After seeing what a mess the rooms were, I decided to organize the toys and show the boys just how much stuff they had gotten. Here is their pile. Mike and I are thinking of openin a toy store! You can't even see the two sleds in the background and this doesnt include 3 WII games left at an uncle's house or the bathrobe Stephen is wearing or the Tech 20- nerf gun and a few other things. Really way too much!!
This has been an odd holiday season for me.
I had been looking so forward to it back in October. Trevor is at a great age to understand that the present is more than the card board box (he never got past that last year). He does his "ho ho ho" impression - something new and that always puts a big smile on my face. He gets excited when we say Santa and he helps me get into the spirit of things when I need it. This year may very well could be the last year that I have 3 believers in Santa - Stephen is 9 1/2 now and his Santa days are numbered. so I need to cherish it and savor it.
But for whatever reason my holiday spirit had drifted away shortly after Thanksgiving and I've only seen glimpses of it here and there.
I again got bogged down in things that I felt I needed to get done and had way to many things on my list and I added other non holiday things to my list that made it even harder to get ready for the holidays.
My Christmas cards are mostly out (only about a handful left to go - Sorry to those that will get theirs late).
I didn't do much holiday baking except for some 7 layer bars, lemon bars and rum balls I made for some presents.
I think the weather has really given me this defeated attitude (that and being sick for what seemd like forever though in actuallity it was only 3 1/2 weeks)
I am very thankful that no one was sick this holiday. - that is quite an accomplishment in this family as we tend to have at least 1 person sick very holiday! (Trevor is getting over an ear infection but his last dose of antibiotics was Tuesday.
I have to say I did enjoy christmas eve and Christmas day was nice (as long as I didn't look around the room and see the mess that is!). The month leading up to it was quite crazy and hard because of illness, but despite it all, it was fun. The boys all liked their presents; but again, it was way in excess. I hope to go a more simpler, less stressful, less dutiful type christmas next year as I know that the kids see all these presents, and although we go to church and I remind them what exactly we celebrate on christmas, the fancy wrapping paper and tags and shiny new toys have them mesmerised and they are probably not taking my words in.
Anyhow, I do want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We had a pretty nice Christmas, although some coal might have been in order here based on some antics the weeks leading up to Christmas (especially christmas Eve Morning!).
I have no idea what to do with all the presents! Seriously. As we were "wrapping up" unwrapping the presents this moring one of the older boys says "why aren't there any more for me" as at the end I finally just made 3 piles; one for each boy and let them open them. Trevor did have quite a few more left, but he was slower at opening them and of course they probably costed less, still at that moment, I was at a loss for words as there were already so many presents, and so totally what they asked for, how could they be asking. But to be fair, this was Ryan - Stephen who did have less gifts as he did get the Nintendo DS, and an MP3 player so more costly seemed very happy and not a word out of him about not having more.
They all had way in excess. That is what happens with 2 sets of grandparents, 7 sets of aunts and uncles, a cousin, and parents, plus Santa who all gives generously. I should know better by now to really scale back. I am a bargain shopper at heart, so when I see one of their favorite items half off and then have a 10.00 of coupon to go with it, I go get it, even if I think I am pretty much done with them. And, I did pick up quite a few books, some puzzles, baseball cards, pokemon stuff and the like at a children's resale to help me stay on budget. Only I forgot to remind myself to cut back more! I do have a budget and I usually go over a little bit, but this year it was so frantic at the end, that I wasn't always keeping up with my budget and where I was, so I'm not even totally sure right now how I did on my budget. Judging by my part of the present pile, not good!
As for me, I got a blanket from Mike and the boys (Mike asked me what I wanted and I couldn't think of much, so I told him a blanket). I need a blanket, so not a bad deal at all. I also got a Sarah McLaghlin CD from my secret santa on my mom's side (everyone buys for the kids, but us adults just bought for one adult after names were drawn and mailed to participants). I also got a painting for my white elephant gift (not bad as both Ryan and Stephen both got pink slippers and Mike got a box of Splenda!). My mom got me a down vest, and a nice pair of earrings and a few other things.
As I said above, I was happy to see my mom's side of the family last night, and Mike's family last night. Everyone got a long, good food, great drinks, nice presents, everyone was in good health and even the weather wasn't too bad for driving. We have so much to be thankful for, especially in this economy. I guess I am feeling the post Christmas blues already. I am so used to being in frenzy that it is weird to just be sitting around. So this in itself is a wonderful gift of Christmas - the gift of just sitting back and enjoying the fact that I am just sitting around looking at the kids presents and seeing what they like best.
Now to end my ramblings, I hope you have had a joyful and wonderful Christmas!
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