Christmas 2009

The holidays are a stressful time for me. Gifts to buy, house to decorate, parties to schedule. This year we had more family move into town, which meant another Christmas celebration to add to the list. And every individual family unit wants to celebrate in their own unique way. So rather than spend real quality time with any family group, instead we spend the season rushing around from family group to family group, unwrapping packages and sharing stories while stuffing our faces, only in time to pack-up and leave for the next occasion. The kids love this. They get so many gifts and get to play with all of their cousins and see all of their relatives. It leaves me feeling somewhat unfulfilled and gluttonous. It leaves me wondering why WE buy the kids gifts at all, since they get so MANY! And it also leaves my house in shambles for weeks afterwards while the bedrooms get rearranged and organized to make room for the new toys and clothes and move out the old. Luckily, this holiday season I have been able to see a lot of the family outside of these brief gift opening encounters, so my heart is a little fuller knowing that we DID get to share the holiday season with everyone and that we have had time to catch-up on the other things as well.

Next year though, I am thinking a Christmas Day open house sounds best. Come as you please, food served at 3. Gifts, if you so choose, to be opened by the children on arrival so you can watch them enjoy them while you are there. Now to get my family to buy off....better start now!

Our celebrations began this year the Sunday before Christmas, with a dinner with good friends Jeff and Rebecca. There is nothing I love more than a sit down dinner with the family at the dining room table. Ben, I think, loathes it. Having friends over is the perfect excuse! We chatted and exchanged stories from the past few months, the boys compared their latest toys and we left the evening talking about our plans for the next night out!

Monday through Wednesday we enjoyed vacation time with Chloe and Cadence's time off school by spending time with family and friends!

We woke-up on the morning of x-mas eve and the real craziness began! Our first stop was the Householder x-mas celebration at Karol's. We arrived around 12:30; some of the family was there already and some came over later for their main event that night. Mandi came by with her boys too. It was really great watching all the kids play together. Never having cousins my age as a kid, I love watching the kids play with their cousins and think of how special the memories will be as they get older. The kids all got more gifts then we could possibly fit in the car. The highlight of the event for me was when Cadence, who can not yet read, went over and grabbed a gift that happened to be her gift from Grandma Karol. Awesome. And it was 5 pairs of dress-up shoes and a crown. Double awesome. Chloe got a huge activity trunk and Brody got a bunch of stuff...the most memorable (as I finish writing this in January) was a webbed toy ball from Stayce and his reader toy from Renee. Really they get too many gifts if I can't remember each one!

We left the Householders and headed back home to welcome my parents, aunt and brother for the Lahti Christmas Eve celebration. When we got home everyone was already there and loading in the gifts. Oh, and the food too. Mom and Janet cooked all the food in advance and brought it over since we weren't going to be home...love turkey dinner. If it didn't take so much energy, I would consider it once a month...so we did two rounds of gift opening. The first round was kids only and was before dinner (I think). The kids got great matching jammies from grandma, super cute clothes from Aunt Janet and all kinds of toys. I mean all kinds. Cadence got a puzzle with her name to help her as she learns to spell her name. Oh, and a big pink tutu and headband, which she slept in the rest of the holiday break. And Chloe and Brody got some neat stuff too. Sorry in advance to my mom who reads this, but there were so many gifts I don't remember as I type this. When I upload pics tonight I am sure it will come to me.

So after gifts and dinner, the kids hit the hay to wait for Santa. Seriously. Even Chloe was in bed around 7:00 and asleep by 7:30. Earliest in bed ever. But if you ask her, she stayed up all night waiting for Santa. She did sleep sitting up all night, so I am not sure how WELL she slept.

In the meantime, Mom, Aunt Janet and I headed to Christmas Eve service at Janet's church. This is the second year we have attended church service and it has become a nice tradition. The less than religious men in the family stayed home for some guy talk...mostly Driod talk... (we got a free Driod when Ben got his and gave it to my Dad b/c I don't need all those bells and whistles, or the cost of the data plan, thank you very much!) Then after church, we came home and the adults exchanged gifts. We like to separate it because we all take turns opening gifts and the lack of children makes this a lot easier. We didn't anticipate that we would be all so tired this year though...yawn!

