I mentioned that I might have a few blog posts to catch up on. So here's a quick Christmas catch up. My family had a wonderful Christmas together - another healing event for 2008 when we (me, Michael, Asher and Harper joined by Clare, Michael and Jaden) were all together, enjoying (not gritting teeth and waiting to escape but keeping it together as much as possible for the kids who knew something was up anyway but really too young to realize Christmas versus Saturday cartoon day - phew!) each others' company, sharing the many gifts and blessings of the holiday. What a day!I have much to learn about how to have a fun but not overly exhausting holiday with my kids and Michael. I had Tuesday off before Christmas and daycare was open, so I dropped my kids off and spent much of the day grocery shopping, cooking and present wrapping. I cooked more on Wednesday, got more gifts ready, enjoyed a Christmas Eve celebration in Ft. Collins and Christmas in Longmont. I cooked more Christmas morning, enjoyed all the splendor of Christmas morning (and Asher's disbelief at evidence of Santa's visit) and time that day to just be together. Somehow, I lost site of my own energy levels, and when Clare and Michael left Christmas evening and our kids were in bed, I went into our bedroom and crawled under the covers utterly exhausted - that feeling of I can barely keep breathing much less think about being upright in any fashion.
Michael drew me a bath, prepared our one, small bathroom as much as possible to be kid-free/adult relaxing (i.e. hiding the toys in the sink with a towel), and I took a long soak. I couldn't even read. I just soaked. I relaxed and felt much better. Which leads me to the enduring question - how to have a fun, tradition-filled, all-the-things-we-love-about-Christmas filled day without turning into a puddle at the end of the day? Perhaps it's less cooking. Perhaps it's more naps. Perhaps it's taking a mental read on my own energy levels and taking something off the list. Perhaps it's knowing that it was all worth it.
3 comments:
I think the secret to such a day is to be a kid and make your mom do all the work!
That's awesome!
Lori, Josie, and I just had Christmas on Tuesday. Lori came down with pneumonia the day after Christmas and other than a short visit when Josie was with her dad, we hadn't had any time together. It was so relaxing--just the three of us and our gifts for each other! Then Josie and Lori went back to playing Uno, and I to veg on the couch, having declined Uno...
I had an epiphany a number of years ago that, unlike my parents, I really do not like to entertain in a big way. I like last minute casual. And if it's planned, I pretend it's the latter so I don't spend all day worrying. The day A, E, S, & J were here, we hiked all day and ate pizza for dinner, with other folks joining in.
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