Christmas Morning

A book I have been reading has a line that I love. It asked, "Who has custody of your family for Christmas?"

I think everyone struggles with a balance at Christmas time. How to teach the true meaning, how not to be too worldy, too stressed, too selfish, to busy....

When Noelle was little I felt like we kept the "magic" of Christmas alive by dancing to Christmas music together. My intention this year was to make a music video of our dancing (Jadon now participates and he would make the video amazing!). We practiced every day of December, but when it came down to recording something always went downhill really fast. (The camera died, someone got hurt, something broke, the phone rang). I hope heaven records happy moments and that friends forgive since I never did send our Christmas music video. At the same time, in the end, I kept custody of Christmas because we rolled with it and didn't stress out too much.

While Jason and I were cooking Christmas Eve dinner we commented that it didn't quite feel like Christmas yet. After wondering for a while we realized it was because we hadn't been stressed about packing bags, getting to an airport, security, kids on the plane, and staying at someones house dealing with time changes and sick kids. It is so wonderful to live here.

Jason left for just a bit to get some ingredients and lightbulbs. (Turns out Lowes is a great place to shop right before Christmas. Grocery stores...not so much) While he was gone Jadon decided to flush an orange down the toliet. After fishing the same orange out two more times along with three timeouts I was starting to get a little crazy. Finally when he came out of the bathroom with a cup of water (guess where he got it) that he was DRINKING I had a glorious mothering moment that invovled screaming, jumping, and acting all sorts of composed. I may have also acted like our elf on a shelf was a reality tv camera and bribed him to tell Santa what I had to put up with.

While the kids were on timeout I said a huge long parenting prayer, and then watched a short you tube clip about the Herdmans. (From the Best Christmas Pagent Ever). After that everything went smoothly. (No other oranges were giving swirlies in the making of our Christmas dinner). My kids will make me a patient person if it kills me.

Everyone was very excited that my family was coming for Christmas Eve. Jason made Beef Satay and Dutch oven potatoes. I made some apetizers and rolls, my mom made a beautiful salad and Jesse and Rachel made eggnog.

Let me digress a moment and talk about eggnog. Jason makes fun of me for even liking it. He has been known to gag just walking past eggnog on display. I love moments when people taste something high quality and realize that they actually do like something. Jesse's eggnog was glorious. I wanted to eat it like soup instead of sipping it. Even Jason had seconds....and thirds....

After dinner we recorded the family acting out the Christmas Story. It was pretty unreverent, which is about how anything with kids ends up being.

Finally, pajamas, and then bedtime!

I really liked being able to stay up and talk with my siblings and their spouses. I've always loved my siblings, and it is so fun being "all grown up" and learning about, and loving their spouses as well.

Speaking of which: Rachel made this sweet squid for Noelle, and an alligator for Jadon. I love them!

Obviously we've switched gears to Christmas morning here. Noelle got another princess dress.

No more need for Jadon to play air guitar.

Perhaps it is good we don't have a "real" pet yet. Noelle is taking the blood pressure of a zu zu pet.

Ben got a pretty funny book.

After presents my mom and dad made a wonderful breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice. Food is always amazing with all the good cooks in our family.

Well folks, kids are awake, which means I'm on the clock. I have to keep an eye on the zu zu's. I'm worried that they are small enough to fit down a toliet.