Busy pre-christmas weekend

Well, it was a very busy pre-Christmas weekend for us. Now that it is Monday I am finally getting a chance to recover.

It started on Thursday night. The moms of Colin's first grade class organised a pizza party at a local restaurant for the kids. Nice idea, because they chose a restaurant with a play area for kids, complete with "entertainers" (a nice euphemism for babysitters) to watch them while they are in the play area, and a big screen out in the dining area, so the moms could keep an eye on them, when they weren't chatting away. Unfortunately, it was supposed to start at 7:30pm, which of course means that it did not actually get underway until 8:00pm, and we finally made it home at 11:00pm! On a school night! And since Marco was out of town for the night, Lucia was also out until 11:00pm (she did however, nap for about the last half hour on my lap at the restaurant). Colin had a blast, and the children only stopped running around long enough to shove some pizza in their faces, then later, ice cream. However, getting them out of bed for school on Friday was a nightmare.

Saturday was Lucia's big day. December 13th is the feast of Santa Lucia, or Saint Lucy. In Italy, is it common to celebrate the feast day of your patron saint with gifts, etc. And Santa Lucia is a very important saint here, in fact, in parts of Italy, gifts are given to children on Santa Lucia instead of Christmas. Lucia was psyched with the attention this afforded her, and referred to the day as "Santa Me". I tried to explain to her that nobody would ever take her for a saint, but that there was a woman whose name was also Lucia, who was a very good person and.... And that was about the point she lost interest and walked away. At any rate, we had swimming lessons in the morning, which is fun for the kids as well as Mom and Dad, because there is a little gym right above the pool where Marco and I can workout while the kids are swimming. Then in the afternoon it was off to Lucia's Christmas show. She was a woodsman (woodsgirl?) in the play in which the king, queen and princess of a castle were searching for the perfect Christmas tree. Most of the big parts go to the 3rd year kids of the pre-school, Lucia and her fellow 2nd-year woodskids (?) did a nice little dance, some kids played trees, in general it was the typical chaos of pre-school Christmas shows. Big news this year is that none of the first-year kids cried. It's funny how the first year the kids are absolutely terrified - last year Lucia hid behind another kid, and at Colin's first year program, he just stood there looking out at the audience with a deer-in-headlights kind of expression. By the second year, they are much more comfortable, actually able to sing the songs with the group at the end, though still a little shy. By the third year, they are champs, ready for their close-up, Mr. Demille. Lucia was adorable this year. She did her little dance, then sat on the stage at the end with all the other kids and sang a couple of songs and recited a Christmas poem. I had made 2 little braids in her hair, as I thought this would go with the woodskid costume, and at the end when they were singing, she sat there with her little hands up near her face as she held on tightly to both braids the whole time. I asked her later why she was holding on to them while she was singing, and she said that another kid was tugging on them backstage. Then we were back home again, as Colin had to do his homework and Mommy had a birthday cake to make, because the next day was the party!

Yes, Sunday afternoon we had a little party for Colin. We only had 3 little boys come over, but they had a blast tearing up the house. We made a pinata, and of course the boys thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to bash something. Thankfully, no children were hospitalized as a result. We also played musical chairs, which Colin had played at another kid's party and he now loves I made a space rocket birthday cake, decorated with red and blue M&M's, which pushed the limits of my rather limited baking capacity, and then my husband never got a photo of the masterpiece! It was a nice little party, and Colin was so excited. He has talked of nothing but his birthday for weeks.