Note to self: Just because your son is finally old enough to remember/enjoy Christmas does NOT mean you need to squeeze in absolutely every single Christmas tradition you ever remember loving as a kid into one single day.
That pretty much sums it up. This was our (my) to do list on Christmas Eve:
1. Make cinnamon rolls
2. Make homemade gourmet Mac & Cheese for dinner
3. Go to a Christmas Eve service
4. Drive around & look at Christmas lights
5. Finish wrapping a few last gifts
6. Leave cookies out for Santa
It doesn't look that bad, but when you start throwing in temper tantrums (saben didn't like my macaroni & cheese) and missed naps, it starts to get crazy. Plus it was a gorgeous day outside and we were all stuck inside doing what my husband deemed "chores". At the end of the day he ponted out how nice it would have been to pack up the family and go take a nice walk in the sun and suddenly I saw the logic in that.
The night culminated in driving to a retirement neighborhood with tons of lights and getting stuck in the line of cars while Annika reached her end & started wailing in the backseat. It took us another 20 minutes just to make our way out of the neighborhood. Of course it had been my insistence that took us to the neighborhood, Kyle had suggested we head home and I'd said "just one last place....." Now imagine me gamely singing Christmas carols all by myself the whole time, while annika is screaming hoarsly in the back seat. sigh.
So...new years resolution - be flexible next Christmas. Its funny how you can grow up reading, hearing & watching scenarios like this your whole life and you always think, oh, I'll never do that! Then suddenly there you are, the rushed, harried, crazy Christmas Mom who is driving her family nuts and forgetting what Christmas is really about.
1 comment:
It's funny, reading your "cramming it all into one day" story. I relate it to my fitting it all into one week. I don't want to miss anything, and I am so thankful for family who likes to spread it out too. The only bad part is at the end, Melia couldn't figure out why Christmas had to be over... she had experienced 5 Christmas' in as many days :-)
One suggestion that I was given, and appreciated, was to fit in a tradition each week of December. Doing it a little like an advent Calendar. That way it is not so overwhelming, and Christmas lights are normally up earlier anyway, and cinnamon rolls are good anytime :-)
Ha- long comment... anyway, thank you for sharing!
Love denaye
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