Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and it was both an amazingly fun day and an incredibly stressful one. It was so great to have two little ones to experience Christmas with. Every small detail was something to behold and wonder over. From hanging the stockings, to putting up the manger, and especially decorating the tree. And boy, once gifts started to arrive under the tree did their eyes light up.

Santa was both someone to enjoy and, at least for Samantha, someone to fear. Everytime we saw Santa Samantha would begin to say, "No, No, No! No, Santa!" That even extended to the stuffed Santa ornament hanging on the tree. I actually had to move it to the back of the tree because it caused her so much 'fear'. She was very excited about Santa, though, once she got to open some gifts and her Christmas stocking. Now she walks around saying, "Thanks, Santa!" I so absolutely loved watching her opening gifts and excitedly helping to hand gifts to others. So far she seems to really love her Fisher Price Little People House that makes household noises (such as flushing toilet, ringing phone, doorbell, etc.) and plays with that often. She also loves her vacuum and other cleaning supplies (talking broom, dustpan, and trashcan). It's been great to watch and play with her.

Joshua also enjoyed Christmas quite a lot. However, the build-up seemed to be too much for him and we have had quite a few weeks of increased tantrums and severely problematic behavior. It extended to a significant tantrum on Christmas eve, resulting in the loss of 'Santa Privaleges'. I think it was probably harder on me than him, but we followed through and he didn't open anything from Santa this year. Luckily Santa only brought two gifts for each child, so he didn't have to endure Samantha opening tons of gifts from Santa. And he was able to partake in the rest of the gift opening. He is however, earning some of his gifts to play with by having good bedtime routines. I'm really trying to figure out what is triggering such difficult bedtime routines, but I know it's going to improve. I think we're just cycling again. I'm beginning to realize that that's just going to be part of growing up, right? And he has connected the loss of Santa gifts with his behavior and he has stated that he needs to listen to mommy so Santa will know next year to come. He is so cute about it. He's in a period of learning life lessons it seems. And doing well with them.


I enjoyed contiuing many of the traditions I grew up enjoying with my mom. We made sugar cookies, and decorated them which was, of course, the most fun. Trying to keep the kids from eating all the decorations, and Samantha from eating the cookie dough before she finishes decorating them and they are baked. I looked up at one point and she had a whole mouthful of raw cookie dough in her mouth and such an adorable grin on her face. Joshua kept 'accidentally' putting too much of the sugar sprinkles on his cookies and having to help 'clean' it up by eating them. It was a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed picking out special ornaments for each of the kids for the tree. My mom used to give me and my brother a new ornament every year for the tree. I still have a lot of them and use them to decorate the tree with. I so treasure them each time I bring them out to hang on the tree. I'm hoping Joshua and Samantha will treasure the beginning of these memories and traditions too.

Once Christmas day was over, I wanted to get the house back in order as quickly as possible, mostly because I am hoping the normalcy of things will help reduce Joshua's anxiety level and we'll see improved behavior again. Also, I'm really in the mood to declutter and organize the house and I wouldn't have been able to get started until the Christmas stuff was put away so, the day after Christmas away it went. It wouldn't have been put away that quickly, but Zadick was over and offered to help while the kids were napping so I took advantage of the help and amazingly, it was all away and cleaned up within the naptime of that afternoon. So I sit now, with my house ready to be organized and the kids enjoying their new toys, as well as their original toys and just loving our time together. I hope you were blessed with fun and joy at Christmas too!