Whirlwind weekend

Another whirlwind weekend here.  People keep telling me we are so busy all the time, but I feel like it comes in spurts, not a continuous wave.  I think the fact that I blog about things lead folks to assume we are always busy, but usually during the week, other than sports practices and scout I try not to schedule anything.  Personally, I am ready for some down time- 9 more working days before no school, no work and some rest and relaxation.

 

Let's sum up where we were last week, Monday night was PTO meeting for me (I am the treasurer), then Tuesday was supposed to be a scout meeting for planning the summer campout (I did not go), Wednesday was basketball practice, Thursday was tree sale night for us.  We had the 5:45- 9 pm shift. This is something extra.  We had to take 3 shifts, at least 2 on a weekend.  The money earned by the troop covers the cost of the bus/gas/new equipment for the troop/ a large part of the food budget for campouts and other things.  So while Falco will not be a scout with us next year, he is benefitting from the work done last year at the tree sale and he is working this year to "pay it forward" to the troop.  Rocket has benefited since March from the work done last year and he is paying it forward to the coming year and the new scouts coming into the troop in March 2017. I don't think either of the boys fully get that someone else paid for them and now they are doing the same for the incoming boys.  I think it is a life experience thing and it will be years before they truly understand.

Having hot chocolate (one of the things the troops provides to the boys during tree sales).

my view most of the night.  The job Falco picked for himself was to restock the tree stands when trees were sold and I helped him because you need 2 people to carry the trees and tied onto the stakes.  Again, this feeds into the not understanding that someone worked last year knowing they were aging out in the early part of the year, thus receiving little to no benefit from selling, but their work allowed Falco  to participate at NO cost this year.

Friday night we had plans to attend the Christkindlmarket in Hamilton.  When we got there, we could not find it, so we went to the hotel to ask directions.  It was in the hotel!!!  Now the Christkindlmarket are outside events in Europe.  We missed the other 2 here in town, but I will check them out next year just in case Falco comes back for a holiday.

Back to the story- I was mortified at the christkindlmarket, Falco was laughing.  I was so embarrassed as an American for Falco to experience this.  We stayed like 10 minutes, long enough for Falco to get some funny pictures, me to look at the cream puffs that looked like they had been sitting out for days and for Rocket to buy a chocolate covered pretzel and water.  I checked my phone and we ended up driving down the street to an outdoor light show.  the show is a drive through show.  We had a good time looking at lights and I was able to laugh about the christkindlmarket experience by the time we got home.

 

Rocket took the pictures below as we were driving.  Since he had to turn the flash off, the pictures are blurry. 

 

Saturday we had 2 events, 3 if you count Rocket's basketball game that conflicted with event 1 for the day.   AFS had the holiday brunch for the students and families on Saturday from 10-1 pm.  This has been on our calendar for months.  Basketball registration was 2 months ago, but the schedule came out on Monday, 28Nov.  the scheduled showed Rocket's game at 9:30 am.  Well basketball lost out.  I don't get why the basketball coordinators don't get that starting the season in holiday season means people already have plans.  They should have a tentative schedule out in October just so people block off time on calendars.  

Anyway, after the brunch, we headed downtown for the holiday concert at the Pops.

 

The boys got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  They are such handsome boys.

Rocket conducted the "orchestra" with the penguin.

I got to have a selfie with Frosty (who was a Mrs. Frosty)

me and my boy. he was so tired.  He ended up taking a nap during the performance, falling asleep about 15 minutes before intermission.

The AFS students at the brunch. Not everyone was here

Falco and the boys.  the one in all black is also going home at the end of the semester AND he is on the same flight as Falco all the way to Europe!!  It sounds like he will spend the night here and I will take the boys to the airport in the morning for their flights to Chicago.  Poor boys, they will have to overnight in Chicago before their flight home to Europe. 

Sunday, we had church and the family over, then we headed out to sell some more trees.   It was raining and for our 4 hour shift, we sold 2 trees.  We had cleaned out the deep freezer and Rocket pulled all the ice from the sides to bring to the fire.  Again, learning about the properties of water, heat and the resulting steam.

I brought stuff to make smores.  this is Falco standing in the rain cooking the marshmallow.  We all think the big marshmallows are too big- they don't get soft in the middle.  But, the smores were yummy.

 

We got home at 9 pm and we were all tired.  I made it to 11:30 so I could see the weather.  this week, the cold air final arrives.  By Friday the high temperature will not even reach freezing (-1 C).  I was looking at past years and we already had snow by this time in past years so I really cannot complain about our warmer winter so far, but I am going to complain once the snow gets here.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb