A Very Merry Christmas

Landen, Maggie and Samantha in their Christmas Eve pajamas

Can I just tell you how excited I was for Christmas? Like giddy with excitment. I haven't been that excited on Christmas Eve for years! It's really that much fun to be a parent. Landen is at-- what will probably be the only Christmas with this outlook-- this stage where he doesn't ask for or expect anything for Christmas. Yet, he appreciates and gets excited about the things he opens. It was truly more fun that way! I'm sure each Christmas will get to be more fun the older he gets. He even gives a happy dance for his favorites... but I think he got a little over-stimulated this year and stopped.

Landen opening his stocking

Michael and I have conversed a lot on the subject of Christmas. How do you balance the meaning of Christmas with Santa Claus and presents? I know some people don't "do" Santa Claus. I know others don't open presents on Christmas and wait for New Years. I know other just enjoy it and buy everything their kids want. I recently read a blog about a mother that only gives her kids 4 presents -- a want it, need it, wear it, and read it. (which sounds pretty darn cool.)  I think we've settled on just letting Santa bring things in the stocking and wrapping a few presents under the tree.  We set a budget every year and stick pretty close to it.

Landen and his super cool train table.

This year Landen played with my nativity almost everyday. It made me want to buy him one of the adorable Little People sets.. but with a $55 price tag I just couldn't bite the bullet on that one. So, my donkey is missing an ear... but don't tell anyone. He identified the set with himself... Mom was Mary, Dad was Joseph, Maggie was Baby Jesus and Landen was the shepard. The wise "guys" were Papa or Justin, Ty and Mat and the angel was Grandma. We told him the story plenty of times, but it didn't seem to sink in. And now when I've told you that he'll surprise me by telling me the story tomorrow.

This is what Maggie did most of Christmas morning.

 Growing up, I think both of our parents did a good job balancing Christmas.  Now, if we can do at least as good as they did, we just might be okay.  But sometimes I wonder how much better parents we'll have to be to have our children turn out as good as we did.  Being a parent is big a responsibility. Sometime even the small decisions make a big impact throughut a child's life.


Reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

 As we participate in our family's Christmas rituals, we think about them, the ones we want to keep and the ones we want to start. We are starting to get excited about having our own Christmas in our own home in the coming years. One tradition we started was the "Christmas Eve Present". I know many families open matching pajamas. We decided to get our kids a book. This year we bought a Christmas-y pop-up. Landen liked it almost as much as he liked the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas pop-up of my parents.

Reading The Smiling Snowman

And I realized how incredibly lucky we are-- that we have 'means' to not only provide for our children, but to do a little extra and enjoy the comforts.  We're lucky to be able to buy our kids a few Christmas presents just for fun.