We’ve been too busy and I’ve been battling a severe cold to get too much into the Christmas spirit. Last year we had our grandson and daughter here with us on Christmas Eve and they slept on the futon to be here Christmas morning, because Santa could only find his way to our house.

This year she is keeping him at the apartment with her little 10 inch ridiculous tree and Santa is coming to the apartment.

Of course, he’s six and realizes that he isn’t going to get much from anyone at the apartment. He’s already asked several times if he can stay here with us on Christmas and worries that Santa won’t find the apartment. More likely Santa would get mugged on his way to their ghetto apartment. But that’s her choice and unfortunately we all suffer for the sins of our parents.

Our grandson gets to witness a huge historical event – our country’s first black President was elected tonight. Imagine that! McCain conceded in a very gracious speech around 10:30 when the electoral college votes topped the winning number needed for Obama to win.

Someone donated a big box of pumpkins to the entire first grade and second grade classes at our grandson’s school. They are admitedly small pumpkins, but they are very likely the only way a lot of the kids would even have the chance to put out a pumpkin at home. The schools don’t encourage pumpkin carving anymore. The preferred decorating involves using markers and paints to create the face or pumpkin designs. I wouldn’t want a 6 or 7 year old to get cut accidently while carving their pumkins, so that is probably a good idea.

The teacher has been sending home notes complaining that our grandson does not pay attention on class. I think he needs to be tested for ADHD but his mother refuses to permit that. She says that she doesn’t want him labeled as handicapped. She also says that she refuses to give her son any drugs to treat ADHD, so there’s no reason to test him.

So every time he brings home a note from the teacher she beats him with a belt and tells him he is a bad boy. I wonder if the teacher would continue to send those notes if she knew that he gets beat for bringing them home?

We have a huge collection of Thomas the Train tracks and trains. We have a lot of train engines and all kinds of rail cars.Our grandson used to love to play with the trains. He would spend HOURS putting the track together and then running different trains on the track. There is a LOT to be said for something like Thomas the Train keeping a kid with ADHD completely absorbed and entertained on his own for hours.

I bought two shallow plastic boxes with lids to store the trains and the track. I thought we should take the batteries out of the engines and coal cars before we put them away. That was no easy task. There are a half dozen different ways to get into the battery compartments of the different engines. Most just snap apart if you know the secret sweet spot to press and make them open. A few need a tiny phillips head screwdriver. That took about half an hour just taking batteries out!