Arrrrggghhh!

It is 10:51 PM and I am doing battle with a 5-year-old over going to bed!  She is being particularly obstreperous and is at risk of my waking her mother to handle the problem.  I'm giving her until 11:00 to stop coming out of the bedroom.  God bless her toady little heart!

Decorating for Christmas should be a simple thing.  Just remove the things that the decorations will displace, then put them back later, right?  Ha!  On Friday, Meg and I moved furniture around to make room for the Christmas tree.  Meg went through the toy box to remove things that aren't used any more.  We took a chair, lamp, and two tables to the garage, which is so cluttered, I can't even find the Baby Jesus for the manger scene yet!  I vacuumed endlessly.  Meg took the straw bale (fall decoration) to the minibarn and hung the Santa flag outside the front door.  We did lots and lots...and the children enjoyed decorating the tree last evening...but there was still more to do.  We got the stockings "hung by the chimney with care" today, but it rained all day, so the children trashed the living room.  (In truth, there they were both pretty good for half of the day.  The rest....well...)  We took them to the library.  When it was time to go, Ryan threw a fit because Robin wasn't putting her grocery cart where it should be.  We were all supposed to go to the "dollar store" after that, but Ry had to go home because of bad behavior.  Robin and I did the rest of the shopping.  This evening, Meg spent a lot of time with both kids for baths and stories.  It didn't help.  They were settled during attention time, but whacko when it came to going to bed.  Heh heh...the other day, I made a comment about how I had been with children all day and needed some Grandma Time...and Robin asked, "Do you wish you had your own bedroom?"  Uh...yes.  I wish we all did!  Which is why I am hoping we can do something with the garage to relieve the stress in the rest of the house...  And we STILL need to trash a lot of stuff!

And so it goes.  Santa has a big task this year.  He has to struggle down to an electric fireplace that doesn't have a chimney.  (The children don't know that!)  I think I was about Robin's age when someone spilled the beans to me about Santa.  Once she finds out, she won't be able to keep the news from her brother.

Hmmm...it's quiet in the bedroom right now.  Perhaps I can go to bed now?  God rest ye, merry gentlemen....or gentlewomen, as the case may be!