Thanksgiving weekend finished up most of my Christmas shopping. Another whirlwind Black Friday trip with Lindsey and I was pretty much set. Or so I thought. Of course there were the last minute things and two “Oh my goodness I forgot to buy so and so gifts.”
I volunteered at Gauge’s Christmas party (well, not really volunteered, I am the room mother) and the party went great. Although we didn’t have as much time to get everything ready, I have an awesome bunch of moms in the class this year that were so willing to help. I decided that instead of treat bags, I was going to get each of the kids their own hot chocolate mug with their names on them. We filled them with hot chocolate packages, mini Christmas marshmallows, and a candy cane. The mugs were such a hit! I think the best part of the party was when the kids who sat at Gauge’s table asked me if we really had an elf that lived in our house. I told them there was and the story of how he flies to the North Pole each night to report to Santa and how you can’t touch him or he will lose his magic. As I was talking, their eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. When I was finished, they look at Gauge and said , “You WERE telling the truth!” I seriously could have cried at that moment. For whatever reason, I had it in my head that the kids at this age just didn’t believe anymore. I was completely prepared for it and completely bummed every time I thought about it, but I was proved wrong over and over. Oh, and as a side note, I have to say that when I overheard one of the little girls at Gauge’s table say “Gauge, your mom is so pretty”, it made my day. How sweet kids can be.
My camera has died…at Christmastime. Yes, my canon rebel has died. It still once in a while will give me a photo or two, but for the most part, it’s a gonner. I am so upset to even think about it right now, it makes my stomach turn. I mean, sure, I would love a new fancy camera, but I LOVE that camera. I know just how to use it and what setting I love and well, I just love it. Maybe it wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t now, Christmastime. I take usually over 1,000 photos in a normal December, and this year, is our year to spend the week after Christmas in Florida with Rod’s family and go to Disney World, so that adds about another 1,000 photos to the total. So I got out the old Olympus camera and Alyssa’s little pink point and shoot camera, juiced up the batteries (AA batteries, which I totally forgot belong in a camera), crossed my fingers, and went along my merry way. I did get several shots at Christmas on my Canon, and a few in Florida, but then that was about it. So thank goodness for Tim and his Olympus camera that he has. We took it to the zoo and got some really good shots and it has a great zoom and took his cameras along to Disney World, too. So I was quite pleased. What a great brother in law I have. This isn’t the first time he’s bailed me out in my photography endeavors. After all, it’s not the quality of the photo, it’s the memory, caught forever, on whatever camera happens to snap the photo. I keep telling myself that, and as I type it, it makes me think of all those photos I have from when I was little, taken on 35mm (and I’m not going back any farther than that in a film timeline because it will just make me look too old, ha ha) crappy film. Those are some of my favorite photos. So there, discussion with myself…OVER. I will worry about the camera when we get back to reality.
Gauge wrote, rewrote, and finalized his Christmas list. The rule in our house is 10 items on the list (this year, I think he snuck a few more on there than he should have). And these 10 items have to be reasonable Check out #1, and IPOD touch…a bit unreasonable for a nine year old, but hey, he can dream. Check out the earlier post about the trip to see Santa at the Roadhouse. So anyways, the reason for this rule is several reasons…1. A child’s Christmas list can go on forever, and let’s face it, there is no way for us to tell which are the ones they REALLY want if there’s a list the length of my arm. 2. Ten in an attainable number. Between Santa, us, my parents, Rod’s parents, and the several sets of aunts and uncles my children are blessed with, it’s pretty reasonable to assume that those 10 gifts will show up somewhere on Christmas day. 3. Anything over the amount of 10, I just personally consider greedy. Now don’t get me wrong, Gauge’s list has about 100 things on it to begin with, but he narrowed it down, and listed in order of importance which gifts were truly important to him. After all, part of Christmas is being thankful for what you have, what you are fortunate enough to receive, and being humble enough to know that there are so many others who just simply aren’t as fortunate as we are.
