Santa Shop

We went to Carmen and Kurt's last Saturday for their Christmas party. It was fine except for we didn't know anyone other than our family. The kids did well considering that they had nothing to do but they were really well behaved. Rachel felt bad that they were bored but we knew that they would be. We had a choice to go to theirs or Chris and Rachels next week and we decided to do Carmen's this year. Next year we might do Chris'.

I worked the Santa shop at the school all this week. It was fun but tiring. Jessie loved helping out for a little while when she got out of school. Next year will be easier because they will both be in all day. All the kids get into buying presents. As predicted, some of course tried to buy for themselves but for the most part they stuck to the lists. It is fun to see what they pick. Many tried to buy toys for their family members and we had to steer them clear of that. They were all pretty good bargain shoppers. I think we only had one child this year that had so many names and only like $10 to spend that he ended up being able to spend only 75 cents a person. That makes it interesting. It was so popular that we kept running out of bags to wrap the presents in. I helped Jessie with her gifts but Brandon was on his own. He did pretty good but went off his list to include the pets, which I told him not to because then he went cheaper on some of the others, namely his sister. He did however put a lot of thought into his gifts and his heart was in the right place. I think next year if I am able to work it, I am going to have them come after school and shop together so we won't have any issues hopefully. They also participated in the blanket drive for the homeless (we did get some blankets) and the food drive and the toy drive. All in all it was a good week. Next week they only have two days of actual school and Wed. is Brandon's school party in the afternoon and Jessie's in the morning. Thursday they have literacy testing so no official school. Then break for two weeks. When they come back they only have one semester to go. Where did the year go? Wasn't it just Halloween? They went to see Santa at the mall last night and we ate Subway and walked the mall and they turned in their letters to the special mailbox in the mall. Tomorrow we do Electricritters at the zoo. More on that later.