Well, I did take the kids to see "Cinderella".  It was actually three Cinderella stories.  One from China, another from Russia, and one from Native Americans.  We enjoyed all three, and it gave me an idea for writing a literature unit.  A couple of years ago we checked out about 15 different versions of the Cinderella story from the library and had fun reading and comparing them with each other.

I'm tying up loose ends for Christmas.  I've been enjoying all the preparation because we haven't been overwhelmed.  We have about 20 big Rubbermaid bins in the attic filled with ornaments and decor and garlands.  I hate having them stacked everywhere and feeling that Christmas is just too much work!!  This year Stephen brought in just a few bins at a time for me to empty, and then he put the empties back in the attic and brought down a few more.  It worked out great.  I have two more garlands to put up somewhere....I just remembered where the big one goes....then we'll be done. 

I promised the kids we'd make a gingerbread house.  Ugh.  That means buying a tons of candies for decorating, and I'm feeling tightwad-ish right now.  We'll be making maybe 4 or 5 different kinds of cookies in the next few days.  This is just about the only time I ever bake anymore.  My poor kids are growing up not even knowing what homemade cookies taste like!  They'll thank me someday. 

Now, if I can get something together for dinner tonight, life will be good.  I've been reading up on Mike Huckabee and what a disastrous Presidential candidate he would be, and I still have some laundry to do and the kitchen counter is once again covered with STUFF.    Story of my life.