As I packed up and put away all the Christmas decorations I couldn’t help but think what is Christmas to me, and how do I make sure next year is better. If you asked Olivia and Brody if they had a good Christmas their automatic response would be an enthusiast YES! They are both so young right now that as long as I make sure the sprit in believing in Santa is still alive, and presents with their name on them are under the tree, I am positive they will be satisfied. When I was younger I don’t really feel like my family had a lot of traditions during the holiday season, of course I knew I would have to see the Boles family at some point, and to survive being there I would always stay close to my dad and bear through it. Obviously we had a tree, with presents and all that entails, but what were OUR family traditions. Once I had Olivia I knew that I wanted to make traditions an important part of the holiday season, with the hope that every year she and now Brody would get excited not only about the inevitable gifts, but also about all the other fun times that lead up to it… Sedona lights, Zoo lights (Jengo), baking cookies, sitting on Santa’s lap no matter how old they get ( a tradition I stole from the Mckee family), Christmas pictures, having a REAL Christmas tree in the house, driving around grading lights with our p.j.s on and sipping hot cocoa (Derek and I tend to be pretty tough judges) welcoming Sam back into our house to keep a watchful eye on our behavior, and the togetherness that all these events bring. I knew I looked forward to these events but were my children getting the point of all these traditions? I understand that Brody is a little to young right now (almost 4), but Olivia being (nearly 8), and having done this a numerous amount of times is it starting to sink in? This year was a very very difficult year for myself, our children, and our extended family and friends. So from the start I could feel my inner grinch wanting to ease out of me, but of course being the mother of two small children I put aside my green suit, and hide up on the hill. This year things started to have a different outlook for me, and yet the same sense of urgency to get done the traditions I had set into place. Having Olivia only half the time makes planning things a tad bit tough (understatement of the year) I would never entertain the thought of doing one single Christmas tradition with out her (for me that would be like trying to drive a car with no tires, or showing up to work with just my shirt on). Do to our financial situation I knew we weren’t going to be able to do all the things we usually do, which would lead to a different set of traditions but the togetherness would still be in place. So I put my slowly crept down the hill over looking Bjerkestrandville and decided to jump in with full enthusiasm and rigor .
Decorating our house lead to the first problem Olivia wanted to help me this year. You see in the past I have taken the weekend of Thanksgiving to transform our house into a Christmas wonderland. Every room is fully decorated, and the little touches of each child’s growing years is placed for us to enjoy over and over. When Olivia was younger she would have hindered more then helped, but this year I knew she could totally handle the task, and become my little elf. Oh no time crunch we don’t have enough weekends to get it all in!! Crap! That would mess up our plans for the following weekend of Christmas pictures, and that is a total must. So I did what any type A - O.C.D type of person would do and, I took a day off from work to stage the house with Olivia. My mom came over and heated up that glue gun and we got to work. It truly did take up the entire day but the house looked great. Mind you in the past I have had this beautiful house. The new house didn’t have a fireplace so we did have to make some adjustments, but no big deal. My mom brought over her fake Christmas tree so we could save money with the purchase ( 80+ dollars)of a real one.
Which lead to problem number two ….. Olivia immediately voiced that we always get a real one, and she always get to pick it out. I explained to her that it wouldn’t be forever and that she always had a fake one at her father’s house. That is when she totally went in for the ultimate guilt trip, “ I know and that is why I always look forward to our REAL Tree here I love it so much more!” I took my parent guilt punch to the gut but managed to keep standing by reminding her it would just be this year and we could make it look just as beautiful as the years past. We waited for Derek to come home from basketball, turned on the Christmas music and went to work. At first it was going great. The kids ejoyed seeing the ornaments, and getting excited and quite territorial I might add of THEIR specific ornament. Gradually I found myself just going through the motions, I just flung up the decorations with no rhyme or reason (totally unlike me) I was just eager to finish and put the kids to bed.
