The Kassel Family Project Life 365

Earlier this month, Jenna babysat for us.  While she was here, she and Laura sewed ribbons on mittens for Jenna’s school kids.  The ribbons spread the length of the child’s coat and go through the arms.  Laura thought these were pretty neat and wanted Jenna to make her pink mittens with a red ribbon.  The next morning, Laura told me all about the mittens and the ribbons and said that she really wanted a set of her own.  She also said, “I don’t lose my mittens much Mom, but I am always so mad when I do.  I can’t lose them with these!”  Sure enough, Jenna gave Laura a set of pink mittens with a pink ribbon (she didn’t have a red ribbon).  Laura loves them!  Today with the frigid cold, I was especially thankful for them.  Laura had them on when I picked her up.  As we walked to the car, Laura said, “I’m so happy Jenna gave me these pink mittens with the pink ribbon.  My hands are warm!  I might have lost my mittens without the ribbon, Mom.”  Thanks Jenna for such a great idea!

Every year on Martin Luther King Day, the Lowerys and the four of us go to China Garden for lunch.  I’m not quite sure how the tradition got started (we missed last year due to sick Kassel kiddos), but it’s what we do.  The adults eat until we want to bust.  The kids want to go mostly for the Koi pond.  Who cares about food when there are live fish to look at, right?  Come rain or shine, it’s China Garden for lunch.  Who am I to argue with tradition?

We have three different sets of seats for our dining room chairs.  Fortunately, since my Dad made the dining room set, he routinely provides more wood bases for me when I get the “urge” to make another seat set.  I currently have a winter set (we put these on today), a fall set, and a Christmas set.  I have another set of wood bases under my china cabinet that I will cover soon with a summer “Americana” set.  Then, I’m going to need another set of wood bases (Are you reading this Dad?) so that I can finally make the Halloween set.  Eventually, I would also like to have a spring set, bringing the total to six different sets of chair seats.  Yes, I’m aware….I could have an obsession.

I have a love-hate relationship with our crawl space.  The door to the crawl space is in our downstairs linen closet underneath the stairs that lead to the upper floor of our house.  It stretches all the way under our entryway and it is a fairly large space.  Where does the love-hate relationship come into play?  Well, I love it because it is great storage and it holds a lot of things.  I hate it because I’m too damn old to be crawling around in there.  I didn’t mind when we bought this house ten years ago, but now….well, it’s different.  Fortunately, I have two children that are 3 feet tall and they think the crawl space is great fun!  It makes it much easier to get things in and out.

It’s time to pack up the Christmas decorations and it’s really slow going.  I had the best of intentions today, but didn’t get anywhere near what I wanted done.  I ended up having to do some work from home (roughly four hours worth of work) and that really cut into my day.  I’m also suffering from a serious lack of motivation.  Hopefully, that will change tomorrow as my house is a sea of boxes, etc.  (The picture only shows about HALF of the Christmas decoration boxes.)

We got snow overnight!  It is not a lot of snow (maybe 2 – 3 inches), but it’s very windy and very cold.  After hearing on the morning news that Columbia Public Schools was cancelled, I said to Laura, “School is cancelled today.”  In a very excited voice, she said, “Alright!  Snow Day!”  Of course, that means that Laura goes to daycare with John for the day while Andy and I go to work and Andy gets to shovel the driveway!

Laura recently began watching the Star Wars movies.  She LOVES them!  Today, we got a catalog for ThinkGeek in the mail.  As she was looking through the catalog, she found ice cube trays that are mini replicas of a frozen Han Solo.  She was VERY excited and declared, “I want Han Solo frozen in ice!”  Yep, she’s a geek.  It’s important that she knows this now.  The earlier she realizes it, the better off she is.  It will give her time to learn to embrace the geek side of herself with gusto!  🙂