Christmas Eve Blessings

I've been a blogging slacker this week so I thought I'd do a post on some spattering of Blessings. I don't have the energy to dovetail my paragraphs and make an awesome post so I'm going to cop out and do bullet points. Here goes:

• This week was a hard long week of crying. We got tired of flipping the baby and it was becoming a habit. So the baby wore himself out with crying. Last night he finally slept from 6-3am with no waking up. Then he took an 90 minute nap this morning and a TWO hour nap this afternoon. This means that everyone in our household got a nap under warm, comfy blankets while the snow comes down.


• It's snowing! We are going to have a white Christmas and we don't have to travel anywhere. We are going to sit in front of a roaring fire and eat all of the things we have planned. This is the first year we are not traveling at all and I have to say it's really, really nice.


• This afternoon we heard the toddler say, "Uh oh bidgche!" (Say it out loud). The husband and I looked at each other accusingly as if to ask another, "AND where did he learn that, " when we realized he was playing trains and meant to say Bridge. We had a hearty laugh.


• We have lots of good things cooking. The husband made a wonderful chocolate pie. Now normally I'm not a pie fan because it involves crust, which isn't my favorite. The husband, however, makes the perfect crust with a delicious brownie-like center, topped with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. I cannot wait.


• We are eating steak and boiled shrimp for dinner tomorrow. Again, I'm sure most people love the traditional holiday food, but honestly I'm can take it or leave it. Especially turkey. It has to be done right for me not to fib and tell the host that it was the most wonderful meal.


• The husband is home reading with the boys so I can blog:) I haven't taken many pictures because of all the crying this week, but I'm planning on taking some and putting them up on my other blog (This is for you Lyric...I really haven't quit blogging I swear!)

All that to say, it's been a pretty great day so far. May you all have a Merry Christmas!!!

How We are Doing Gifts this Year

The first thing the husband and I figured out in our marriage was that our families each had different gift giving strategies. In fact, that was one of our first major fights the holiday season after we got married. After our eldest was born the husband and I discussed how we should do the gift giving. The boy's first Christmas was not the best and he got an excessive amount of things. We decided that we didn't want our to raise our children with a sense of entitlement. What did we do? We sat down with each of our families and discussed it rationally. Just kidding. I wish.

We realized that we can't control what our families do so we set some family rules in place. We started by asking the grandparents to please not go overboard with gift giving. This of course failed and we just simply go through the stuff and donate or throw out certain items. When the kids are older they get to choose what we give away if things are still overboard.

We really haven't bought the boys much because our families usually get so much, but I figured they' ll start to notice this sooner rather than later. I looked online and gathered information. I found several blogs that do four different kinds of presents. You get something you want, something you need, something to read, and something to wear. We decided that this year we are going to try it. Dandee's blog explains it well and Simple Mom gives some good gift suggestions.

So here's the plan:

Want: We got the 2 year old a plastic car that he can scoot in the driveway with his feet. He's just not old enough for the tricycle he received from the grandparents earlier this year. The 6 month old is getting these stacking blocks.

Wear: The boys are getting matching PJ's that they can open on Christmas Eve. This may change in the years, but it was my family's tradition and I loved it growing up. You open it on Christmas Eve and then you get to wear the PJ's all of Christmas day.

Need: The boys are getting a bookshelf from my parents so we are not going to get them anything in this area. Call me cruel, but I feel it will cut down on the excess.

Read: I got this book for the 6 month old. Good chewing material. Then a couple of these books for the 2 year old. I loved these growing up and I hope he does as well.

We decided that we will also do some little things for the stockings. So far I have a few squishy lizards and little things for each boy. Not anything expensive.

So that's the plan. I'll let you know how it goes. What are your traditions? How does your family do gifts?

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

This year's Christmas decoration budget was about $0. When the husband and I sat down with our trusty budget a few weeks ago I internally decided that other things were more important and that it was okay if my house didn't look fabulous.


Then my parents went and bought a new fake tree because my dad didn't want to mess with all the burnt out pre-lit lights on the old one. We volunteered to mess with the old tree. I was sad that we weren't going to get a real tree this year, but after all it did fit within the budget!


Then I read this post on one of my new favorite blogs, Nesting Place. I decided that I would give it a try. It turns out that my house has never looked better. I'm ridiculously pleased. Here are a couple of pictures. (I didn't get the whole fireplace in it because I had the camera on the macro setting. Oops.)

