Cramming

Cramming. That's what happens when you haven't studied all quarter and suddenly find yourself faced with a final that's 60% of your grade. It's also what happens when you've been in denial for three weeks that Christmas is coming and suddenly realize that it will be here in a week.

Yesterday we crammed at least two weeks' worth of holiday spirit into one day. We started off with a train ride with the Big Guy himself. No, not God, silly....Santa. We had to drive an hour and a half to get there so on the way we popped Polar Express into the dvd player. I don't usually resort to that for driving entertainment, but anyone who's driven on Route 32 to Athens knows how boring it is even for adults, nevermind wired children on their way to see Santa. The train ride was a smashing success. We were early enough to get seats on the good car, no one melted down or got motion sickness, and none of my children screamed when faced with a rather rotund man in a bright red suit and a creepily fake beard. Yay!

P.S., the burrito buggy is not there during Christmas break. Bummer. Taco John's served as a satisfactory second choice, though.

Once home, we decided to break out the decorations, and Dave went to chop down the tree. Again, all went surprisingly well. After last year's episode of the tree tipping over just after the last ornament had been hung, we got smart and tied the thing off to the wall before we even started.

Still to do: wrapping, cookies, wrapping, shopping for Dave, wrapping...