Hanukkah nights 3, 4, and 5

I realize that the only photographic evidence i have of this holiday is a bunch of awkward badly lit pics of the kid heads as they open gifts. Oops.

Night 3-- a basement hockey set and hockey necklaces for the big boys, Little People Cars cars for Coop.  I was at work, so Ben did this one solo.

Night 4-- Ninja Turtles fo the big boys and Sesame Street guys for Cooper.  Ben was at work, so I did this one solo.

Night 5-- actually in the morning becase both of us were late last night and the kids had a sitter.

Coloring books and crayons were hits all around

See?

Jack was trying to take a picture of my belly.  Which is not s big as my butt and thighs.

Safe and sanitary.  There were 4 bags of chocolate chips in this huge batch of cookies.

Today has the potential to be a major FAIL.

All the first grades at Harry's school have a snow celebration concert where they are going to recite poems and sing songs and then gather in the cafeteria for a 5-class cast party with parents and special visitors.  The thing is, Ben has class, and I can't find a sitter, so me and Jack and Coop will have to be Harry's visitors.  This would be complicated enough by itself, but I am also a class room mom and am supposed to be there early to set up and then stay to help clean up.  And what are the odds that my kids will be good for like 2 hours during naptime?  NOT VERY GOOD.  Which is why I made a double batch of ridiculously chippy cookies-- bribery for the littles.

(The snacks at the cast party, though, have to be "healthy," per other room mom requests. Which, apparently, means no sugar? or butter?  BUT THEY AREN'T ORGANIC, which I get because that shit's expensive. And apparently the more processed the healthier as long as it doesn't have natural things like butter and sugar WTF? I just don't get people's nutritional rules sometimes.  God forbid the kids could have a cookie or a brownie as a treat, but they can be exposed to pesticides and chemicals and dyes and processed bullshit 24/7 AND THAT'S OKAY?  Actually the AAP is FINALLY saying it's not and encouraging people to not feed their kids bug killer DUH DUH DUH. 
Sorry this got so ranty, but I just don't get it-- what the kids eat on special occasions for a treat is not the problem-- the garbage they consume daily-- especially garbage that gets misleadingly labeled as healthy-- IS the problem.  So I am a little annoyed that brownies or cookies I might bring made with whole ingredients are no good, but processed cheese products and crackers with GMOs in the fine print are totes fine, as are dye-filled fruit snacks and flipping juice boxes???  I have no problem with my kids eating this stuff sometimes and sometimes they even get conventional produce, but holy hell let's figure out what's really bad for us, okay? I am under no illusion that my cookies are a healthy snack, but at least I can pronounce every single ingredient that's in them, and none of those ingredients has pesticides. If we are going to insist on "healthy" snacks, then they really should be healthy, not just low in sugar-- and I guarantee you some of the crackers, pretzels,juice boxes and fruit snacks at the healthy party have HFCS, which makes no sense to me at all.)

Right now, I am hanging out at my doctors office processing the disgusting glucose challenge orange drink.  It's actually kind of good-- makes me wish I had a fish filet and fries to go with it...

All that stands between me and a month of nothing to do ever with my husband also home with nothing to do ever and our kids only off for 2 weeks, is 23 15-page research papers and 23 10-page take-home final exams.  Yikes-- that actually sound like a lot!  I'm sure it'll go quickly though, right?  Right?  RIGHT?