Worms & Waffles

My husband and I dislike being away from our families at Christmas. Since we can't go home, we thought to spend the holiday frolicking in the snow. Happiness is someone else cooking, fresh powder, a hot onsen, and being outside- our favorite ski resort seemed the perfect place. However, booking rooms during the school holiday turned out to be difficult. Finally, today, the travel agent confirmed the flights and the rooms.

Before dinner we had the, "I lost my mittens" trauma, followed by the, "I hate homework," protests, followed by, "you are a bad mama," since I pointed out that there is no more TV after seven in the evening on a school night which is a problem when you take until six to get your homework done and then have to eat your dinner. Oh, and there was also the, "there is a worm in my rice" nightmare (American rice) which required a new dinner preparation consisting of frozen waffles. I tried joking about protein and told them about Papillion who survived because he ate bugs when the French prison tried to starve him and because he had a friend who helped him. After further questioning and discussion, the two of them felt sad about Papi leaving his friend behind on the island so we made up that he went back to visit his friend a la Mr. Rogers.

Finally, the homework was done, the TV was off, and dinner was being eaten, when I said, "We're going to spend Christmas in Hokkaido! You can play in the snow, build a snowman, go skiing...." The response, "What? We're not going to be home for Christmas? We can't leave our tree! Why did we get a tree if we aren't going to be here?" This was followed by, "Oh, no! Santa is not going to find us! What are we going to do? We need to write Santa a note! Get a piece of paper!"

When my husband came home, he went up to kiss the munsters and found the Mule sobbing away in her bed- about the tree being left alone and being away at Christmas. I had no idea the trip would cause this much distress. We're going to wait to see how things shake out tomorrow in the light of day, but we may need to rethink our Christmas getaway. Who knew?

My husband and I dislike being away from our families at Christmas. Since we can't go home, we thought to spend the holiday frolicking in the snow. Happiness is someone else cooking, fresh powder, a hot onsen, and being outside- our favorite ski resort seemed the perfect place. However, booking rooms during the school holiday turned out to be difficult. Finally, today, the travel agent confirmed the flights and the rooms.

Before dinner we had the, "I lost my mittens" trauma, followed by the, "I hate homework," protests, followed by, "you are a bad mama," since I pointed out that there is no more TV after seven in the evening on a school night which is a problem when you take until six to get your homework done and then have to eat your dinner. Oh, and there was also the, "there is a worm in my rice" nightmare (American rice) which required a new dinner preparation consisting of frozen waffles. I tried joking about protein and told them about Papillion who survived because he ate bugs when the French prison tried to starve him and because he had a friend who helped him. After further questioning and discussion, the two of them felt sad about Papi leaving his friend behind on the island so we made up that he went back to visit his friend a la Mr. Rogers.

Finally, the homework was done, the TV was off, and dinner was being eaten, when I said, "We're going to spend Christmas in Hokkaido! You can play in the snow, build a snowman, go skiing...." The response, "What? We're not going to be home for Christmas? We can't leave our tree! Why did we get a tree if we aren't going to be here?" This was followed by, "Oh, no! Santa is not going to find us! What are we going to do? We need to write Santa a note! Get a piece of paper!"

When my husband came home, he went up to kiss the munsters and found the Mule sobbing away in her bed- about the tree being left alone and being away at Christmas. I had no idea the trip would cause this much distress. We're going to wait to see how things shake out tomorrow in the light of day, but we may need to rethink our Christmas getaway. Who knew?