In Which I Nearly Cuss

(I'll get the other half of my mega post tomorrow, I promise!)

In the midst of shoveling the fresh 14 or so inches from the driveway this morning, we left the kids inside to stay warm. They were playing with the toys downstairs, so it was fine.

Until I heard the ear-piercing scream, I didn't think otherwise.

Then came... "MOM! Nathan knocked down the Christmas tree!"

I dashed inside, dripping wet with snow, to find the (artificial) tree leaning over the side of the baby gate. You know, the gate we put up to protect the tree from curious toddlers. Of course he found a way around that.

Most of the ornaments were on the floor, garland and ribbon all skewampus. One of Audrey's ornaments was shattered and scattered all over the carpet. And then... I saw it.

Ammon gave me the best ornament for our first Christmas. It's a Hallmark ornament, with a stack of books with a little plate attached with cocoa and cookies. It's called "Adventures of a Book Lover." It's so me. I've never seen anything else like it. I pack it away very carefully each year to prevent anything happening to it.
It apparently met its match when it came to my son.

It could have been worse, really. It could have been beyond repair. But thankfully we saved it with a little bit of superglue.

I cleaned up the mess as best I could, and tossed the kids in their rooms. They saw the wrath of God in my eyes and probably knew it wasn't a good thing. Then I stomped back outside to finish shoveling. Ammon took one look at me and knew I wasn't happy. He went inside for a few minutes presumably to talk to the kids, and then came back out and we finished the driveway. Shoveling snow works well for getting the anger out.

He then told me he wasn't going in to work today, and jokingly told his boss what all transpired this morning, and said if he left me alone, I was gonna kill the kids.

Of course not. But I seriously entertained the thought to leave them locked up in their rooms all day.