I waited until the last minute to pack…DUMB. I waited until the last minute to wrap….DUMB. And I waited until the last minute to cook and clean…really DUMB. I mean what was I thinking? I was working 7-6 for the two weeks prior to Christmas and I didn’t get it all done in one night??? Ok, once again, I do this to myself. Like I said…DUMB. It all worked out ok of course. It always does. I wrapped a little each night the week of Christmas, I cooked and cleaned the night before Christmas Eve (and Rod had cleaned that week also while he was laid off – gotta give the credit where credit is due), and I packed as I went. Yes, we had presents to unwrap; yes, we had food to eat at Christmas Eve dinner; and yes we had clothes to wear on vacation, so I guess no matter how you plan it, it always gets done.
Christmas Eve we spent the day at home getting the last minute preparations done for dinner. Gauge spent just about every minute on the site we found on the internet that tracked Santa’s stops all day long. We went to Christmas Eve service and had the added gift of the Cope family sitting with us. Gauge and Tanner got to sit together and although this was the first time Julie and I didn’t sit directly beside each other during a church service, it was so nice to have their family sitting with us during the service. They have become like extended family to us. Gauge and Tanner would be inseparable if we would let them, and Julie and I talk almost every day. We attend each other’s family birthday parties and spend lots of our free time together. And I absolutely love that we have become that close. After dinner we had our family Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year. It was our year for dinner and the sleepover. Our guest included my parents, Chad & family, Amanda, Cory, Aunt B, Bob, and Lindsey’s parents. We ate and socialized and Gauge dragged each guest, one by one, into the front room to show them the Santa tracking system on the internet. When Santa got to South America, Gauge thought it was time to get their pjs on and go to bed. So we put Gauge, Reid, & Jake into their matching sock monkey pjs, got Santa’s cookie plate (which consisted of some cookies and nine carrots for the reindeer) ready, sprinkled the reindeer dust on the front lawn, and took Reid & Gauge to bed. Gauge wanted them to sleep together, so we put them both on the bottom bunk and didn’t hear a peep out of Reid. I went up and looked in on them once. Gauge was out cold and Reid was wide awake, holding Gauge’s hand and rubbing Gauge’s fingernail. It wasn’t long after that Reid was asleep. I was shocked that Reid stayed in bed and went to sleep. That was the first time ever that he went to sleep without one of us (or Meme to get him to sleep).
Christmas morning was crazy in our house. It looked like Santa’s pack exploded in our entryway. Gauge was thrilled that he got almost everything on his list and it was mostly a Bakugan Christmas for him again. Reid opened gifts carefully, one tear at a time and of course took a liking to anything he opened that had wheels. Everything Jake opened, Reid immediately wanted to take from him. It’s so hard at that age for them to understand sharing because when they want it, they want it, and it doesn’t mater who has it. Mom, Aunt B, and us all exchanged our gifts after the madness with the kids was over.
We spent the afternoon at Dad & Beth’s house and again, the kids got so many nice presents. Gauge got this really cool marble track and spent most of the day putting it together. Reid just ran around and played mostly with Ashley. For dinner, we went to Aunt Jo’s. Rod went home to get some of the things prepared for our trip, like hooking up the boys’ new DVD system for the car and our new TomTom (score!!). Once again, it was an amazing Christmas with so many things to be thankful for.
This year was the most excited I had ever seen Gauge for Christmas. He talked about it constantly and for a while, I thought he was trying to convince me that he still believed. But after hearing him talk about it over and over, I realized that it really was just him being excited. He talked and talked and talked about Santa coming, and about Jesus’ birthday, and about his Christmas party at school, and about having our Christmas Eve party, and so on and so on. I love Christmas, but this year, there was just something extra added to the magic of it all seeing the excitement in Gauge’s eyes and hearing it in his voice. Oh I just don’t want it to ever end. I want him to stay this age, right here, right now, forever. I always said that his second Christmas was my favorite, but after this year, I changed my mind. Gauge’s ninth Christmas is my favorite Christmas so far.
This year, we also got to celebrate Christmas with Rod’s family in Florida. We left at about 3am on the 26th . We got there on Sunday and had a big Christmas dinner with Tim & Tiff and Rod’s mom & step-dad. We all exchanged gifts and the kids had a blast again. We try to go down about every other year about this time. It means so much to Rod to be able to spend time with his family, and it means so much to both of us that the kids spend time with their aunt and uncle and their grandparents. We always have a great time and this was no exception.
