Sunday

I have a parenting complaint.  It's not a big thing in the scheme of life, but I'm the mom so it bothered me.

Kaylee had a Christmas party at a church youth group tonight.  So we went shopping and she picked out a snow globe, a giant Hershey kiss and something else to put in a bag as an anonymous gift, as everyone was supposed to bring.  This is a youth group where she is still fairly new and really only has one friend in the group so far, though she's gotten along fine.  It was a White Elephant exchange, where you pick a gift and then someone can steal a gift, etc.  One girl said she didn't know which one to get, so Kaylee's friend there, Em, asked Kaylee "What did you bring?" So Kaylee told her, and Em said to the girl, "Hey, take the gingerbread bag!"  The girl picks up the bag, and Kaylee, like all of us, is anticipating someone thinking it's nice or neat.  The girl looks in,  throws the bag to the floor, and says "I don't WANT something to EAT.  And I already have enough crap in my room!"  The girl then steals Kaylee's blanket gift, as she can per the rules, and gives her the gift she had...which means Kaylee got her own gift back.  Her friend saw what happened, so swapped out some fuzzy socks for the snow globe at least.   It kind of hurt Kaylee's feelings, and it was such a poor display of maturity and plain old manners.  It makes me mad.  If nothing else, at least Kaylee knows why we never allowed her to display anything but gratitude for a gift she was given whether she wanted it or not.  But this is a high school girl, not a 4-year-old, and she threw a temper tantrum after being given a gift in good faith.  This is why I don't work with other people's kids, because if I was a leader at that youth group I don't think I could stop myself from turning that into a learning lesson for the little...darling.  She could get her own gift back and leave after apologizing and listening to a lecture on gratitude, attitude, Godliness (since we ARE at CHURCH here), and manners.  Maybe that's not very Christian of ME, either, but it sounds fair to me if she isn't repentant about her actions or attitude.  She can go "grace" some other group with her lovely presence if she doesn't like being guided on how better to act when someone gives you something at Christmas.  I told Kaylee things like this bother me more than they probably bother her, but one good thing is that her friend Em tried to make it right by helping swap out one of the gifts, and she loves the fuzzy socks.  She did otherwise enjoy the three hours there, that just put a damper on it, as you can imagine.   Like I said, I know it's not a big deal in the big picture.  I just am a little protective there I guess.  I'll let her go to Europe in a few months here, even with all the unrest, I let her climb to the top of the monkey bar structure when she was 18 months old, in dress shoes, I let her walk around in the winter without a coat if she says she's not cold (I was there once), I let her stay up too late even if I know she'll be tired sometimes, I'll let her skydive when she's 14 years old when you're supposed to be 18, and there are risks involved in everything; I'm not over-protective of much of anything...except other people's bad behavior toward her, apparently.  I can't take that.  It does make me grateful for her, though, that I know she would never act that way towards another kid, that she's not so selfish and self-centered and spoiled that she would do something like that.  I would be SO much more disappointed if I found out my daughter was the one in question, that would be really painful, because honestly, by the time they're 15 years old, are you going to change them any more?  Odds probably aren't great...

So anyway, that's my whine for the day.  Sorry.  ;)

Steve got up our Christmas lights outside, and repaired our dehumidifier, and I put up a few things inside the house, and Kaylee got all her gifts wrapped and looking good and under the tree.  I washed bedding and basically we're going to try to get our act together in the next day or two.  :)

I think we've all been thinking about Richard a lot lately. I wish he could be here with us for Christmas this year.  He always really enjoyed being around all the family, and picking out gifts for the grandkids to choose from.   He will be in our minds and hearts.