Christmas 2011 – Busy but awesome
January 10, 2012
The Christmas frenzy sort of snuck up on me this year. Before I knew it I was staying up until midnight almost every night wrapping presents, starching or mailing 90+ Christmas cards or baking upwards of 26 dozen cookies. The work never seemed to end, and in my neurotically, type-A, must-have-a-schedule-for-everything way, I actually emailed my family a detailed agenda of who would be where and when for Christmas this year.
I worked my butt of and despite an unexpected snow day school cancellation I managed to get Zach half a day home on his own for his birthday. We met up with his family for lunch at Chili’s and then Nana and Grandpa took the boys for the night. Zach and I saw Girl With The Dragon Tattoo that evening (Great book and movie and on a funny side note, when I told Xander the title of the movie we were seeing his only question was ‘what color is the tattoo?’)
It turns out having the boys out of the house on the 23rd was awesome. We got home early enough to clean and do Christmas preparation (stuff stockings, build toys, set out presents, etc.) So on the 24th, we had very little to do before heading out to get the boys and get our Christmas on. We spent the 24th with my family and had a great time – with plenty of time built in the play with the boys and their new toys. We finally arrived home at 10pm on the 24th, but didn’t have to do all the Christmas prep (yay!)
The boys slept until 7:30 on Christmas day (win!) and celebrated the occasion with all of the excitement and joy that we all love to see from small children. We opened our stockings and had some breakfast drinks (coffee/tea for adults, milk for kids) before Nana and Grandpa arrived. Then we got down to some serious unwrapping. That lasted us nearly two hours, and the house was filled with toys and discarded wrapping paper. Some quick clean up and lunch, and then the cousins and aunt/uncle arrived.
Our 4th Christmas in two days commenced and the wrapping paper flew again. We picked up and played and drank tea and ate and visited well into the evening. That night we all collapsed, exhausted but thoroughly satisfied with the day.
The 26th we relaxed a bit before heading out to a princess birthday party. I realized that I am the mother of two boys, and my idea of an ideal princess party these days is to invite the brother of the birthday girl over to my house to play with dinosaurs or toy guns. But, the birthday girl had a wonderful time, and that was the important part.
I don’t think we got out of our pajamas on the 27th, but we did clean the house a bit in preparation of the 28th. On Wednesday the family came back up to the house for Parker’s birthday breakfast. Our house is big, but it turns out we really need a table that can fit 14 people+ people. Thankfully, we all like each other, and getting cozy wasn’t a problem.
More relaxation, and then we spent a night with Nana and Grandpa so that on the 30th the girls (Mother-in-law, sister-in-law and two nieces) could make a trip to the Yankee Candle Factory. We left about 10am, and spent the day browsing candles at both Yankee and Kringle factories. The girls (12 and 13 now) talked us into going to the Deerfield mall ‘on the way back’. Oh man were my feet sore by the time we left (I was so happy to find $5 fake Uggs at the Christmas Tree Shop!) but we had lots of fun without the boys for the day. It was late when we arrived home, so we stayed another night with Nana and Grandpa.
New Year’s was a quiet event this year. We spent a few hours at a friend’s house, visiting, and trying to keep the boys from destroying his place. About 9pm we went home, and after tucking the boys into bed, rang in the New Year watching Friday Night Lights and playing The Old Republic (depending on your perspective).
Amazingly, the boys got along pretty well the whole week. Zach and I had fun playing with them, and managed to get in some good quality time with each boy. And when vacation was done, I was actually sad to return to work and not be home playing with the boys anymore. So that was Christmas. It was busy, and exhausting and kind of expensive, and fun, and silly, and happy and overall wonderful.
Xander had his ‘Kindergarten Connection’ (screening) meeting yesterday. After touring schools and weighing our options, we finally picked what we hope will be the best one for both boys. The connection meeting went pretty well – they certainly have it organized and down to a science.
So I got an email forward from my mother yesterday (pretty typical Wednesday) and I was going to clean it up and forward it to a few friends, but then I decided instead of cluttering up their inboxes, I’d post it here – hopefully they will all see it and maybe a few more. It is an email forward, so take it for what it is, but regardless, the message is good, and one I wish I remembered more often.
This post is a few days late (but I did at least spend that time playing with the boys, so that counts for something, right?)