Once all the family left, Santa made his appearance. He filled stockings for the kids and left each of them one big gift! Santa left Chloe the Dora Links computer game. This is a grown-up Dora that interacts on the computer with friends and plays games and solves mysteries. Chloe claims she is too old for Dora, but Santa knew better. We weren't suprised either because she constantly longs for her old Dora toys that have become her sister's new prized possessions. Speaking of Dora, Santa brought Cadence a 5x5 Dora house tent. It looked like that was the only thing he brought because it took up the entire family room! It has since moved to take up Cadence's entire room. We moved her kitchen and her table set in there and she and Chloe have had numerous tea parties. Cadence has even recently taken to sleeping in the Dora tent on her baby quilt that Alicia made for her. It was also the tent that was the site of the suprise party that Chloe had for Cadence, with decorations and even a real gift for the guest of honor. So cute. Santa brought a 3 sport play set for Brody. The main toy is a basketball hoop with lights and sounds when you make a basket. He is fascinated with the little organge balls and the sounds it makes. Then there is an attached baseball with a bat and an attached football rattle. The football rattle is probably the most used item for now by Brody. He does enjoy the toy and if we're not watching closely, he will maneuver himself over by it and be playing with it. The first time he did I actually asked Ben if he put him over there! This is easily my favorite Santa gift. I am sure Santa worked VERY hard to find it. And it has been the perfect gift. :)

Christmas morning began with Chloe waking up and dragging Ben out of bed. They went to unload the stockings before coming to wake me and the rest of the house. Once Santa's big gifts were excitedly displayed for Ben and I, the girls watched Barbie and the Nutcracker and waited patiently while Brody ate and Ben and I finished waking up.

Then a tornado hit our living room! I mean, we opened Christmas presents! It was a mild Christmas for Ben and I this year, but we went a little overboard for the kids. Which was great, because we got them a ton of things we loved! My favorite gift for Chloe was her knitting machine. Cadence got a mini Dyson vacuum, just like mine! And Brody got a soothing aquarium for his crib. Each of these has proven to be a great gift! Cadence loves to help me vacuum, or even just vacuum on her own sometimes. Chloe knitted her first scarf the day after Christmas and if it wasn't for a temporarily missing piece, we would all have fluffy scarfs! Brody loves to turn on his soother. Cadence had a rainforest soother, but didn't play with it much until she was in her older second year, that's why the soother went with her to her big bed. Not sure what it is about the aquarium, but Brody hits is every night at least once. It really does help him go back to sleep also. This may have contributed to the two nights he has slept through (yippie!) but I'll never know!

Still in our jammies, we grabbed a few packages from under the tree and headed out to the Froehle house. Once there we ate breakfast and exchanged gifts. From aunt and uncle, Chloe got an LPSO, Cadence got a Princess bouncer, and Brody got a stuffed Moose! This is also where we got to open the gifts that Chloe bought this year! As a result of her participation in the swing dance competition, Chloe won $200! The money was divided between our house and her mom's house. Ben decided she should save half and she could do what she wanted with the other half. She decided to buy gifts for her family! For Ben she bought a frame, which she then placed an adorable picture of herself into; for Cadence she got a set of 4 dress-up shoes (so she wouldn't borrow Chloe's); I got some blue bath and body stuff; and she bought my mom and dad a beautiful Christmas tree decoration. The gifts were great, but that she put so much effort into picking out just the right gift made it even more special. The decoration she gave my mom and dad will be remembered every year as the first gift Chloe gave them. With her own money. For the rest of their lives and the rest of mine too. She has no idea how special it was or will be forever!

Then Uncle Ryan was off to work and Chloe was off to open MORE gifts with her mom's families. In the mean time, we spent some quality time with the rest of the family. It was really nice to have Ben's Grandpa David and Dad in town for the holidays. Ben's dad was in town a couple years back, as was Mandi's family, but David was a real treat to have here. We barely get to see him at all, so the holiday was extra special. Nothing like seeing 4 generations of Smith men all together. It gives such a great appreciation for family! Mandi's first turkey was successful. Around 7, we rolled ourselves off the couches and headed home...

Just to be up and moving early the next morning for our final chapter in our Christmas adventure! This time the celebration was for my Dad's side of the family. My Aunt Mary was there with her daughter Jenny, Jenny's bf Ken, and Jenny's daughter (and babysitter extraordinare) Jasmyn. My Uncle Glenn was also there this year, which is always a nice treat! We gathered early due in the morning to ensure Chloe could join us for the festivities...my favorite gifts for the kids were the Princess and the Frog dresses for the girls and the frog stuffed animal for Brody! These were gifts from Uncle Glenn for the kiddos. Glenn doesn't get out much for shopping, being a bachelor and all. So this year he asked my mom to pick-up something for the kids. I directed my mom to the Disney store and she did not fail! The girls got matching dresses that they wore the entire rest of the day!

Whew...okay, I am tired just writing this Blog. Seriously, next year will be simpler and we will try to focus on giving to others. And I think I am going to post the pictures in a separate post. This one is already long enough!