Honestly this has been one of the more enjoyable Christmases I’ve had in a long time. In years past we’ve felt like we were being pulled in many directions. Our typical Christmas would be spending Christmas Eve at Cristi’s Mom’s house, and a rushed Christmas morning at home with the kids since we had to get to my mom’s house. We’d be rushed at my mom’s house and sometimes have to leave before lunch was over in order to get to my dad’s house on time without upsetting all of the step-family. Since my dad passed away and all contact with the former step-family has been mutually severed, the pressure has been relieved.The reason we rushed to my mom’s house in the morning was so that we had time to spend there before we had to leave. That meant we’d get up, rush through Christmas on our own, chomp down some breakfast, and head up to my mom’s house about 9:00. We’d rush through presents and start eating “lunch” around 10:00, and leave somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00. We’d then head out to my dad’s house, having everybody grumpy because we made them (and their kids) wait to open their presents (even though we’d always said don’t wait on us, if we’re late that’s our problem.)
This year the kids woke us up around 7:30, we leisurely got out of bed, got dressed, and started opening presents around 8:00. Normally we make oatmeal for breakfast on Christmas morning, but the kids said they’d rather have cold cereal instead. Silly kids… Anyway after doing our own Christmas thing, we headed up to my mom’s house at about 10:30, and my grandparents arrived at about 11:00. We exchanged gifts, had lunch, and actually got to sit and enjoy it. Later on in the afternoon we went out to my grandmother’s house (my dad’s side of the family) and had dinner with her, again not feeling rushed. We left probably a little earlier than we wanted to, but that was because the kids had reached the point of no return with the excitement level and lack of nap during the day. Even Gillian was developing quite the attitude and normally she does fine (and doesn’t take a daily nap any more.)
Another thing that made it so enjoyable was that everybody cut back on “stuff” this year. On our side we cut back because we’re working on paying off our debt and decided over-spending on holiday junk was counter-productive to that goal. We concentrated on picking up a few gifts that we felt would be more meaningful rather a bunch of gifts that would be looked at a time or two then discarded. Even though we really hadn’t discussed our plans with anyone, for the most part everybody seemed to do the same thing. I don’t know if it is the economy or just everybody saying “enough is enough” but it was nice.
The kids got a lot of nice things including, an Xbox 360, a VMotion console, tons of books and coloring books, cars, dolls, clothing, etc. I got a lot of nice shirts (I was getting short on them, ) a hair trimmer set (mine was limping along on life support), and some universal gift certificates. Cristi got some clothing, a necklace, scrapbooking supplies, and some universal gift certificates. We got some smaller things this year too, but its is all things we’ve wanted or needed. What was missing overall was the large abundance of “plastic” from years past. You know what I mean, the plastic things that people buy to give as gifts that look really neat in the packaging (which itself is plastic that would survive a nuclear blast) but won’t last more than a couple of weeks before they break. Nearly everything exchanged this year were all either meant to be consumed (coloring books, food) or meant to last a long time (books, electronics.) That reminds me too, we made it through this year only receiving a couple of small boxes of candy. Normally we’d receive enough candy to last through Haloween, but would normally be gone within a couple of weeks.
Overall this has been one of the more relaxing and enjoyable Christmases we’ve had in a long time, and I hope we can maintain it in future years. Feeling stressed out through the holiday kind of takes the true meaning out of it in my opinion.
26 December 2008, 17:14
How cute are you! I have to say I to think it was a more enjoyable Christmas. I am not sure if it was being able to pay for EVERYTHING including our trip to Disney with cash…. paying off two cards… the cold… they unanswered prayer that was answered when they caught the murder… Over all its was just a very nice day. I normally get VERY depressed around this time of year and so far I have been good. Cried alittle today but for me thats much better then it has been in a long time. For the first time in a long time I see hope! (Thank You)