Christmas was hard this year. I'm not going to lie. Between the not sleeping (Noah was still getting up a lot), the craziness, and all the little details that had to get done; I was overwhelmed. Mainly, though, it was the no-sleeping part that really did me in. I learned a few things and we vowed to do a few things differently next year. It was my first Chistmas with 3 very small children, so you live and learn! I was sad because we never got our Christmas cookies made or iced them and I didn't get around to packaging up some goodies for our neighbors that we never see or have never met. Next year I need to start wrapping way ahead of time and I also need to do some baking ahead of time. I'm hoping I can remember this next year and try and not be so exhausted.
The point of Christmas isn't to be so exhausted you can hardly see straight. We need to make sure we concentrate on the boys and truly teaching them WHY it's so important that we celebrate Christmas. JESUS, JESUS, JESUS. Yes, we do gifts and a few gifts in a pile from Santa, but I was so happy when John Michael could clearly tell us this year all about the Christmas story. My dad took him to our downtown square to see the nativity scene and he told SO many people passing by, "It's babay Jesus!!". He also named all the other characters in the nativity. It really was touching for my dad to see and it made me happy that he truly got "it" this year! What made us the most proud though, was John Michael saying he wanted to keep up our big Happy Birthday banner (that we'd had up for my birthday) for Jesus. Of course, we did!
So, with those lessons fresh in my mind, here is our Christmas!
Everyone running in!
Little Noah got a fun little teether from Santa!
We were so glad the boys finally learned how to open gifts. Last year, they would hardly open any gifts for some reason. Not so this year!
JM was geninely excited about getting a Dinosaur Train book!
And Jack looked less than impressed with Christmas!
We took a little break and had a yummy breakfast of fresh squeezed OJ, pigs in a blanket, and overnight french toast casserole. I had to go put Noah down for a nap, but Jordan said the boys inhaled the casserole. It was good!
Noah went down for a morning nap and we opened a few more gifts then watched Christmas movies and just relaxed in PJs the rest of the day. It truly is the way to do it! I love being home and in our pajamas (and not out driving around to different places all day with small children in tow!). Toward the end of the day we were truly exhasted. When I was putting Noah down for his nap I realized I had to go get started on dinner. I almost cried because I was so tired I thought I would fall over!
So, for dinner we had ham the way my mom makes it, twiced baked potatoes, green beans, and rolls. I know that some moms can do it ALL, but after this year I decided I could not. I'm all about traditions and baking, but it was just too much. I spent a lot of the day in the kitchen cooking, baking, and loading and unloading the dishwasher. It wasn't worth it in the end. I'd rather have that time back to sit and play with my boys. We decided that next year we would order dinner from Cracker Barrell or something and just spend the extra time together as a family. Clean up will be easier and I bet there will be less stress!
Maybe as my boys get a litle older it will be easier to do the big baking and cooking. I hope I'll have time to fit it all in as they get older, bigger, and need us a little less!
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