The Griswald Family Christmas continues. This time with mouth injuries.

The weekend started on a huge high for me. On Friday morning I had my first ever parent-teacher interview. Without patting Emily on the back too ferociously, it was a huge love-in. In Mrs. B's words: "Emily is a delight to have in the class. We all just love her so much." I almost wept right there. Not that I was expecting much different, to be honest. If a kid loves to go to school as much as Emily does, chances are she is doing really well there, having a great time, and is being shown a lot of praise and love from her teacher(s).

She is doing really well in all of the usual kindergarten stuff: writing and phonetics and playing well with others and participating. Apparently she is the kid that Mrs. B turns to if no one else has the answer. She said it is great to have a student like that in the class, the one you can count on. That was nice to hear. However, my favourite part was this: Mrs. B noted that Emily has a "strong sense of justice." I had to laugh and tell her that that is much more diplomatic than the way we put it: bossy, mother-hen, battle-axe. Mrs. B said that she keeps Emily in check but has to laugh when Emily is telling the other kids to listen or get in line or clean up.

So, that day was a good one.

On Saturday, as per our 25 days of Christmas instructions, we went to get a Christmas tree. Emily wasn't herself. She looked a bit pale and was tired from the get-go. We drove south of the city to Thomas Tree Farms. It was beautiful. The snow was lightly falling; we were taken out to the field on a tractor-drawn wagon; we wandered through the trees looking for the perfect one; Emily cried and complained the whole time. It kind of sucked. Hope had a great time though and loved it all.



We headed back with our tree. John went to load it on the car while we had our free hot chocolate and homemade cookies. Emily spilled hers. She cried. Finally we headed to the mecca: the playground. I thought this might turn things around. I was sooooo wrong.

Emily had been whining wanting to go there the whole time. Emily took her first go down the slide, took a step away from the bottom, hit shear ice and her feet went out BEHIND her, her teeth, chin and lip hit the ice. I grabbed her right away, scooped her up and saw the blood pouring our of her mouth and skin lodged between her top front teeth. It was yet another moment when my heart was in my throat. I couldn't have stopped it from happening but I wish I could turn back time at that moment. Her teeth were all there, thankfully, but it was awful. She was in a lot of pain, crying terribly and Hope was about to come shooting down the slide. I grabbed the closest mother, who was a bit shell-shocked from watching all of this and asked her to catch Hope and escort her off the treacherous playground. We then walked to the car as quickly as we could and I nursed Emily out of her tears, out of her snowsuit and into her car seat where she fell asleep. The poor girl. Not only was she under-the-weather, now she also had a serious mouth injury and was caked in blood. She has a terrible scab on her lip and has only started to eat again tonight when we bribed her with her favourite food: pizza.


Getting the tree had the potential to be one of those perfect family days but it turned into one of those should-have-been-perfect-but-of-course-it-wasn't kind of days that are inevitable when you have two kids under the age of 5. Next year John and I might leave the kids with someone else and make a date of it. Or maybe we'll just go to Ikea.

Things got better that night when we decorated the gingerbread house. It was good fun and the girls sailed into the evening on a sugar high.


On the Hope front, it was a big weekend for our littlest family member. On Sunday afternoon, John took apart the crib and put together her big girl bed. She was beside herself excited. Of course, it took me until 8:45 to get out of her room but miraculously she stayed in bed all night and even napped in there today (a downright miracle; I thought she would never stay in the bed during the day but she surprised me again). Tonight was better. All was quiet by 8:30.


Today we had a great day. We put the tree up and decorated it. We played Christmas music. We were all happy. I hope it lasts beyond today and Emily doesn't get too much attention tomorrow due to her lip. That would make things difficult for her.


And now, onto more cookie baking. I've actually had to stop taking orders for Christmas because I can't handle anymore and still enjoy time with the girls. I have 23 orders to complete by Christmas Eve! Amazing! I've decided to only accept new pie or tourtiere orders now for Christmas and start accepting New Year's orders (and beyond). I never expected this kind of response. Now I have to figure out how to repitch things for post-Christmas.

And how was your weekend?