'Tis The Season

Last night as we drove home from small group and my mind was on things like an almost empty gas tank, my messy kitchen and the bed time I was about to tackle on my own, this was the conversation in the backseat:

Sarah: "I can't wait to see Santa's sleigh!"
Nathan: "Well, you can't Sarah because Santa comes while you are sleeping".
Hannah: "Yeah, because you know, paparazzi".



There was a part of the conversation that was hard for me to hear while laughing and still thinking about the empty gas tank, but basically she reasoned that Santa's night time visits are like his Hannah Montana wig...he can have the best of both worlds.
Then a pause...

Sarah: "I can't wait to see Santa's sleigh!" (same exact enthusiasm as the first time)

She was excited to see him at the company Christmas party on Sunday, but at the very last minute decided she did not want to sit on his lap of her own will.  Of course we made her anyway, but we don't have that picture yet.  (This sad picture was taken with my phone...our camera battery died so we'll have to wait for the company provided one).

We attended this party the last time we lived here...

                                  December 2005: Not too sure, but no real screaming.     

    December 2006: Playin' it cool rockin' last year's sweater and yeah, there's the screaming one.

Those two years left me less than enthusiastic about this year's party.  Let me explain a little...the party is come and go for about four hours.  When you come in, you take a number and then wait until your number is called to go visit Santa and get your age-appropriate gift that your (in our case) Daddy has signed you up for ahead of time.  Those first two years, the gifts were lying out on the floor in view.  They were categorized by age and labeled that way.  Say that we were number 45 and they were currently calling numbers 1 thru 20.  We would be eating pizza or hot dogs, waiting in line for balloon animals or face painting and when our number was called, we could get in line to see Santa.  Those years our oldest child (then 3 and 4 years old) could not read age groups, but he certainly could tell what toy he would like.  Wouldn't you know that both years either the toy he liked was in the age group above him or kid number 44 took exactly the toy that we had persuaded him he really wanted from his own age group?  So my memory was of trying to console my apparently completely bratty child--that was the judgement felt from the parents of happy kid number 44.

This year the system was much improved.  Gifts were all the same for each particular age group and wrapped and hidden in Santa's "workshop".  Problem solved, right?  Ummmm...well, yeah we still have a child in the 3-4 year old category so I failed to take that part into consideration.  Apparently when Santa asked Sarah what she wanted and she said "Dora Legos", she expected him to provide Dora Legos at that moment.  We weren't that lucky, but she warmed up to her magnetic "paper" doll set eventually.

Amanda came by bearing gifts.  She thought a gingerbread village was a good project for our family.  I thought it was a good project for Daddy and the girls.

I was busy making cookie dough for today's project...

Sarah waited patiently for her turn while Hannah decorated 24 cookies for her class cookie exchange tomorrow.

Oh it is so hard for a control freak to let two small people cut their own cookies (I really didn't let that part go), mix their own frosting colors, and frost their own cookies.  So. Hard.



Christmas music abounds in our house these days.

The cookies are frosted and ready to go.  We went with plan B for Christmas card pictures after the camera battery died and plan B always stresses me out, but the cards have been ordered and the world is still spinning.  The heffalump we lost last night turned out to not be lost at all...just under the dining room table and apparently last night it was invisible (at least to a tired mom).  The costume has been borrowed and speech has been written for the 3rd grade wax museum on Friday. 

I'm taking deep breaths.  The kitchen, laundry and office I'm sitting in still need my attention, but some of it will wait until tomorrow.  I'm solo this week and next and then....Christmas break.  No packing or International travel required.  I guess this overwhelmed, stressed out feeling is just a habit.  Comparatively this year is a piece of cake.  Deep breaths.