving a C+ on his homework and the "P.S. You'll shoot your eye out" at the bottom, and the final blow of a snowball in the face from Farkus, we realized, we know that kid too!

We didn't have any glasses so we had to make some. They're pretty boss right? Merry Christmas!

Dye-lemma

That's how a Texan would pronounce it and that is what we have. The dye-lemma is thumbsucking and the widely known fact that it is next to impossible to break. There is a steady progression of desparation to prevent buck-toothness and thousands of dollars of potential college fund money diverted to an orthodontist.

Step 1 "Yukky stuff" (followed by even yukkier stuff, not shown)

Step 2 Athletic tape combined with bribery (I will give you candy if this tape

is still on when you get up from nap...) Step 3 Duct tape over the athletic tape combined with bribery

for when child refuses to leave tape onStep 4 Sew gloves onto pajamas and safety pin zipper up to prevent

child from removing pajamas without authorization

Step 5...give up. Currently we are on Step 4.

As many homeschooling families are probably doing right now, we are in a push to get somewhat close to halfway before Christmas. Today we are learning about money and thus I have created "MomMart" on the dining room table. MomMart carries a limited inventory but the prices are all under a dollar since the customers can't count past one hundred yet. All prices are set based on the product's relative value to a 5 year-old. For example, hand soap is of limited value to Jake and thus is priced at 7 cents.

On the other hand, popsicles are our big ticket item at an astounding 99 cents.

Happy December

Well the tree is up and Jake has already taken part int he ceremonial "run around with Christmas stockings on your feet" 5K. We're off to a good start!