This Christmas season was a little stressful. It's hard enough to get everything done with a husband who is out of town but add in a hubby who gets a REALLY BAD case of the flu on his days off meaning he does not even come home the week before Christmas and it's utter madness. Luckily my mother-in-law came to the rescue so I could make those last minute "stocking" runs without the kiddos plus a couple late nights to get everything wrapped without little eyes around and Christmas eve was a stress-free, lovely day.
The boys and I had a lot of fun making "reindeer food" to sprinkle on the lawn.
Anything with glitter is fun in my book.
And we even had enough to share with the cousins.
3 comments:
If it helps, I was total crap this Christmas. I did a halfhearted attempt at stockings, but I was literally in tears pacing the house Christmas even because I'd remembered Camryn telling me several times that Santa would bring her a teddy bear and a lollipop in her stocking (and Tamsin, ever hoping to be like her big sis, began saying the same thing). And guess who didn't buy teddy bears OR lollipops? In between moving, having a baby, and hosting uber-critical, not-all-that-helpful houseguests, I just kind of forgot to make any Christmas magic. So the stuff YOU did looks AMAZING! Next year: advent calendar, letters to Santa (so slow-to-catch-on Mommy will know what's expected from the big man in red), Christmas activities, lots of stocking stuffers, a list for Karl to pick from (THAT was a fun conversation to have), and NO HOUSEGUESTS OR BABIES BORN WEEKS BEFORE will be on my holiday to-do's!
And I must confess that having Linda around after Eliza was born has only highlighted how incredibly difficult it can be living far from family. It's me and the kids all the time. No preschool relief, no babysitters, no "Can you watch them for two hours?" breaks so I can buy stocking stuffers that. Y girls will open without exclaiming "This is from TARGET!" Like they did last year (though admittedly that was funny). I think you still have it harder with Nathan gone half the time, but man...I need me a mother-in-law close by. She staved off many a breakdown while she was here, and I nearly clung to her legs when she left. Karl and I were fighting the blues all the way home from the airport (not to mention the conviction I feel after every child is born that, as soon as Linda leaves to go home, there are no longer any adults in the house--who said we were old enough to have children?!).
Megan's kind words of praise exaggerate the help I give. I just love being with all my grandkids, and if that means that I can help their mommies in the process, then we all come out winners.
On a different note, I think that we expect too much of ourselves as mothers, like we are somehow responsible for making every Christmas the "perfect" day. I really think that if everybody gets at least one thing that they like that we can call it a success. Who ever started the notion that Christmas is the time when every wish should be fulfilled? It sounds like marketing to me...
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