Can We Be Merry Already?

Oh I cannot wait for the girls Winter break to begin. This has been one seriously long and crazy week. Monday the girls didn't want to go to school. Even though we had a media blackout in our house, the girls were still talking about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims as we walked to school on Monday. A few days later we were driving when the brunette twin said, "You know what's so sad about those kindergartners who were killed Mom? They didn't get to live their lives." I cried softly as I drove because she was right and because I realized this was going to be on her mind for a long time.
Tuesday two bank robbers broke out of a federal prison in downtown Chicago by repelling down a 15 story building using a rope made of bedsheets. The last credible sighting of these two was in a suburb not all that far from us so our schools were on lock down.
Not to be outdone, a local crazy picked up for a DUI in the middle of Tuesday night made threats against a local school and the local police department. The officers who went to his home found weapons and ammunition. Both are safely in the police lock-up and the crazy drunk is in custody. Sooner or later they will have to release him and he'll just go out to buy more weapons and ammunition.
I feel like every day the girls come home with a letter from the school district office about a new problem, how to cope with the old problems or a possible future threat. This week it has been hard to remember that we live in a nice, typically safe neighborhood.
I'm tired of all this. I feel like every day there's a "crazier than the day before" news story with the ability to negatively affect our girls. I need a few days with all of us at home baking cookies and making hot chocolate. Tomorrow is the last day of school for two weeks. It can't come fast enough for me.