Merry christmas!

I can't seem to move the picture, but this was supposed to be the finale!
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!

Last year's christmas

Ok, I have lost a post.
I've decided I don't feel like retyping it, so instead, I will share some christmas photos from last year. Notice the boys and their stylish AND coordinating outfits!! I do like the boys in sweater vests!

The boys by the tree Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve

I think this is the only time he sat in his Elmo chair!

dont ya love my Mrs. Clause apron!

My handsome blonde boy!

One month till Christmas

Today is Tuesday - 2 days before thanksgiving. I am feeling awfully anxious. I don't know why, thanksgiving is not at my house. I am not bringing anything but pie ( and its store bought). But just knowing that Thursday is right aroudn the corner, then comes black friday and then a week after that is my mom's birthday - well its just too close to Christmas and my to-do list is just not shrinking!

I am happy to report that I am about 80-85% done with Christmas shopping. I even started on my Christmas newsletter. I had the boys picture taken for a Christmas pic for the wallets to put in with the Christmas newsletter. I have purchased 2 sets of outfits to be worn for the holiday season (at Mike's work party the kids see Santa, so they need to look nice and I hate to dress them up 4 times in the same outfit for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Santa's party etc so I try to buy 2 nice outfits and then try make due with their clothes for the other parties and outings - My boys don't have a lot of stuff that doesn't have a stain or rip or something on it somewhere.)

I have emailed out my kids Christmas list to fam and friends (I set it up at Toys R Us online - i hope all that time is worth the effort and we don't have lots of duplicates this year!!).

I have even decided on my new years resolution (ok, so my resolutions generally are the same most years, but this year, I'm gonna really go for it! - Exercise, lose 4 lbs, get organized, stay in touch with friends better, get organized (yes, I already mentioned it, but this one is a biggy here!).

I've decided I'm going to keep my Christmas cookie baking to a minimum (gotta make some rum balls and some mint choc chip and maybe one or two others!).

I'm even considering cancelling book club for Dec. I doubt if very many people will come to Dec's book club and it would be one less thing on my list if I didn't have to read a book for it!

I'm planning on skipping a lot of the black Friday shopping that I usually tend to do. I did pick up some side gifts for the boys at a PTA resale back in October and have made the most of sales and coupons through now to get most of my shopping done (yahoo!). So, unless there are just some "too good to pass up" things out there, I may not even go out at all on Friday!

So, I guess I am not in terrible shape for the upcoming holidays. I have tons to wrap, and lots of Xmas newsletters mail (after I finish it), and my Halloween decorations are still up outside, and I still have to pass out my scout's popcorn. (And, I am still working on my mom's photo album and slide show for her 60th birthday (which is just 1 week away - I think that may be late, ut oh!! - My family have been rather slow in getting me some of the pictures I've requested!!)

I'm curious, for those of you who read my blog and might post back, how are you getting on your holiday to-do list? I really am just trying to get myself into more of a holiday spirit of goodwill instead of the holiday spirit of being totally frazzled!! So give me some words of encouragement!

I want to wish you a laid back Thanksgiving week. The kids are off tomorrow and I am going to try really hard to make it a family day without a bunch of "mom jobs" to get done before we have our fun time. Wish me luck on that one!

The tooth fairy will be visiting tonight

Important news. Another tooth was lost here! Ryan lost his 2nd tooth. He comes up to me hands all bloody with a toothy/missing toothy (red/bloody) grin. Its so cute to see how excited they can be about losing a tooth. I am only concerned about keeping mine! (and possibly seeing about some whitening treatments). Oh these little rights of passage! it is exciting though. i know he has had some loose teeth for quite a while. He has been asking me since he was 4 or 5, why won't his teeth come out whenever Stephen would lose one. He's proud of the whole in his gum line! It should make for some cute thanksgiving and Christmas pictures!!

Later after he put his tooth in the tooth box, he came up to me and wanted to know if the Tooth fairy was a boy or a girl. Whenever I am asked about the Tooth fairy or Santa or the East bunny, I always say with my "deer in the headlights look", "I just don't know, I never met them when they came for my teeth/christmas/Easter."

this got me thinking about a blog post that a friend posted recently. She was wondering about wht age do kids find out there is no Santa. My oldest is 9 1/2. I think he still believes. He does have older friends - a couple of his freinds are 11 year olds and he does have another friend that is 13 and does hang out with an older brother of a friend who is 13. I do worry that they will tell him about Santa and make him feel bad. I was at a Mom and tot thing in our subdivision a month ago. And a mom of 4 was talking about the whole santa thing. She tells me that she would tell them when they are 10 right after Christmas, - so they will have the whole year to deal with it and so it wouldn't upset them to find out right before Christmas. I dont know - I can't imagine starting a conversation about telling him this. to me, he is still so young. I love the innocence of kids and their ability to believe in these types of things with so little questioning of it. I almost hate to ruin it, but on the other hand, it would be hard to learn about Santa from kids on the block who might make fun of a younger kid. Plus, maybe it would be better to hear it from me?
Gosh, i just can't imagine me being the one to do it. I know my kids can't stay little forever, but I sure don't want to get them all grown up too fast. So, I guess I will just keep waiting. I have at least another year I hope before it becomes more of an issue (I hope). I remember telling my brother (and I can't remember exactly how old we were) that we have to tell mom that we beleive in Santa or she won't give us anymore gifts from Santa.

Stephen is 9 1/2, Ryan is 6 1/2 and Trevor is just 2. I know my years of having all the kids believe in Santa will not last much longer, so I hope I can enjoy this one and make it extra special. As grown up and mature as Stephen wants to be, i still love that he seems to have an innocence about him.

Ok, now I must go out and get the stuff out of the car from my shopping earlier. There are a few things in there that might be from "santa" and so I lef tthe stuf fin the car till the kids went to bed. So, i guess Santa and the tooth fairy will be busy getting stuff done tonight in this house!!! then I need to take off my Santa hat and Tooth Fairy hat and get my PTA mom hat back on. I'm not done with the School directory (thatI've been working on for what seems like an eternity).