We got a letter from Santa explaining that since there would be 23 people in our house on Christmas Day, he thought it'd be best if he dropped off his presents early on Dec 20th. It was a bit of a whirlwind preparing for his visit, but everything worked out.
Here's our first real Christmas tree, from Costco. It came pre-wrapped so we had no idea how large it really was until we cut the strings off at home. At first I was embarrassed at how HUGE it was. The ornaments that used to be packed on our small artificial tree hardly filled this beast.
The smell was lovely though, and overall we were really happy with it.
On our Christmas Eve (the19th), we let the kids open up their presents from each other. Annie was BEYOND excited to give this Best Friends necklace to Whitney. Check out that magnetic lock!
Cole gave Shannon this tie-die hairbow...
And of course, we had to give them new PJs:
It was fun having the kids wait at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning! An exciting change from apartment living :)
Here is what awaited us...
Cole got a skateboard...
Whitney got an American Girl Doll that looks just like her...
Annie got a kitchen set (and new crocs)...
Shannon, of course, had no idea what was going on and was completely happy with her dad and binky. She had no desire to join the siblings in ripping paper off presents.
Tyler's mom & brother had driven in town the night before
What's going on guys?
My mom got Whitney this Karaoke machine, and we have already gotten some great use out of it!
So that was our Christmas around here. I really wish we could have stopped and enjoyed more of our day like a regular Christmas morning. But Tyler had to get to work, there were t-shirts to pick up and CDs to burn for the reunion, the garbage man was coming (and we wanted to get rid of all our Christmas garbage before the house was full of people), and I had rooms to prepare for the rest of Tyler's family coming in town.
I was SO glad we did our own Christmas early. That would have been a nightmare for Santa to find places to put gifts with the house so full of people. And Christmas morning (w/Santa gifts) would have been way too chaotic for my liking. So it was nice to do our own family thing.
But still... I felt a little too rushed and my brain wasn't focused on CHRISTMAS. We didn't even have the kids act out the nativity for crying out loud!!!! What pagans forget to do that?!?!
Christmas books were read sporadically throughout the month, but mostly in a rush to get kids to bed so I could work on something else. We sang Christmas carols here and there, but I never really stopped to soak it all in. I didn't decorate Christmas sugar cookies with my kids, and even though I'm not a fan of them, I found myself wishing I had decorated a stale gingerbread house with my kids.
With random parties and commitments and planning for the reunion taking up all my time, I let the real meaning of Christmas slip through my fingers. Christmas 2011 is over and I can't turn back the clock and re-make all those little memories that I wish I had done. Sure, we could act out the nativity for fun or Annie & I could make Christmas-shaped cookies together while the big kids are in school... but it's not the same without that magic and wonder of Christmas in the air. It's gone now.
I have to do better next year.
5 comments:
I felt the same way about our Christmas, too. We didn't have a house full of guests (only Mom and Dad), but I wanted to do a "little" painting before they got here. It turned into a WAAAAYYY bigger project than I intended, and it kind of sucked all of the joy out of the season. I felt like a loser mom, even though my kids were forgiving. But I never want to do that again.
How cute are those doggone kids?? And I feel like the Christmas season was a bit weird/rushed this year too - it's hard when you're traveling/hosting a reunion! Thanks SO much for all of your preparation and planning. We had a fabulous time!
Thanks for your update. It was fun to see pictures of your Christmas. So fun for you to have a real tree! It did smell good!
I totally agree Christmas was a bit weird/rushed this year.
Natalie you truly were/are "the hostess with the mostess!"
It sounds like you just had different magic this year, maybe not less. The magic of family is pretty wonderful, but I do understand how you feel
It's a tricky business to strike the right balance with Christmas. What a great time to spend with lots of extended family, but why does it have to feel like it's to the exclusivity of your immediate family sometimes. We struggle with the same thing on Sundays. It's a great day to have people over, but after church and meetings, you feel like you never got a chance to just sit down and make it a real sabbath day. Love your tree!
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