a peek inside the fishbowl

Mark joked that the activity for our first day of advent should be:

Hooray! We’re going to get our H1N1 vaccine!

Ha. No. I wouldn’t have put it in the advent (this is what we really did) but we still had to get our shots. And we did, at Tom Brown. They were efficient and polite and even pleasant. The girls were awesome. I was really impressed. Sarah volunteered to go first, even though she was clearly frightened and somewhat freaked out by the whole deal. She said she hates the thought of a piece of metal sticking out of her skin. (I concur!) We told her no one likes to get a needle but sometimes we need to do things we don’t like to do. That’s life, right?

Afterwards we bought some ice cream. I lit the candles in our faux fireplace (shown rather fuzzily here) and we ate our treat on the floor. Something occurred to me. We’re a team. The girls are older now and our family dynamic has changed. We’re no longer two adults caring/micromanaging/directing the lives for two helpless little ones; we’re a family of four people who have opinions and attitudes and feelings and have a SAY in what kind of ice cream we should buy. It’s a democracy! Or maybe it’s more like a kindly dictatorship? Regardless of how we try to define it, it’s different now. And I like it.

Anyway, this was not the point of my post.

Day two of our family advent was about charity. I like to do the charity stuff near the top of the calendar, not just to get it out of the way, but to make a point. ‘Tis the season of giving after all, right?

I felt like crap all day yesterday (a result of the vaccine no doubt) and it hit me like a ton of bricks after school. Raging headache, fatigue, sore arm; I wasn’t capable of doing anything so I wandered in and out of the room while Mark and the girls checked out the World Vision catalogue together. Emma chose to buy clothing for 25 children and Sarah chose to give the gift of a piglet.

It was a good thing to do. Flipping through the website always brings up a lot of interesting questions; Why are girls at risk of not getting an education? Why do people need mosquito nets? What could someone do with two hens and a rooster?

Day three (today) is about writing letters to Santa. I’ve already mentioned that the eldest doesn’t believe anymore, but she’s willing to keep the tradition alive for her sister. We’re going to hunker down after school and write out our lists, illustrate the letters, and pop them in the mail. ETA: Here’s Sarah, with a banana/toffee milkshake while she works on her draft.

I’ve been working on mine already. :)

Which reminds me… what’s on YOUR list this year?

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This post is part of the 25 days of Christmas challenge. It’s never too late to play along!  You can check out the Flickr group too.