Christmas

Really, is it already December 17th? I'm trying to slow down and enjoy the season. My shopping is done, I think. So here is all the cheerfulness going on in our house. We applied and were accepted to host a Mr. Peeps this year. He moves around your house every night to a different position and to "discuss with Santa". He watches to see how we are all acting and just the general feel of the place. Everyone finds Mr. Peeps every morning before our morning checklist can begin. He's hidden in some pretty crazy places! We did receive a warning letter from him one morning that we were tipping onto the naughty side. Luckily because of the heads up we sort of pulled ourselves together. You also cannot touch Mr. Peeps or he may not return the next day. Unfortunately I forgot to tell our babysitter who took him out of his hiding place and played with him. My kids were FREAKING out. They each individually told me what she had done and how they had made her PUT HIM DOWN! Even Max told her no no we don't touch Mr. Peeps put him down! For our super Saturday we had crafts and classes to attend. One was on family traditions. The person I got to teach this class is phenomenal. She is so crafty and fun. The ideas she comes up with blow me away. But one thing she said was don't wait until next year. Just do something, anything and then you can build or change it next year. So I have thought about that and still didn't do anything for several occasions. Christmas was going to be different I said. Well the only thing I managed to eek out is we are doing a family count down until Christmas. From our thanksgiving crafts I have these cute holiday paper cutouts. I hung them all up. Every night we pick one and do an activity. So far (and I'm kind of making them up as I go) we sing a Christmas song and end up with all the lights out around the Christmas tree. The first night I made muddy buddies and we ate them around the tree while I read a a Christmas Story. Mon. we drank hot cocoa using a candy cane as our stir stick. Tues. we sang jingle bells in rounds around the tree. Wednesday we made snowflakes to hang up because (luckily) all the snow melted here. Tonight we lit a candle and after singing gathered around the tree with all the other lights out and passed the lit candle around. When it was your turn you told of a favorite holiday memory. It was fun to hear their memories and I have so many. I really am lucky to have so many. I told them about how one year my sister got a large (like 25 inches) teddy bear. I saw it and went back to bed crying that I wanted a big teddy bear. I would like to say I was 4 but I had to have been 8 or 9 (maybe older). So the next year my mom sewed me this HUGE bear that was like a big beanbag. I don't know what happened to that thing but to imagine my mom sewing this stupid(or so she probably thought) giant bear while I'm not around and then finding a place to hide it reminds me how unfunny Christmas can be for parents. Mental note never buy a child any stuff animal that I may have to replicate in a larger size the next year. I am an anti stuff animal person anyway-they slowly take over your space! For being anti we sure have a lot of the things lying around though. But still thanks mom it made it on to one of my most memorable Christmas memories list. The other one I told was when I wanted a CD player so badly. I kept asking for one. My older brother Aaron came to me one day and said I know what Dad got you for Christmas. I of course asked "is it a CD player?" Now as a side note... silly question. This is my Dad we're talking about. He personally bought 1 gift a year for 1 or 2 kids. I'm not sure how he got away with that but he did and it didn't ever seem to be a no fair issue. Maybe when you find out what I got you understand why no fair ever came into play. So I was all excited. That morning I was looking all over for the right sized package. I kept asking Aaron where is it? He totally played me like a Foosball game. When I finally get to the obviously wrong sized package I'm still excited. I ripe it open and he had given me a bird feeder with food already loaded in it! I can't say he never did anything for me can I? I love my dad, this is not a demeaning story but another favorite memory of mine. The pressure of trying to make the right memories stick in my kids head for future reference is what I'm feeling this year. I will take and display the correct pictures and review the right stories well into next year. I think we'll be okay. Hope your holidays are merry and bright.