Christmas Come and Gone

                     
Another Christmas has come and gone. I am exhausted, truthfully. I slept for 13 hours yesterday! I'm surprised that the kids let me, but thank goodness - because it sure has been a hectic few days.

On Christmas Eve we took the kids to see Santa Claus- because we are horrible parents and procrastinated and didn't do it sooner. I figured the line wouldn't be that long but I was wrong. We stood among all the last minute parents and waited to see Santa. The kids started annoying us after 20 minutes. It's a thing that they do. I kept laughing and saying, "You better behave, you don't want Santa to bring you a bag of switches."

A few weeks earlier, I heard someone ask a kid if Santa was going to bring them gifts or a bag of switches. I interjected, "I thought Santa gave coal to bad kids." It must be a Southern thing. I think that's a little heavy handed. A whole BAG of switches? Wow. I still think it's hilarious and will use that from now on. haha.

So we finally get to Santa Claus and get the kids picture taken. My 9 year old looked like a giant. She was sitting on Santa's lap and her feet touched the ground. How the heck did she get so big? He asked what they wanted for Christmas and we were on our way.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning and relaxing. I started dinner at 4. When I was a kid my dad would always make shrimp scampi over linguine on Christmas Eve. I make it every Christmas Eve now and my dad joins us for dinner. I thought how strange that is and I started to wonder when my kids will start cooking Christmas Eve dinner for me. But then I thought - what if they don't want to spend Christmas with me? What if they want to spend it with their in-laws? Then I thought, maybe they will marry only-children and then I can host the in-laws as well. But then I thought that I wouldn't want them to marry only-children because I want my grand babies to have lots of aunts and uncles. I'm already kind of annoyed at my kid's future in-laws. Then I thought that I was crazy and should just try to live in the moment and I finished making dinner.

It was a nice dinner with my dad and his girlfriend and my brother. We ate and then had hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows while we watched A Christmas Story. Then the kids went up to bed and it was time to play Santa. My brother stayed at the house so we put him to work. We brought in the gifts from the garage. He tripped over something and there was a loud "CRASH" - we all froze in place and were silent. Like bank robbers about to be discovered. My husband tip toed quietly up the stairs to check on the kids to make sure they were still asleep. He came back down and gave us the thumbs up. Whew! That was a close call.

We placed the gifts under the tree. We stuffed stockings. I took bites out of San'ta cookies and drank the milk. My husband spit carrots onto the front lawn and laid the reindeer water dish out as well. I took ash from the fire and sprinkled it in front of the fireplace. Yes, Santa has come. I wonder how long we will put up this charade. I think it's funny. When the kids are home from college, I will still be laying out cookies for Santa. :)

We went to bed and of course my 9 year old was up at 4:15 am. Dear Lord. "It's Christmas - can we open our present?" In my head I said: Oh-hell-to-the-no. But instead I said, "Go lay down and we can get up at 6:30." She didn't go to bed. She played on the ipad, she circled back around and said she needed a snack. She played and was anxious. My 7 year old was up at 6 am and my husband shoved me so finally we got up at 6:08.

The kids opened their gifts and were excited. They seemed to have liked everything. My daughter thought the Target doll was an American Girl doll so that made me happy. We had a big breakfast and then spent most of the day cooking. My siblings and parents joined us for dinner and it was a wonderful time. I went to bed without cleaning up, I was so tired.

Fast forward to today. My house still is not recovered from Christmas Day. I am going to really double down and clean like a mad woman. The tree and decorations are still up which makes me feel weird. There is nothing sadder than a Christmas tree and decorations after Christmas. I will pack them up this weekend. I imagine they won't be packed away for long. Each year goes by faster and faster - it will be Christmas again before I know it and I'll be wonder how the heck it got to be December again already. And so it goes.