Holiday Dress Codes - Yay or Nay?

We were privileged to be able to see Hale Center Theater's production of A Christmas Carol this year. It is a tradition that we haven't been able to honor for the past few years. This was the twins' first year. It was great but a little disappointing. Kind of a Christmas Carol on speed. They actually had a 5:00 showing (our free tickets) and another 8:00 showing. So they kind of condensed it. Kind of bugged me. And Marley was not nearly as scary as in years' past. And the last ghost that used to be HUGE with enough room to store all the little beggar children under his cloak---you guessed it.....room for one. But all in all the kids had a fun time and the twins did not have nightmares.

What I would like to discuss here, however, isn't really the play per-se but the dress code. When Zach and Katie were little we went almost every year. And they were required to dress to the nines in their Christmas clothing complete with fancy shoes, coat, etc. Hillary was usually there too and was of course dressed to the nines along with my children. Same thing for the Nutcracker. You dress up. Period. End of discussion. Well, this year it was not the end of the discussion. My kids gave me SO MUCH CRAP for making them dress up. And I barely made them dress up, just nice Sunday clothes. No extremes. Unfortunately, the dressing up appears to be a tradition of the past. Most people showed up in jeans. This did not bode well for my sassy Katie who viciously hissed under her breath that I can't believe I made them dress up and that "she looked like a polygamist". (Not my fault she decided to wear her tennis shoes with her skirt and put that big swoop-de-dop in her hair!) Seriously. Probably 90% of the people were in jeans! Shame! I discussed with my children as they were complaining that it is proper tradition to dress up when attending the theatre or the ballet, especially while at a nice place like Capitol Theatre or Hale Center Theatre. I talked in a normal voice, not whispering as I delighted in watching the woman in front of me attempt to cover her jeans with her program (nice try lady-you can run but you can't hide!). What has happened to our society?

I am really looking for comments on this. Have I over-reacted? Do I give in to the current trend or continue to "set the example"? I will note that the workers all complimented my children on their dress. Katie just glared at me as it made it worse to call attention to that fact that they looked different. And Husband #1 Jim was not able to attend so patrons may have thought it wasn't my night. Let's hear it from ya'll. GO!

Sexual Harassment in the First Grade? Or merely a cute little girl?

So Hannah comes home from school and rambles without a breath:

"Griffin thinks I am hot". I got mad at him and told him that you are not supposed to be in love in first grade. Then he said it again, that I was hot. I told him I was going to tell the teacher because you are not supposed to be in love even though I used to be in love but not with Griffin. But that was in Kindergarten. And it was with Oakland because I liked to look at his eyelashes. So then today again Griffin said I was hot. I told him I was going to have to tell the teacher. So then he said "well, I meant that you look hot and sweaty and not, you know "hhhhhottttt". So then it was okay and I didn't have to tell the teacher but I think he still thinks I'm you know....that other kind of hot.

Great New Product!

I know I love it when I hear about a great new product. My whites keep getting dingier and dingier. And on so many of them (new LDS you-knows) you can't use bleach! Well, I wanted to share this great product I found. It costs less than $2 a box and it got all of my whites spankin' white---it even removed all of the old stains and a HUGE hot chocolate stain on Seth's white uniform shirt. It was AMAZING! Enjoy!

RIT-A color brightener laundry treatment for colored fabrics and whites. Also a stain remover. Box contains 1 ounce of powder. Caution! Harmful if swallowed. Eye and skin irritant.

What's in YOUR scripture bag?

Hannah was really excited to get her own scriptures and case. She got hers about a year ago. Because of the high loss potential, it is a simple little pink canvas zip up case that barely holds a little set of scriptures. Or so I thought. I noticed a few months ago that Hannah would be quite entertained in Sacrament meeting as she pulled out pencils, papers, notebooks, etc. from her little case. Occasionally a beanie baby would be peeking out. Once an entire small art set was revealed during church. Gradually the scriptures disappeared to make room for her other priorities........ Since she is only 7 and is good in church, I just let her go on with her little sneaky routine. Well, last week as the kids were getting into the car for church, Hannah nonchalantly walked past Jim with her scripture case - so bulging that it could not even be zipped up. Sitting precariously in her bag was a large penguin snow-globe complete with wind-up music box. Trying not to laugh Jim told her that she could not take that to church. What she thought she would do with it at church I can only imagine......Can you imagine the mess in the parking lot as that thing fell right out of her tiny case and splattered glass, penguins, and who knows what else is in those things across the parking lot??? Nice try little girl.