Christmas is Over

                                 
Another Christmas has come and gone. I'm not that sad about it. I'll basically blink and it will be Christmastime 2017.

We had a nice holiday. I host Christmas dinner for my family so it's a pretty busy time. I cook and clean for 3 days straight. I mean, that's what I always do everyday - I just was doing more of it than usual. We had a quiet Christmas Eve. I made shrimp scampi, which is our tradition. I've had shrimp scampi for Christmas Eve dinner the past 25 years, without fail. Then we watched A Christmas Story and ate fresh baked cookies and milk. The kids roasted marshmallows and wienies in the fireplace. It was damn near 70 degrees that day so I turned down the air conditioning so that we could enjoy a fire. That's Christmas in the South.

We set out cookies and milk for Santa. The kids weren't that into it. They know. My youngest still won't admit it- but she knows. We sent them up to bed and my husband and I watched vintage Christmas cartoons while we waited for the kids to go to sleep. Oh my goodness! Cartoons were so f*cked up in the 30s and 40s. This Jack Frost cartoon was out of control. "I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight," I told my husband.

Once we confirmed the children were asleep, we got to work playing Santa. My first job was to pack the damn Elf on the Shelf away. It brought me so much joy. I stuffed that little MFer back into his box and was like
                                    
Next year, I'm making the kids move him for ME. It's their turn!

Then we got out the gifts and arranged them under the tree. We have our 4 gift rule for the kids, so it didn't seem like very much but I was confident that they would be happy in the morning. We ate Santa's cookies, chewed the carrots, and drank the milk and then headed to bed.

My 10 year old woke us up at...4:10 am. "It's Christmas!" she exclaimed. No, just no. "You can lay with us but you HAVE to go back to sleep. It's much too early." She crawled into bed with us and fell back asleep until 7 am on.the.dot. "Wake up! Can we open presents?!?!"

Of course! We dragged ourselves out of bed and the kids went through their stockings while I put the french toast in the oven, built a fire and put on some music. Then we opened gifts. My kids are so funny about the Christmas gift-opening process. There is no free-for-all and paper flying everywhere. They take turns opening gifts and watch each other. They opened their gifts and were appreciative. I had them open their last gift together. I got them Twenty One Pilots concert tickets and they FREAKED out. They LOVE Twenty One Pilots.

The show isn't until February but they started advertising the concert in June of this year. I knew right away that I would take them but my husband thought it was a little too extravagant to just buy them concert tickets, especially because I had just taken them to go see Panic at the Disco. So we decided that we would buy the tickets and give them as their big Christmas gift. I purchased them the day they went on sale in July.

Well, these asshole kids have been BEGGING me to go to this concert. Not just begging - pleading and crying. "Please mom! Please! They might not ever come again. We love them SOOOOOO much!!! Please!"
I'd have to come up with excuses, "It's too expensive. It's on a Sunday night. I heard they say the F word...."
It's been exhausting to keep up this charade. One day my 12 year old came home from school so bummed. She flopped down on the couch and pouted. "What's wrong?"
"The Twenty One Pilots concert is sold out," she said. She had been holding onto hope that I would change my mind. Then, she wept for 10 minutes. I felt terrible about it.

So - the tickets were the highlight of their Christmas morning. It was a big deal and it made me so happy.  After presents, we had breakfast together and then I cooked all day. We had family and friends for dinner and enjoyed each other's company. It was an all-around awesome day. That night I packed up all the leftovers. I went a little overboard. We had so much food leftover - seriously, 10 pounds of ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, mac and cheese, crab dip, glazed carrots....

The next morning we came downstairs and surveyed the damage. My husband said, "It looks like we had a frat party here." I got straight to work, cleaning up and taking down Christmas decorations.

I am so funny. On December 26th, I'm like, "Christmas is over!" I'm done with it, over it. Jesus has been born. I'm tired of red and green. It all comes down. My Christmas tree was on the curb by 1 pm on December 26th. I cleaned and scrubbed and put up my New Years stuff. All was right with the world.

That evening, my kids asked me what was for dinner. "Ham," I replied. "But we had ham for dinner yesterday," they protested. "Yes, and we are having ham for dinner tonight, and tomorrow for lunch, and tomorrow for dinner, and lunch after that....until we eat all the ham." I am refusing to go grocery shopping. They WILL suck it up and eat left overs.

Today, my husband had to go back to work. I woke up early and made him breakfast and when he left for work, I took down the lights out front and cleaned my garage. I was feeling so accomplished. My kids were still sleeping and I was unencumbered. I had my headphones in, and I was listening to Busta Rhymes and breaking down boxes like a champion.

My phone began to ring. I pulled it out and saw an incoming call from my 10 year old. She'd finally woken up.
"Mom, where are you?"
"I'm cleaning out the garage."
"Oh. I'm going to need you to come make me breakfast."

               
"No. I am cleaning the garage. You can fix yourself breakfast," I replied. The child is capable. I don't know who she thinks she is.
"But we don't have anything to eat!" she protested.
"We have ham," I replied.
*CLICK*

Now that Christmas is over, my decorations are packed up and my lights are taken down, I can focus on not becoming a better person in the New Year. Yay for 2017!