I don't know about everyone else, but the month of December is just chock full of "things to do." There were things I just plain WANTED to do, things I HAD to do and some things I really DIDN'T want to do. We had family functions every week leading up to Christmas, which is great. I love my family and Matt's family, but really, it's just becoming a little TOO much when we feel like we need to go to everything!
Christmas day went a little like this-
* Matt and I stay up until after midnight, getting everything set up for the morning
* 6:15 am - I wake up in order to get a shower in and be all ready before the kids wake up
* 7:30 am - Wake up 2 of 3 kids (Blake was already awake) so that we can do our Christmas
* 8:15 am - Tell the kids that we have no time to play with the gifts they just opened because we have to be out the door in 45 minutes. Rush, rush, rush to get kids fed, dressed, hair done.
* 9:30 am - LeBaron family Christmas exchange. Can you say pure chaos!! Haha! Everyone talking at the same time + trying to figure out who has who for gift giving + wrapping paper everywhere, KIDS everywhere = MAYHEM!!
* 10:30 am - Over to Matt's parents for our sibling and little cousin exchange and gifts from Mom and Dad. Everyone got to talk to Karl, who is currently serving a mission in Mississippi. :)
* 1:15 pm - We come back home, put Gavin down for a short, but sweet nap, twins get to play with a few of their new toys. At this point, I know if I sit down for too long, I'll be OUT!
* 2:45 pm - On the road again, this time to my Uncle David and Aunt Candy's home for Christmas dinner with my dad's side of the family.
* 5:30 pm - Now, we finally head over to MY parents house for gifts. I manage to sneak in some shut eye (only like 15 minutes) since we beat my family home.
* 8:00pm?ish - I don't really remember what time we actually got back to our house, but again, we tell the kids that they can't play with any of their new Christmas gifts because it's bedtime. Promise them a million times over that the second they wake up tomorrow morning, we'll begin extracting each toy from it's package.
What's wrong with this picture????!???! I honestly can't do this EVERY Christmas for the rest of my life! At some point (like next year), we're going to have to skip all this craziness to be able to spend time at home with just our little family and actually enjoy Christmas day. Now, I'm not saying that my Christmas day stunk or anything, because it didn't. I'm grateful that we have loving families that we can spend time with. But I just want to sit at home, enjoy our morning, let the kids play with their new goods and THEN we'll visit our families at our leisure. Ahhhhh, can you imagine! ;)
And I was all set to take a thousand pictures of the kids ripping into their gifts on Christmas morning, but - don't faint - I didn't. After a couple pictures of the initial reaction to their Santa gifts, I put the camera down so I could enjoy their excitement. I really only have 38 pictures taken on Christmas day. I'm just going to share a few-
Christmas Eve in new jammies
Say cheese! Blake's big Santa gift
Gavin with his beloved Rocket. Christmas could have been over for himafter he saw this and he would have been perfectly content!!!
Brooklyn modeling her new Jasmine dress up from Santa!
Blake's favorite gifts - Fisher Price Kid Tough digital camera, Spiderman action figure, Mack truck (from Cars) playset, Transformers Optimus Prime Battle Rig Blaster dart gun thingy (from G & G LeB), Dreadwing transformer (from G & G Hamilton)
Gavin's favorite gifts - Little Einstein Pat Pat Rocket, Little People Farm (from G & G Hamilton), and his new trucks
We've had a few issues with "sharing" new toys. Blake seems to want to play with everything that Gavin got for Christmas. However, Blake will flip out if Gavin touches something of his!!! I don't think anyone should have to share their brand new Christmas toys. Blake thinks that if he offers a different toy to Gavin as a trade, he can take whatever Gavin had that he (Blake) wants. UGH! The joys!!
Just think - we get to do it all over again for Gavin's birthday in 10 days and then Brooklyn and Blake's three weeks later!!! New toys, more fights! Yay!
More blog entries to come...... This just scratched the surface of the past two weeks!!
10 comments:
that certainly sounds like chaos! i think i'd get burnt out. oh, and looks like blake is following in your footsteps! ps i only took like 10 pictures on christmas day. we spent most of the day at my mom's and i didn't take a single picture there. so i'm glad you got to enjoy the moments!
I have to admit, that is one of the nice things about parents not living close together. We go to one parents house and just enjoy a lazy Christmas day. I am glad that the kids enjoyed their gifts. That is always a big relief. We had sharing issues too, although ours were the other way around. Macey really wanted all of Sydney's stuff. It sounds like a very busy, successful day. Good luck with the birthdays!!
I know I know . . . all the parties, dinners, gift exchanges, etc. What do you do? It's not like you just can't go and they are fun in way, but it really is overwhelming! That will be a benefit to not living by both familiies though. . . I gotta look for the positive right!
What a crazy day.. but fun, I'm sure. Joel and I were just talking about how when we have more kids or even next year, we may want to have Christmas to ourselves- without running to others houses and letting the boys be able to enjoy their toys and have some of our own Christmas day traditions. (like all the birthdays won't be enough)
Well, there is nothing like finding out the reality of parenting first hand... the future holds many wonderful surprises in store young wife & mother! Never regret the hard decisions that you will have to make on behalf of you & your family. You'll find not everyone will support your decisions but what the HECK do they know! You go girl....
I got tired just READING about your Christmas day! I forgot that you always have so many adventures being with family, huh? I hope it'll be calmer for you next year.:) Okay, so I know all the girls got Littlest Pet Shop this year, and I cannot break down and buy those things! I know it'll end up like the Little People and I'll want to collect the entire set of every single one, huh? I kept telling Rebecca no for the past few months! Now I'm rethinking.:) I'm glad you survived Christmas! Cute pics of the kids ALWAYS!
Lindsay, I couldn't relate more.
First off, one nephew's birthday is 2 days before Christmas - so the gift fighting started that night and continued on Christmas day. Why is it that every kid wants what the other one got? And now my other nephew's birthday is this Tuesday. More fighting, I'm sure.
For the first year ever, I cut out one of the family gatherings this Christmas. I just can't do it all. Family is wonderful, but one must take time for their own little family unit too or it's just all lost.
Sounds crazy. It is amazing how we can get caught up in the holidays. I hope you have a more relaxing New Year.
Sounds fun! I wish I could predict "that one gift" that each child plays the most with...it sure would make Christmas cheaper!
cute pics. i am loving the jammies! i didnt realize that your kids b-days were so close together. lucky you to get it done with in one months time. then the rest of the year is just planning for the next one.
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