Check

Thanksgiving…check.

Dylan’s “practice” birthday party…check.

Dylan’s BIG backyard drive-in movie birthday party…check.

Dylan’s birthday celebration at school…check.

Dylan’s “Mensch of the Week” project (Mensch is Yiddish for “a person of integrity and honor”) that required us to schlep around a one-eyed brown stuffed bear for a week, take pictures of him and Dylan all over town and write a story about it…check.

Homemade Hanukkah and Christmas cards for grandparents and cousins…check.

Thank you notes for Dylan’s birthday presents…check.

Christmas tree up and decorated…check.

Hanukkah menorahs out…check.  (In case you’re wondering, a traditional menorah has seven candles and a Hanukkah menorah, or Hanukkiah, has nine candles.  Dylan and Riley explained this to me.  All that temple pre-school tuition is paying off.) 

Dylan’s five-year check-up, including two shots and one finger prick…check.  (By the way, no one applied for the internship.  The Runaway Mama handled the whole thing on her own, thank you very much.)

Holiday shopping…on my way to the mall now to finish up some loose ends. My holiday shopping usually works like this:  buy a gift for someone on my list, buy something for me, buy a gift for someone on my list, buy something for me.  Dylan would call this a pattern.  I call it shopaholism at its finest.

This Friday is the boys’ last day of school before the two-week winter holiday break.  During that time we will build countless Lego cars and trucks, play Cars 2 Monopoly a million times, go to the zoo once or twice, visit with friends and play at the park daily.  We will also celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s.  It will be fun and exhausting, and by the time the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, I will say to myself (if I’m not already sound asleep), “Check please.”