Day After Christmas Movie Night

Good Wednesday morning!

I know today is a big "last minute" type day. One more stocking stuffer... a couple of ingredients you were sure you had in the pantry, but you were wrong... wrapping, wrapping, wrapping. It will be a busy day for most, to be sure.

This is our day (the Faulkner Five). I always call and double check to make sure the Chinese restaurant will indeed be open at 5:45 when the Carol and Candlelight Service is over. I make sure we are all aware we have to be at the church at 4:00 to 4:10 to get a seat for the 5:00 service. We then argue (discuss) what we think we did last year, and everyone is sure we didn't get there until 4:35 or 4:40 (except for me and Mikie). WRONG! We'll let the kids exchange their gifts to one another tonight, and Mike and I will exchange our gifts to each other after they go to bed. And then I hope I get to "sleep in heavenly peace!"

NOTE: One of my favorite pictures I ever took of the kids when they were little was on Christmas Eve night when they were SOUND asleep... drool and all. They were so precious, and it made a great scrapbook page.

I told you yesterday I had a little mouse story to share. I guess it's my own version of Despereaux... but with a very sad ending.

Last Tuesday night, we had a little visitor. A cute, tiny little mouse was found wandering upstairs in the kids' bedrooms. Mike, Austin, Joshua and Roxie tried to catch, chase, extricate the mouse from the house, but to no avail.

Let me say in the seven years we've lived in this house, we have only had one other tiny visitor. We live next to a wooded lot, and sometimes when the weather changes, they try to come in for warmth or dryness or both. However, we also have several cats in our neighborhood, so there has never been a mouse or chipmunk problem in our home.

Surprisingly, I was not freaked out by our little guest. Mike put one trap in the kitchen, and I planned on going to the store the next day to buy the traps that don't hurt the little creatures, but keep them contained so you can put them back into the woods from whence they came.

All day long, I worked around house, but little Despereaux didn't make an appearance. I even thought he might have ventured outside again.

I wasn't really thinking about little Despereaux. I was making supper, setting the table, getting everything ready for the dinner time rush. I had gathered the household trash earlier and set it by the door. December is Roxie's month to take the trash out, and I called her to finish her chore. Beside the trash bag was a large black trash bag, but instead of trash it held 15 to 20 of Roxie's outfits to be taken to a friend with three little girls. Not wanting Roxie to take out BOTH trash bags, I walked over to the door, picked up the clothes bag and moved it to a different area of the house. When I walked over to pick up the clothes bag, I stepped on the corner of the trash bag. I heard a crunch, but because I had been cooking all day, I assumed it was an egg shell in the bottom of the trash bag.

Roxie came and scooped up the bag to take outside to the garbage can... and screamed. There underneath the bag was Despereaux. We both jumped back expecting him to scamper, but he just lay there very still. Austin and Josh came running to see what the commotion was about. Josh was the first to declare him dead. Austin was the first to declare him flatter than a pancake. "He's been crushed," he said.

"How?" Roxie asked. All three of them were eye level with the pancake of a mouse now.

"Was the trash bag heavy?" one of the boys asked Roxie.

"No, it was really light," she replied.

"Well, this doesn't make sense," one of them logically stated.

Unfortunately, I knew exactly what had happened. It was the parking lot bird all over again. Me and my mammoth feet had crushed yet another woodland creature... except this one had not survived. I told the guys what had happened.

"You stomped it to death!" Roxie accused.

"No. Stomping would mean I had done it on purpose," I explained. "I simply stepped on something it was hiding under. It was an accident, pure and simple."

"Well, it sure looks like you stomped it," one of the guys noted as Austin disposed of the little guy.

"How much do you weigh anyway?" was Roxie's next question.

"That's irrelevant. We should just be thankful he died quickly." I wish I could have said painlessly, too, but what are the odds of a fully grown woman crushing you and it not hurting... at least a little bit.

Despereaux continues to be a topic of conversation at our home... and at church... and at family gatherings this Christmas season. I try to act like it doesn't matter, but I've got to tell you it was not one of my finer moments.

Needless to say, we will NOT be reading The Night Before Christmas in our home this season. It is just too painful and fresh... "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." Especially, it would seem, a little mouse named Despereaux Faulkner. The End... (literally).

Day After Christmas Movie Night

Do you remember when you were a kid how yucky the day after Christmas was? It was just a big anticlimactic day. Christmas had been great, but now you were starting the countdown until the next Christmas, and it was just kind of sad.

I decided I wanted to do something with the kids the day after Christmas which we could continue to do even when they reached adulthood and had kids of their own. We would go to a movie the afternoon AFTER Christmas. After the movie, we would choose a neat restaurant and go out to eat, too. And to afford this outing right after we had spent so much money during the Christmas season, I decided to make the kids' stockings into "go to the movie" stockings. That means every year the kids each get a $10 RAVE Movie Theater Gift Certificate and their favorite movie candy in their stocking. (We still buy popcorn and drinks when we get there.) Our restaurant of choice is paid for with our Family Date Money we put aside every pay day ($20 a pay period), so the Day After Christmas Movie is not a burden... it is covered. And it is fun.

The best movies seem to come out from Thanksgiving to Christmas, so it usually isn't hard to pick a good one. Right now, we're waiting for the reviews for Marley and Me and Bedtime Stories. Trying to find a movie that spans the 12 year-old girl to 17 year-old guy range can be tricky sometimes, but Austin and Josh are both troopers, and so far we've been able to enjoy all the movies we've picked since this tradition started six years ago.

I highly recommend doing this. Like I said, our family has enjoyed it so much, and it is very easy to bring along girlfriends, and later spouses and their children. Not knowing how much time we'll get to spend with the kids when they grow up and marry and have other family obligations, this will also ensure some fun time for us during the holidays we might not otherwise have.

Late tomorrow night, I will post for Thursday morning. I will include a date AND one more seasonal book. I'll take the rest of the weekend off (no posts Friday, Saturday and Sunday), but I'll be back Monday, December 29 with some wintertime fun for everyone.

Oh, yeah... the Christmas Card Count. I almost forgot (NOT)! I have 63 Christmas cards. I will get the mail today and tomorrow, and if my math is right, I just need 12 more cards. I also have to tell you that I usually get three to five cards after Christmas (which is totally acceptable.)

Have a great Christmas Eve, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.