Taylor, Matthew & Brayden: Christmas 2019

It is January 4, 2020. My kids have been out of school for over two weeks now; my parents visited for 15 days; and my brother visited for 8 days. While I have LOVED the break from the normal busy schedules we hold, it is time to get back to routine. The kids are bored silly. They each got an iPad from Santa this year; I need to lock them down with some serious boundaries come Monday.

Christmas is always crazy and chaotic. No matter what I do to plan ahead and prepare for the hustle and bustle, I am always frantic up to the bitter end. This year, I ordered our Christmas cards in early November. I purchased all of the teacher/coach/garbage men/mail lady/household helpers' gifts in November. I made lists and lists of what I needed to do. And yet, I was still frantic every single day in December. I joke that I work on a just-in-time basis, but it is the truth. Each day, I would think about what needed to be done/accomplished by the next day and that is what I focused on. I knew I was nutty when I saw the look on my mom's face when I announced one afternoon that I was going to make five dozen cookies for a neighborhood cookie exchange that evening. But, I got it done. And I went to the party. Was it worth it? Probably not. But I checked the box.

I feel like I failed my children this year, however. We did not do our usual Christmas activities. We did not snuggle and watch Christmas movies. I would put a movie on and then multi-task while they watched it. We only went to church one Sunday during Advent. We never drove around with hot chocolate to look at Christmas lights. We skipped Garden D'Lights because it was raining. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the kids had their picture taken with Santa but they did not enjoy it. We did not go to hear the Christmas carolers on the Christmas ships. We basically just got through the month. I hate this and will be scheming of ways to make it better next year. I suppose this is becoming our reality given that the kids are growing up and are too busy with sports/dance/clubs to do all of these fun Christmas activities. I will give myself some grace because I know I worked my butt off.

Amazingly, Taylor still believes in Santa. Hook. Line. Sinker. I had a conversation with Tommy in November and wanted to come clean with her, but he convinced me to hold off. It just feels like she is at an age now where we are deceiving her. I do not want her to doubt her belief in God when she learns that the other man she's been taught to believe in becomes a tall tale. It is funny how all adults have different opinions on this topic, but I feel like an almost 11-year old should not be looking for an elf each morning and should not be writing letters to the North Pole. Now that Christmas is over, I am waiting for the topic to come up because I will not lie to her any more.

Now, the silver lining in this Christmas season is that my children were able to spend the holiday with ALL FOUR grandparents. How special is that? And Uncle Ryan stole the show. He could entertain my children for weeks. They just adore him, and I marvel at how our relationship has changed in the past six years. The kids probably feel closer to him than any other aunt or uncle (evidenced by their text messages back and forth since his departure a week ago).

We hosted our 9th Annual Christmas Eve-Eve Party on 12/23. We had about 40 people in attendance this year. I think that is a few people less than usual but the house felt just as full. Now that the kids are getting older, our friends are staying a little bit later and we are able to relax a little bit more. Phew! This year, the Magnano family stayed until midnight (!) so our kids were fried on Christmas Eve. But it is a wonderful time to catch up with old friends that we see just a couple of times a year (if we are lucky).

On Christmas Eve, Uncle Ryan came over and we took a walk around the neighborhood. The sun was out! It is always nice to get some fresh air and see the snow caps on the mountains in the distance. We came back home and watched "Santa Claus: the Movie" (with Dudley Moore and John Lithgow), then we got ready for church. My parents, Ryan, and our family went to BelPres for the 5:00 Christmas Eve service, then we came home and met up with Tommy's parents. Tommy grilled kalbi beef and asparagus and made horseradish mashed potatoes. The grandparents left around 8:30, we put the kids to bed, and then Tommy, Ryan and I started "Love Actually." Sadly, we all went to bed before the movie ended.

Taylor, not surprisingly, was the first one up on Christmas morning at 6:30. Bless her, she waited patiently until the boys woke up and we all came downstairs around 7:40. The kids were thrilled to open their iPads from Santa. My parents came over around 8:00. We opened presents for what seemed like hours, ate coffee cake and sausage casserole, and drank copious amounts of coffee. Mimi, Baba, and Ryan left around 11:00. The rest of us relaxed (read: Tommy and I cleaned and tried to make sense of the disaster that became of our family room) and headed to Tommy's parents' house around 2:30. We opened presents and then my family joined us there at 4:00. Elaine prepared a beautiful Christmas dinner, as always, and we came home to crash around 9:00. Tommy and I usually sit down with a glass of wine or a cocktail on Christmas Night, but we were too tired this year. I think all of the entertaining wore us out.

The kids got some amazing gifts for Christmas. So did Tommy and me. We are blessed beyond measure. Truly.

Other highlights from Christmas include:

Watching Taylor dance at the Seattle Center for Winterfest.
Going to Great Wolf Lodge in early December during parent/teacher conferences.
Watching the kids make Christmas cookies with Mimi.
Shopping with each of the kids and watching them pick out gifts for their siblings and daddy.
Seeing Frozen 2.
Going out for breakfast on the morning of the Eve-Eve party.
Playing poker with Uncle Ryan.
Going to the mall the morning after Christmas with seven of us (my five plus Mimi and Uncle Rye). It was an adventure.
Going downtown with my parents and Ryan to ride "Wings Over Washington" and walking through the Market.
Cleaning out the attic. You would think that would be a low-light, but it feels so good to have gone through it after living here for ten years!
Having friends over to watch the Seahawks game
Going on our 4th annual wine tasting adventure with the Finholms.
Going to the Browns' house to celebrate NYE.
Resting and relaxing!

On the 1st day of December, I started an Advent devotional with the kids. They pulled out all of their Bibles and fought over who got to read the verses. They have quite a collection.