Unfulfilled plans

Over the past month I have spent a large amount of time planning classroom holiday parties. I'm room mom for Madeline's class, and as such, I am responsible for organizing class parties. It's a lot of work, but I happily do the job because I know it makes Madeline really happy. The first three years she was in school I didn't help out like I do now because I was busy with an infant who grew into a hard to wrangle toddler. I had my hands full and sending in napkins or cookies for a class party was about all I could manage at the time. On some level I really enjoy planning these parties. I'm very organized and in most cases, I can put these parties together in under 5 days. Sometimes things get a little hairy, but seeing the smiling kids at the party makes the hassles worthwhile. Planning a party for my CCD class is a little less stressful, but still it took me some time to figure out what I wanted to ask the parents to provide for the party, and of course planning a craft takes a little time. The time it takes to plan these parties really adds up. When all of it gets cancelled due to one snow storm, it's a huge understatement to say that I'm disappointed.

I got a phone call from Madeline's school about 30 minutes ago. School has been cancelled for the rest of the week. In one week, our school has used up all three built in snow days. Easter break will now only be a few days long. (Madeline is going to LOVE that she will be at church just about every day of her Easter break.) I'm angry with the township for doing the crappiest plowing job I've ever seen. (Note to plow truck drivers: If you put the plow DOWN, you can move the snow better!) If they had been proactive and plowed throughout the snowstorm instead of waiting until there was 24 inches of snow on the road we might not have such awful road conditions and the kids probably would have been able to go to school this week.

Madeline is very upset that her holiday brunch and Polar Express day will not be happening at school. I feel bad for all the parents who are now stuck with brunch items for a class of 25. If I had known this afternoon that school was going to be cancelled for the week I wouldn't have had to endure a trip to a mad house supermarket with a poorly cleared parking lot to buy french toast sticks for the brunch. Ugh!

On the bright side, today was not a total waste of a day. I took the girls to visit my parents. I dropped off our gifts to my parents and gave them all the gifts I had for my brothers and other family members that they would be seeing. I got Madeline off to confession, and to make her feel better about going, I went, too. (Twice in two weeks. That's astonishing for me.)

My brother, Mark, who got in the car accident the night before Thanksgiving is still pretty shaken from it. (Did I mention that before? The car was totaled but he wasn't seriously injured.) I called him today and he told me that this year he won't be driving up to my house for Christmas Eve. I'm disappointed, but I'd rather him not have to stress out about the drive. Since Madeline was born, Mark has come to our house late every Christmas Eve to say good night to the girls and help Bryan and I put all the Christmas gifts under the tree. He usually hangs out with us for a few hours and watches movies or hits me while we play the Wii. (He said it was an accident, but I think he was being a sore loser that year.) It will seem odd not having him here this Christmas Eve, but given his track record when traveling around holidays, I'd rather him stay safe at home. I suspect my parents will probably drive him to our house on Christmas.

I'm amazed at how much one snowstorm has managed to thwart a vast majority of my plans. (Let's not forget that all of my weekend plans were ruined, too.) For a control freak like me, this is a very humbling experience. Clearly, I am not the one in control here. I'm doing my best not to get too upset about all the upheaval.