Oh CRAP the Kids are Home ALL Week!

Sunday night I went to sleep thinking happily about how I could sleep in the next day. No car pool, no place I had to be, just SLEEP wonderful SLEEP. And then I woke up. I realized that not having to drive carpool meant that I was trapped  for the whole day, NO the whole WEEK with two Christmas crazed children and nothing planed to keep them busy. Never mind that I have had a cold for the last week and really just wanted to sleep all day. Forget that both of them have XBOX, WII, Nintendo DS etc to keep them busy and quiet so mom could finally sleep in. No. I awoke this morning to the dulcet sounds of one brother trying to kill the other. At least that is how it sounded. So I groggily stumbled to the bedroom door to scream ( oops) gently ask what was going on and why they were being so loud. I was informed that they were playing some kind of game that involved yelling and screaming and generally carrying on.

I tried reminding them that mommy is sick and I would really like to sleep in when I was informed that I needed to get up anyway because they were hungry and apparently their arms and legs could no longer  perform the task of pouring cereal for themselves. Before the cereal was even wet in their bowls the begging began. You see we have a tradition in our house of making gingerbread houses every year for Christmas. I started this tradition when they were small and I could do all the work when they were napping. Now the tradition begins each year in October when the first gingerbread houses appear in the stores. That is when the boys start with " MOM you gotta buy us a gingerbread house for Christmas. It's a TRADITION!" Every year I patiently explain that I will buy no gingerbread houses until December. Then in December I remind them that they cannot make the house until they are out of school for Christmas vacation. So this morning as I was pouring milk into their bowls with only one eye opened they started with " Can we make the gingerbread houses today? Its Christmas Break." Since I was still half asleep I stupidly agreed to this madness.

Now I had to "glue" the houses together with melted sugar so they could decorate them. I really should not be allowed to speak before 10:00am much less cook. It never ends well when I get embroiled in a scheme before 10:00 am. I get out my "sugar" pan. A pan that I have totally destroyed melting sugar in for the last 5 years. Since I have had zero caffine at this point I was not paying close enough attention to the melting sugar as I "glued" the houses together and the sugar pot boiled over all over the stove. Melted sugar is hotter than a hot glue gun and just as sticky. So I finished "gluing" the houses and left the mess for later. I threatened the children not to touch the houses for 45 minutes and went back to bed. It does not take 45 minutes for the sugar to cool but I was hoping that if I fell asleep they would just let me rest and we could do the gingerbread houses in the afternoon. No such luck. Both boys decided to "keep me company" while they waited for the sugar to cool. I resigned myself to not going back to sleep.

When the kids could wait no longer they informed me that it was TIME. So I went into the kitchen and set them free on the houses. I told them they had to clean up when they were done and I snuck back to bed. I wasn't in bed 5 minutes when the youngest one came in and told me that he REALLY needed my help. I begged him to do it alone, knowing that this would mean that my kitchen would never be the same but not even caring. When I awoke I was pleasantly suprised. The boys had put down newspaper on the table so as to make clean up easier and they had finished the decorating without killing each other.

As I was smiling to myself that they had gotten to decorate and I had gotten a nap I realized that the kids would be home the WHOLE week Jonesing on Christmas and I had planned NOTHING to entertain them. I know I am in trouble now. PRAY for ME.