Feeling Grateful

We got lots and lots of beautiful snow last night. It's so nice when this happens on the weekend when we don't have to be anywhere.

Fiona brought up a tray of two cups of tea to us this morning. Mine was perfect, Earl Grey with milk. Doug's was milkless English Breakfast. She accidentally put milk in it at first (which is actually how he prefers it) and so started over. The screeching we heard earlier was due to the fact that Sophia wanted to carry the tray up. Sophia adores her sister and equally adores working in the kitchen. Anyway, Fiona was obviously quite pleased with herself...she was just beaming. I tried not to tear up. I'm such a sap.

Yesterday, Fiona had a "holiday shopping" thing at her school. I think the profit goes towards the PTA. She was very excited about it. They take an envelope with money in it for shopping for Christmas gifts. You write on the front together who they want to shop for and how much they want to spend on each person. We sent Fiona with $20, 6 of it from her allowance. She allocated $4 for each person: Dad, Mom, Sophia, Sobo, and Eliza (they had a section for friends, parents, siblings, and grandparents). Fiona gave us our gifts right away. She was beaming. Mine is a faceted glass "gem" with "Mom" on the front in a pretty box (the girls both just love boxes). Fiona says it is a diamond and she spent ten dollars on it, but she saw it and really wanted it for me. I'm not really a diamond kind of girl, but this is the most beautiful one in world. (Sobo, your gift is on the way!) I did tell her that one does not need to know the cost of a gift. I was very touched she gave me something she thought I would adore. I thanked her for it and we had lots of hugs. She said, "Thank you for telling me how much you like it".

She saw her friend Eliza admiring a necklace with two hearts, so she was very sneaky about buying that for her. She gave it to her afterward. Eliza was so pleased, but she said that she shouldn't give it to her (I think she thought it was just for family). Fiona pointed out to her that she had budgeted for a friend on the front of the envelope.

Days like this make up for all the screaming, all the "I hate you!! You are the stupidest, meanest mom in the whole world!! You hate me!!! You don't love me at all!!" and then some.