Christmas

It was another exhausting Christmas, as I guess it is with kids and will be so for years to come.  But busy in a good way, because the busyness stemmed from all we wanted to do with or for our kids and family and they are what bring a renewed joy and excitement to the Christmas season, so the craziness is worth it.  And I recognize that this was my first Christmas as a working mom and I think I'll have a better idea next year of how to pace myself so that the shopping, baking and activities take place at a more reasonable pace.  Given how we flew by the seat of our pants this season, Our nanny was a huge help, as she grocery-shopped for us, kept the house tidy, and engaged the kids in a month of various Christmas activities that built on what we were doing with them on the weekend.  This Christmas was also especially busy too since Chris was finishing up his last semester of grad school and preparing for a January term class (his true grad school finale) and I happened to be busier at work than is typical for this time of year.  So yes, I was tired, but happy.

The climax of the Christmas season for Chris's family is the gathering of his dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve, which we spent at his Uncle Pat's new place with about 30 other relatives.  The scene was as I had always imagined a holiday gathering would look like for a big extended family.  Tons of food, little kids running around, the loud chatter of multiple conversations going as everyone catches up, boisterous laughing as relatives reminisce about themselves or family members in much younger days.  It was such a warm, welcoming and loving scene.  Unfortunately, Soren refused to sleep, and Oliver was often "squirelly" as the night wore on and both kids ended up going to bed, oh, three or four hours past their bedtime.  But what can you do when it's the only time we have to spend with some of these relatives?

Luckily Christmas morning was very laid-back.  The pace of the morning defined the reason Chris and I make it a priority to have the kids wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning and then spend as much of the day as possible at home.  After a breakfast of home made blueberry waffles - Oliver's favorite breakfast lately - we spent a leisurely, pajama-clad entire morning in a cycle of open a gift, play with it, open another eventually.  With the high energy, chocolate-fueled evening from the night before, I appreciated being able to give my kids downtime with just Mom and Dad.  After nap on Christmas morning, we were off to the grandparents' house where we again kept the kids up way past their bedtime, although not as late as the night before.

But that Christmas morning we at least had no agenda.  The kids enjoyed playing with all their new trucks and construction vehicles and puzzle and Oliver took pictures with his new camera, a hand-me-down 7-mega-pixel point-and-shoot Pentax from his Uncle Scott.

Chris had gotten me a gift that came with no gift wrap, but made me feel so well cared for.  He set up Dropbox for me so I can back up all the pictures and videos I've taken of our family over the years.  And he not only took the initiative to start the process of figuring out the best way to back up our digital history, but he started what would be a two-day process to copy everything to the online server.  He then configured Dropbox to automatically copy once a day any new pictures or videos saved on my computer.  But the real thoughtfulness behind his gift is not just that all my digital memories or now saved, but that he did everything for me.  The nagging worry that grew every time I heard about a theft in the neighborhood or a lost iPhone, or the frustration I felt for not doing something I knew I'd instantly regret once it was too late, all those feelings vanished.