Surviving Christmas

Whew.  I am exhausted.  Christmas this year was a 3-4 day event, with our various family gatherings not spaced out at all.  The exhaustion was absolutely worth it though, as our two year old had a wonderful time!  Before I had a child, Christmas being on a weekend didn't make things any tougher, but now it is a hard deadline! 

My little one loves Christmas lights, and so she was thrilled when we finally got our tree up...three days before Christmas.  Oh well.  That's okay.  It'll likely stay up until Valentine's Day, so she will still have plenty of time to enjoy it! 

Thursday we went to see Santa.  We weren't planning to take her this year, figuring that she would be afraid of him still, but after a week of hearing, "A go see Santa?" over and over, we decided to head to the mall.  I'm glad that we did, as she was all smiles as soon as she saw him and we got a really nice photo out of the deal.

Our holiday travel marathon began on Friday night, when we drove down to my parent's house.  If there is absolutely no traffic and no stops along the way, the drive can be done in a little over 2 hours.  Our drive was not quite so easy.  Three hours, a dinner stop and three potty breaks later, we arrived.  We spent Christmas Eve with my husband's family, having brunch, opening presents, eating cake and coffee, then dinner.  It was like the day that wouldn't end, topped off with another three hour, three potty stop drive home.  Upon arriving home, little one fortunately went right off to bed, which left me to wrap and play Santa in preparation for Christmas morning.  I dropped into bed exhausted, but excited to see her face the next morning. 

Christmas morning was just the three of us.  I went downstairs a minute or two ahead and turned the tree lights on and got the video camera ready.  I am really a bad videographer, but I wanted to see if I could capture the look on her face when she saw the tricycle under the tree.  She saw the tree and the trike and her smile lit up her whole face!  I was as excited as she was for her to climb aboard.  She started pushing on the floor with her toes, and within about 5 minutes had put her feet up on the pedals and started pedaling.  Craziness.  I really didn't expect her to get the hang of pedaling so quickly!  We had so much fun on Christmas morning, it's a memory I will treasure forever.  Our little one didn't get a lot of presents from Santa, but what she got, she loved, so her mama is happy.

My parents came up for Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts, and we all had a lot of fun together.  Then on Monday, my extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, first cousins once removed, etc) all got together and enjoyed each other's company.  Despite the two hour drive each way, we had a good time.  I always think of my grandmother at this particular family gathering, and how happy she would be that we all still get together to celebrate the holiday.  From the time I was young until her death in 2002, I gave her an angel for her Christmas tree.  I still buy one in her memory every year and hang it on our tree.  Merry Christmas, Mom-Mom!

I survived the Christmas marathon, but I need to re-think my strategy for next year.  I should probably try to figure it out now, while the memory of this year is still fresh.  I think Christmas is on a Tuesday next year...

Forget it.  I'm too tired to even think about it! 

December Traditions

Now that December is here, I've realized that many of our traditions start around Thanksgiving and keep us busy through the New Year.  Now that we have a child, we have added even more.  It's hard not to add things, as she is in that toddler stage, so innocent and fascinated by everything.  Working full time complicates this even further, because most of our activities end up squeezed into the weekends.  Having hockey season tickets gives me even less free time, though I do love it.  Thank goodness my team only has three home games this month! 

I am starting to realize that all of these things are why our house gets decorated for Christmas around December 23rd each year. 

Hmm.

But what do we cut out?  It's hard to trim anything, since most of these are A) fun and B) time spent with family or close friends. 

This Saturday we have two events planned.  The first one is new, a holiday party for the kids in daycare at my company, complete with Santa.  This should be a lot of fun, as my daughter's little friends will all be there and they all gaze in wonder at Christmas lights and Santa.

Then in the evening, we go to a Dickens festival in a town about an hour from home.  One of my closest friends lives right on the main street and a group of three of us attend this quaint little street fair no matter the weather.  We're like the postal service when it comes to this festival.  And we have seen all kinds of weather at this one.  We people watch, browse the booths, avoid the stilt-walkers and listen to carolers, and check out the live nativity scene while we wait for Santa to roll into town.  We don't always make it that long, sometimes a hot dinner in a warm place is too appealing to hold out on.  Then we adjourn to my friend's apartment to eat Harry and David Moose Munch and watch Harry Potter movies on ABC Family.  The evening comes to an end when one of us succumbs to our allergy to the cat.  One of the things I love about this outing is that my daughter fits into it seamlessly, and hopefully she will continue to love going to the festival with the girls as she gets older.

Sunday will be spent recovering from running all over the state on Saturday.  Hopefully this will also be an opportunity to identify where the Christmas tree will go this year and get that spot cleared out.  We always seem to have home improvement projects going on that impact exactly where we had planned to put the tree, requiring a last minute change of plans and hoping that the tree will fit somewhere else.

Upcoming events include:  adopting a family for Christmas and shopping/wrapping, photo with Santa, a cookie swap with friends, children's Christmas party at the firehouse, adult Christmas party at the firehouse,  our town's Christmas tree lighting, Santa ride on the firetruck to visit neighborhood children on Christmas Eve, and other things I am certainly forgetting. 

These events are on top of: decorating our home; shopping for family, friends, co-workers, teachers; planning, potentially hosting and traveling to various family celebrations of the holiday (we have at least three each year, sometimes four); off-site meetings for work; my husband's crazy work schedule and recertification courses; completing my mandatory continuing education by December 31; and of course, continuing to feed my family a healthy dinner each night and make sure everyone has clean clothes each day.

I'm going to take things one day at a time and shoot for accomplishing one thing each day...or couple of days.  On the upside, my daughter is still young enough that I can get away with being a little bit of a disorganized mess...she won't remember it.  Yet.  Now is the time to work out the kinks and get the hang of making Christmas events at home as much or more of a priority as the ones out. 

I can do this.