The Christmas Post

After my downer of a post I figured I better buck up and bring some joy back into this blog. I mean it is the holidays after all. Well I guess it was the holidays...


If you read my pre-Christmas post you could assume that I was already overwhelmed before the event actually even took place. That continued right on through to the end of the week, but of course, there were some pretty special moments involved in it all.


Tuesday night, as we celebrated my grandmother's 92nd birthday and what is usually our Christmas Eve celebration all in one, we got a little taste of what the next few days would bring. Overall it was lovely. Sure, there was chaos. When you bring 8 kids all under the age of 8 together, it is bound to be a little crazy. But basically everyone had a good time. My boy got a little overwhelmed at it all at the end of the evening. His cousin had opened a cash register as a gift and damn if he didn't want to play with that thing. And when the cousin wasn't engaged in it, we let him. But when she wanted it back, well it was her toy, so he had to be told he couldn't have it. At one point he just melted down and cried. I had to take him to another room and we had a little quiet moment and he seemed to recover. Learning to share at this age is a tough lesson. And one that would go on for the next few days.


The only real drama of that evening came as a result of my step sister. Now I have a pretty steady rule that I don't talk about family on this blog. BUT...man that is tough right now. I am going to stick to my rule, but let's just say that the majority of the holidays were very stressful, and that stress was as a result of having to try and tip toe around someone else's drama and "hardship" that was meant to be felt by every.last.single.one.of.us. If you really want to know the details, email me and I will gladly share but this being a public forum blah, blah, blah...


One of the highlights for The Boy was that my cousins, and perhaps his very favorite person in the world, stayed with us for a night and he got to hang with them. He loves these people and was truly thrilled that they were here to spend some of the holidays with them. He hung with them on the morning of Christmas Eve until my mother came to rescue them and set them free. I think the night before and all the chaos with all the kids, plus the morning of just getting to play with my cousins somehow told The Boy that normal rules did not need to be followed and that he could run free and crazy... Well this isn't so much the case, as was proven when my mother had to give him a time out within 10 minutes of being left alone with him. (He thought it would be appropriate to throw his toys at her and then sit ON TOP of the dinner table three times in a row after she had told him that was unacceptable...). Now as has been mentioned here before my boy is a very sensitive sort, and one time out is usually all it takes to show him that we are serious and he snaps back into shape. It worked this time as well.


Probably my most favorite time of the entire holiday came Christmas Eve night and evening. I got off work a little early and my mom, my step dad, The Boy and myself headed out to a nice dinner. We got a little dressed up and went to Italian food. It was just the 4 of us and so nice and relaxing. I had outstanding lobster raviolis and The Boy was on his best behavior and sat quietly during dinner, actually ate, and watched the fire and sang Christmas songs to us. It was truly lovely. Just what a holiday meal and night should be. On our way home I texted The Ex and told her to head on over. She did and once she arrived, she sat with The Boy on the couch and watched a Christmas movie with him. Then we put out the cookies and milk for Santa and The Boy went to sleep. Once he was down, The Ex and I pulled out all the gifts for the next day (they were in my garage in large garbage bags) and watched as Santa filled The Boy's stocking and brought out his new play kitchen, his tool belt and Butch (all the things he had asked Santa for when he saw him earlier in the week). We were in bed by about 10:00pm I believe.


When The Boy woke up in the morning, he thought it was just any other day. Then his Mom popped her head in his room and he said, "Mom!! SANTA!!!" He remembered why his Mom had spent the night and wanted to see if Santa had come. So he ran his little self down the hall into the living room to see what Santa had left for him. Ironically enough the first thing he wanted to see was whether Santa had eaten the cookies and milk. He was THRILLED to see that he had. In fact later when he was calling his grandparents, the thing he always said first was that Santa had eaten his cookies. Too cute. He was shocked and so excited to see "his kitchen!" and "my tool belt," and "Mommy!! Yook!! Butch!!!" Totally stoked. Then he realized that his stocking was full and it was all just better than anything he had ever experienced. It really was special and sweet and magical and yes, I cried several times (damned pregnancy hormones...). Just the innocence of it all and the pure joy and excitement he felt was one of those moments where I literally felt time stand still. "Just hold onto this moment," I told myself. Just feel it, really feel it and absorb the preciousness involved...and I did. It was wonderful. By about 10:00am he was pooped from all the excitement. We layed on the couch and watched Frosty and he went down for a nap with the promise that when he woke up, his cousins and his Gigi and Poppy would be here and we could open all the presents still left under the tree. He went right to sleep.


I wish I could end this post there. That is not to say that the rest of Christmas Day was a bad thing. It wasn't. In fact, it actually went better than I had anticipated. But it was exhausting, and the aforementioned tip toeing made it all the more annoying. And well, you know how they say that Christmas can be overwhelming for young kids? Yeah, it is. See The Boy had many great new toys to play with, BUT there were several kids there who also wanted to play with his great new toys. And they kept taking them. And he wasn't so much interested in sharing his brand new garbage truck, or helicopter or scooper truck... The Boy is also a very um...shall we say organized little boy. Okay he borders on a little OCD. You can blame me and my virgo-ness. But see his play room is set up with several bins of toys. The toys are sorted. There is a transportation bin, a tool bin, an animal bin, a musical bin, a train bin...you get the gist. He knows this and he enjoys it. He puts things back where they belong when he is done (also part of his Montessori schooling) and expects all others to do the same. Well when there are 5 kids under 5, this doesn't so much happen. So everyone had his things, and they were doing BAD things with them...he was most upset. So by about 4:00pm (even though he had had a two hour nap earlier in the day) I found him in his room, in the corner with his Lambie just laying down crying. Poor little dude. I put him in his crib and he slept there for a little over an hour. When he woke up, his cousins had gone home. I didn't deal with the clean up of the playroom until the next day, but at least for the rest of the evening, he got to play with his toys the way he wanted to play with them. Everyone finally left at about 8:00pm I would guess. It felt like it was midnight. At one point there were over 20 people in my little house. And I had to feed them all. And have I mentioned that I am 21 weeks pregnant? Again, I am not necessarily complaining. But I was just tired. Tired down to my bones...


Overall it was a nice holiday. Christmas Eve was by far the best part of my week. I will hold onto the memories of that. Also The Boy's first Christmas morning where he understood and enjoyed the concept of Santa. That was a magical time. And even during all the chaos and noise I was aware of the fact that I am truly blessed to even have over 20 people in my life to celebrate the holidays with. I know there are people out there who don't have anyone, or who have just a few chosen people with whom they share the holidays. I do love my large and boisterous family. And all my friends and the special people in my life. We are lucky and we are blessed. We are just also very tired... (pictures to come in a later post).