Article for Thought

I have a friend that sent me this article and I found it to be very comforting. So enjoy:)

The Ideal Christmas

Don't let the title of the post fool you. As most people know, ideals are never met. I didn't realize I had an ideal "Christmas" in my mind until I had a beautiful baby boy. New ideals and expectations have been ground out of me as each new phase brings a death to an ideal. I find with each of these little deaths there is something sweet that I learn about my child. He is not what I expected, but sometimes as we walk through these deaths I find myself thankful that I am through this dark tunnel, but with greater wisdom.

One of these little deaths came at Christmas. As we were planning the holidays I not so quietly had to put aside the desire to stay at home and have my little one wake up in his own house on Christmas Day. Knowing that he wouldn't remember it, husband and I decided to do the parade of families one last time and then disappoint people next year. You see we are hoping to have a house of our own by next Christmas and will start our own family traditions. I put aside this desire, but still had the ideal firmly placed in my mind.

This ideal died yesterday through a member of the husbands family who had her own ideal of the perfect Christmas. I watched this person be cranky, push her agenda, demand things her way since it was "her house", and everyone was a tad afraid to cross her for fear of "ruining Christmas." At the end of the day when she wanted to exult in her "perfect Christmas" I had to (and am having to still) fight bitterness because of the death to my ideal and expectations.

This Christmas Nazi has a fear that certain relatives won't show up. Fighting so desperately for their love, she ignored and countered our request that perhaps certain someones could leave the ankle biting, peeing all over the house, yippy loud dogs at home for one night so that our little one wouldn't have to be guarded. The dogs showed up and I silently stewed regardless of many attempts of others to justify that the dogs would be in kennels (they weren't), weren't as loud (they were), and were really well behaved (not really).

The Christmas Nazi also felt that dinner had to be at a certain time with certain food, and everyone at a certain spot with certain dishes. So, she woke up my darling and the whole household at 5 in the morning to cook, slam doors, and turn on lights. As we went back to bed I silently tried to calm my tired brain. When breakfast rolled around she was snippy because "the kids" wanted to eat a bigger breakfast when she felt that we should "save our appetite" for her dinner. This made me even crankier. Anybody that has ever nursed a baby might understand. You are hungry. All the time. No matter what you eat. You. Are. Hungry. I am cranky when hungry so this did not help lighten the load of me dealing with a crushed ideal.

I am also cranky when tired. As the morning developed and our son didn't sleep. I realized that I had another ideal that was dying. I figured that everyone so loved my son that people would be helpful (i.e., hold him, rock him, help soothe him, be quiet and understanding that he was cranky). It took my dense mother-love brain a bit to realize that people who haven't been around a baby think that a baby should be cute, entertaining, available at any time for present opening or a photo shoot with a cute charming smile. I spent the entire day attempting to meet the ideals while trying to get my darling to sleep. Alas, I didn't have time to be helpful. The Christmas Nazi thanked everyone by name (except for me of course) for "helping me clean up our dinner." I'll refrain what went through my head.

By the time presents rolled around my child, the husband, and I were worn out. We made the family decision to leave early. I was glad we made it beforehand because then the Christmas Nazi decided that I needed a little parenting advice/correction. I felt like it was an essay of "How I didn't make her Christmas perfect." "He just needs to learn to sleep through the noise. I should have the freedom to talk as loud as I want in my own house," was the part that really stomped me down and made me feel like I was a horrible mother and daughter. I cannot deny the truth that she really does have the freedom to talk in her own house, but after her making no attempt to be kind or even sympathetic toward us I broke. I went into the back room and cried. The husband and I realized that we needed to leave as graciously as we could.

The Christmas Nazi was not broken up over the news that we were leaving. We packed quickly and felt her attitude of don't let the door hit you on the way out helped us to move faster.

As we were driving away with my ideals and expectations crushed and laying around me and stuffed in the back with the presents, I prayed that I would learn. Learn to place these ideals on the altar so that maybe someday I will be relaxed and not become a Christmas Nazi to my family.

I write this out to help heal the hurt and to sweep and clean up the broken ideals. I will probably be forming new ones and molding them throughout the next year. So hopefully I'll grow before they get too high to crash and shatter, but that might be trying to reach perfection. And we all know what happens to people that try to reach perfection. Hum. I think it might lead to more ideals.

Christmas Music is in the Air

Today is Halloween. Time to put away the scary decorations and bring on the holidays! I am appalled that the Christmas decorations are already out in the stores and believe that really you should wait to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but at the same time something drives me to want Christmas all year round. Maybe it is the cooler weather we are having here.

I am one of those crazy people that listens to Christmas music all year round. I have several albums on my i pod already and get made fun of on a regular basis by the husband. Now, today I will celebrate the upcoming season by listening to Christmas music all day and forcing my husband and child to do the same. BUT, I will not decorate. A girl has to have some kind of Christmas standards.

Note: Click HERE for a good review on the movie from the previous post.