Babes in Toyland

There may be some Christmas Secret Spoilers contained inside this post. *No Children Allowed*Happy Christmas to All and to All a Good Night-and what a good night day it was!Bubba's first 'real' Christmas where he's understood what's going on was, I'd say, a success.Somehow after the addition of a bouncy castle, a metric ton of toys and more candy than you can shake a stick at, who came up with that saying anyway? Is that even a saying? We've survived Christmas and both kiddos are beyond happy.In the interest of full disclosure, it's almost 2 am here and I'm up with Little Bear doing another nebulizer treatment. Along with merriment and laughter, this holiday brought a lovely case of RSV, or better yet, snotpocalypse 2.0. Despite being infected with the snotties, she was in great spirits all day long! No better time to blog, right? #multitasking. I will shed some light for those of you without kiddos.Christmas takes on a different tone entirely. Often as a kid/teenager/young adult Christmas is all about you! Obviously, that changes once you have kids and it's not a bad thing but I will say, it's not as relaxing as it once seemed.Here's a brief commentary from The eve- to the day of:Christmas Eve:Ahh, Christmas Eve- such a lovely time.Wait, do we have cookies for Santa? Nope. Can we give him pretzels and beer instead? I'm sure Santa would like that better. No? We have to do cookies? Okay- Cookies. Mini M&Ms, let's do this. Oh, you'd like to help small, snot-filled toddler? Sure, just.... don't. touch. anything. Or breathe on anything. So don't touch or breathe on anything. Yeah, right. Remind me not to offer these to any guests.Cookies- complete!Time for the Christmas Eve church service and dinners with family.Nope- kids are sick. No church tonight. Not going to be that family At least we can watch online. My how times have changed.Somehow they just know that it's Christmas eve and their behavior takes quite the turn so we pull out the big guns "Should we call Santa and remind him about your current behavior?"Plenty of Cookies & Candy & Crackers & Not-Dinner-Food, later it is well past bedtime and these elves have work to do.Quick, Quick! Leave cookies and milk purple juice. Read Twas the Night Before Christmas, PJs, stockings, and bed. *side note* Little Bear's stocking DID get finished before Christmas. Thanks to Oma for sewing it!Then the real fun begins:-Sweep & Vacuum because doing that with a toddler awake is like spitting into the wind.-Move furniture-Blow up bouncy castle-Discover you do not have the right pump nozzle to adequately blow up bouncy castle.-Panic-Recover & ask Parents if they have one. Wahoo they do!-Send Daddy-Elf to go retrieve correct pump at 11:30 at night.-While he's gone, make danish for Christmas morning.-Remember that there are several gifts you have yet to wrap.-Panic-Recover, wrap, tag and place by the tree.-Get excited about the kids waking up.-Realize it is 1 am.-Go to bed.Christmas Day: -Wake up with the baby! Right around 7 am, it's not the absolute crack of dawn, Wahoo! Merry Christmas! -Shower and get ready.-Wait for the toddler to get up.-Wait more.-Wonder why today of all days he decides to sleep in.-Toddler wakes up.-Video excitement of toddler arriving downstairs.-Gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. Bounce House, Bounce House.-Family arrives. -Gifts, gifts, Bounce House, gifts, gifts, Bounce House, gifts in the Bounce House.-Breakfast-Play-Naps for everyone!-Bounce House-Round two at the next house.-Gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. "I have more presents, Mommy?" We're going to need to work on some manners.-Dinner-Play-Transport toy store gifts (these are some lucky kids), to the car. -Go home.-Attempt to explain why 9:30 pm is not the best time for the bounce house without using the words "Mommy" "Tired" or "Go to bed, now."-Put kids to bed.-Fall, exhaustedly yet happily into bed.A bit of a different picture from the childhood nostalgia of enjoying the holiday but it is great in its own right! I truly appreciate being able to watch the happiness, joy, wonder and learning (about the reason for the season) with our children. Not everyone has an opportunity due to time, distance or other circumstances to spend the day with both sides of their family. We cherish this time, though busy and exhausting, to create the memories our kiddos will take with them long past a single day.Go get some sleep!Be Great,M