Time off

I still have 4 more days off before returning to the normal routines, so what have I been doing for the previous 4 days.

First thing was trying to keep 3 excited children from tearing everything apart. The day we finally had some wrapped presents under the tree, the kids went almost berserk. It took them a while to even notice that there were wrapped gifts under the tree the next morning, but as soon as they did it really got their motors fired up.

Second, shopping. I know, I know. Christmas always comes on the same day every year, and I have plenty of time to find the things I need to pick up for others, especially when I am out of town on my own. But, I have a hard time shopping. I can't ever get into it. Unless I know exactly where I need to go, and exactly what I need to get, I have a hard time wandering around finding anything (It also doesn't help that I can't find the specific things I need to pick up anywhere in SL and Utah valley). At least for Jess' birthday I had good plan, and pulled it off. So I do get credit for one event planned and prepared ahead of time.

Third, shoveling snow. This has been a pretty good year for snow at Christmas, so I didn't mind shoveling, except part of the handle of my shovel broke off under the weight of some of the loads, and now it is a pain (literally) to use the shovel I have. Yesterday I tried to find a replacement, but the stores were out. It was even just fine by me that I had to shovel our driveway and walks twice on Christmas day, as the snow kept falling.

Fourth, reading. I got a book from Jess this year. The Last Lecture. This book is about Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Melon University. It was a quick read, but really good. I would highly recommend it. Reading this book makes me want to set some goals and actually acheive them. I am not at all a goal setter, never have been, but there are definitely some things that I want to accomplish, and reading this book makes me want to do it. I will probably blog about some of these things later on, but right now I need to plan exactly what I want to do, and figure out the how also. Jess just ordered a book for herself and another one for me online, so when that one comes I will be doing a bit more reading. I am looking forward to this other book also.

On Christmas day itself we had a very nice day together. We tried to draw out the unwrapping festivities with our family, but still everything was finished up by noon. Jess' parents got our kids scooters. We placed the scooters off to the side in the living room so they wouldn't be seen first, but when one of the kids finally saw them they all started jumping up and down, then they each hopped on their own ride and went back and forth from the living room to the kitchen. It was great fun! Being a parent and seeing the excitement on your kids' faces on Christmas is awesome. I am glad to be able to have the time to spend with the family around the holidays, it is nice to be able to relax and have fun. We spent the afternoon on Christmas making a few different treats for our extended family get together. It is also great to get together with everyone and their families at M & Ds. To whomever brought the Glenn Beck DVD and Skip Bo, thanks. We watched the DVD that night, it was very good. It was interesting to hear Glenns story of how he came to join the church. I had never heard him tell the whole story before, on the radio he mentions bits and pieces at times, but the whole story was good, and quite funny at times also. As for Skip Bo, Jackson loves it. He hasn't even got to the Cranium game yet because he is still enamoured with Monopoly and Skip Bo. But thanks again to all for the gifts, and to Mom and Dad for having us all over.

As for the next four days, I think there will be probably more shoveling, more trying to occupy 3 crazy kids, and hopefully more reading good books, as well as planning and setting some goals.