On to problem number three Christmas pictures. Every year my dad takes our pictures and he does a fabulous job, he is always willing to do whatever I bark at him to do, and they always come out great and free I might add. So we set off for Tucson to take some desert living landscape pictures ( sitting on grass or near a waterfall had been used three years in a row.). We arrive at my dads, have a talk with the kids about how the faster they pay attention and smile the sooner it will be over, and ready to go. But wait it is totally raining and over cast oh crap again!!! We have to get these done today! Next weekend no Olivia, plus that would be too late to send out cards. So I waited and watched very impatiently, and the second I saw a break in the cloud cover we immediately ran outside, and I do mean ran. Thankfully the weather corporate for the 15 - 20 mins we needed, and the kids did great aside from the occasional pouting from each child which in turn lead to the traditional mommy bribery.
My dad yet again delivered a great group of pictures. I knew I was going to have trouble narrowing them down (hence why this card has so many pictures).
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| Oops! I didn't mean to put this one in..... Don't tell Brody! But he does have such a cute tushy!! |
Here goes problem number four Zoo lights. Every year we go to zoo lights with my mom through this investment group she belongs to. The date always lands on Thursday, no issue there because we always have Olivia. We walk around the zoo ( I like to dress up and pretend it is way colder then it is ..) and enjoy the lights wth no crowds, Jengo, and of course the delicious dessert spread and extended lap time with Santa.
This year however Olivia’s school Christmas concert fell on the same night!!! Not a big deal I will pencil it in somewhere else, I told myself. Olivia's concert was a huge sucess, and I have to admit she was totally the cutiest second grader I have ever seen.
Problem number five Christmas lights. In the past Derek has been a trooper and put up lights all the way to the top which is a huge deal for me to not do it half a%& if you know me I don’t need to go into my OCD details. Anyway this year Derek refused to go all the way to the top, not to mention none of the lights even worked ! The old irresponsible me would have grabbed my best friend Visa and headed to Wal - mart, but no I just let it go, and did my best trying to explain to disappointed Olivia and Brody that we just can’t this year. Major, Major let down.
Next problem number six Baking Christmas cookies. Each year Heather, my mom, and myself get a little bit smarter at planning this event right, wrong! I assumed Derek would be home to watch my bull in a china shop Brody, but oh no he had a Basketball tournament, not just a two hour game, yup that’s right an entire two days of non stop basketball. Which meant I had to bring Brody along, and although the day was successful it wasn’t the same. The worst part being Heather was so pregnant that I had to step up to the mixing bowl, which lead to my origiinaly yearly job getting completely cancelled ( sleeping on the couch, and eating cookies when it is over).
Problem number seven Santa’s lap! We have always gone to the exact same Santa at the Anthem outlet mall, zero lines, the kids look adorable in their Christmas clothes, and only spending 15.00 dollars. In my mad rush to continue to make another check on my Christmas tradition list we rushed up there one school night, without Derek ( you guessed it basketball). I hurried them out of the car, each child in complete normal day attire and rushed them into the cabin. Once in there the Santa was so old he couldn’t even hear Olivia’s request, and Brody decided an I am not having fun face was in style this year. No worries that will be 26.00 for one 5x7 thank you!
Problem number eight Show me the money! This year our school district gave us our Christmas bonus of 139.00 that’s right we had 280.00 to spend on the kids, and extended family. Along with the fact that our last paycheck before the big day wasnt delivered to our checking acounts until Dec. 23rd . I had to sadly inform our families we wouldn’t be able to purchase gifts for them (beyond sad face) and we shopped for Olivia and Brody all in one day!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well we got it done, and only missed one gift on the list.
And now for the Grand Finale problem number nine Derek and I were not getting along, so we didn’t go to Nana and Bumpa’s house for Christmas Eve!! So basically to be an ultimate downer the season started off rocky and ended with an avalanche.
As I sit here and reflect on the entire season first and foremost I am glad it is over with, and two beautiful healthy children asleep in their beds!! Will I continue with the same traditions? Do we need new traditions? Am I teaching the children the true meaning of Christmas (Our lord and Saviors Birthday). Should I have planned better? Should I reconcile with visa again, no way man I would never we are offically over :)) I am not sure. To end on a happier note I did truly enjoy decorating Denise’s tree with her three beautiful girls ,,,
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| Sam must have left for the north pole quickly he forgot the letter t on the word next oops! |
