After the extreme fun of winter break, I was very excited to get back to our normal routine. Alas, that would NOT be the case this week after all.
Monday was the final day of winter break per last week’s post, we had an awesome last day at the Nook and sledding.
On Tuesday, we were back to normal! I got to the YMCA at 6am, swam my laps and headed home to get the boys ready for school. I found a MISERABLE Nate and a very crabby/whinny/achy Gussie. They stayed in bed while I dropped the other boys at school. Nate and Augustus spent most of the day snuggling on the couch and I worked. It was mostly normal and I anticipated Wednesday would be the real day we’d get back on track.
Except that Mother Nature had wildly different plans that involved about 13 inches of snow. We got a robo call at 5:35am letting us know that school was cancelled- our first snow day ever! Xander came in my room a little while later and I said, “Xan, it’s a snow day!” and he replied, “what does that mean?” “It means you don’t have to go to school because there is too much snow!”
“Huh? Well that’s too bad.” -X (7)
When he found out he could have screens and video games, he changed his mind about being disappointed about missing school.
I had a personal training appointment and despite the entire metro area being shut down, I assumed the snow day didn’t apply to me. My van made it about 4 houses down the street before getting stuck. Ok. Nate has all wheel drive, so I decided to take his car. I got about halfway out of the garage and got it so stuck it would have been that way until the spring. However, my heroic, angelic neighbors happened to see me and spent 30 minutes DIGGING me out. I was SO grateful because Nate was even sicker than the day before and I was not prepared to break it to him that he was going to have to help me DIG. Aaron and Melissa win the neighbor or the year award. I did not make it to the Y that day. Apparently the snow day was meant for me too.
Instead, I texted the neighborhood about a 3pm hot cocoa bar at our house. The boys played outside. I worked all day. And at 3pm, 14 of us enjoyed hot cocoa and chaos.
Thursday was my 18th year at Youth in Government. I love this program so much (and not just because I met my husband there!). I CANNOT believe it has been 18 YEARS. And while the program has grown and changed and evolved, it is also the same, familiar, comfortable, “feels like coming home” place that I look forward to every year. Xander was 3 months old when I wrapped him up and went to YIG like nothing had changed. I remember my brother seeing a photo of me and saying, “you have to really enjoy that if you are willing to do it with a baby strapped to you!” Nate and I brought Xander and dressed him up in code-of-conduct dress clothes the next year, switching off so we could both volunteer and have a toddler there. I left Nate and X home the next year and that year brought a dressed up Gussie.
Since then, I have left all the boys home and spent a luxurious 4 days/3 nights with over a thousand teenagers…
This year though, YIG was back to normal after last year’s super locked down, sort of stressful, “should we even be doing this” pandemic year. It felt good for it to be so normal. Also, in my new role (not that new, I’ve been at this job for over a year now), I actually get to work with Youth in Government, so I went as a volunteer, but also, had some alumni development projects to do for my real life job.
Oh, and did I mention that when I arrived, the weekend started by Orville giving me a fabulous glittery ornament?! A present?! A Christmas ornament?! A glittery macaron?! I’m sorry, did he manage to hit literally every single one of my love languages (yes, glitter can be a love language) in one gift? I almost went home right then because it couldn’t possibly get better than that moment.
I didn’t go home though and it actually did get even better! Thursday was the normal chaos of checking in thousands of people and getting everyone settled. I was so happy to see all of my YIG buddies. It felt so good to be there. On Friday, Nate had to work, so Gussie spent the day with me at the hotel. He helped at the Hotel Director’s office. He colored. He explored the hotel. He was very patient while I worked. We ate lots of snacks. We went swimming. It was an exciting day. After school, Nate dropped Xander off. He immediately saw Augustus’s official name tag and said, “what is that? Where did you get that?” He was VERY happy to have his own when we arrived to my hotel room. He had a quick snack and then changed his clothes and asked me to put in a pony tail. He had clearly put some thought into how he wanted this night to go!
He was very eager to meet everyone and see everything but he was VERY shy when we actually did meet people. When I put him to work at the desk, I handed him a box of bandaids and said, “one of our jobs is to hand these out to all the people who are wearing uncomfortable shoes”. He asked for some paper and immediately made a “free bandaids” sign, which is obviously what we should have had all along. Sometimes looking at him is like looking in a mirror. We visited programming and I was pleasantly surprised that he was SUPER interested. We were standing in the back of the room and Xander asked if we could sit. We sat in the back row and he asked if we could move up. He really enjoyed watching the kids debate.
We had dinner with the hotel directors and then it was time for YIG-fest. Do you know what little boys love?! An empty ballroom to run laps in. They were very excited to watch the inflatables get set up and even dragged out chairs to watch. The inflatable company people were VERY nice and let them try out everything while they set up. The evening activity people from YIG gave them a job to plug in the blow up guys outside the doors and the boys were VERY excited to have a job.
They got to eat cotton candy, jump, run, throw basketballs, and be up WAY past their bedtime. They were not shy about chatting with the high school students and taking about the strategy for the obstacle course. We made a late night craft project. We at 9pm cheesecake. It was SO FUN. I was so happy to have them there and also kept picturing them when they were babies.
On Saturday morning, we woke up and went swimming. Nate picked them up before lunch and I went back to work. It was a whirlwind 24 hours and way more exhausting having them there than anything a any teenager could throw at me.
When they got home, there was a neighborhood text about dinner at Can Can Wonderland. Nate texted me to see what I thought. We never miss neighborhood fun, but I thought it was a little risky as they had stayed up so late. But they went for it and had a blast. I had major FOMO (fear of missing out) even though I was enjoying my time at YIG.
Sunday was back to normal for the boys as the headed to Grandma Debbie’s for the day. They had a low key day and watched Avatar. All 3 of them (my mother the leader of the pack) have been trying to convince me to let her take them to the new Avatar at the theater. I don’t think a 5 and 7 year old can sit through a 3 hour movie. I said if they could sit through the first one, I’d agree to let them go. So apparently next weekend they will be going, because they said they liked it.
YIG was a blast and I came home on Sunday exhausted, but grateful for another amazing year. It is a privilege to be able to be part of such an extraordinary program. The staff work harder than anyone I know and care so deeply. It creates an electric atmosphere that you just have to feel- I’m not sure I can fully describe the magic.
And now we are going back to regular scheduled programming. Life is going to return to our routine. I am saying that loudly and aggressively because I demand that we go back to normal. No more holidays. No more special things. No more excitement. My brain and my body need to CTFD (a new acronym I learned at YIG)
Calm The &$%* Down in 2023!!!