Christmas

This year was our first time to have Christmas at home. We planned family time on Christmas Eve day and a "perfect" Christmas morning.  I was so excited but little did I know that my "perfect" Christmas would be a huge disappointment! I learned some valuable lessons this year! Here's an overview of our "perfect" holiday! 

On Christmas Eve day our afternoon walk turned into a disaster.  First Cole started screaming and then Raelynn had a melt down because our chihuahua wouldn't mind her.  After scolding her for being whiny and inpatient she started crying and wouldn't walk with us! What a great way to start Christmas.  Then we barely made it to church, Cole was fussy and Raelynn was mad at me for making her wear tights with her dress! Hoping things would get better we sat in the front of the sanctuary for the Christmas Eve program. Then Cole decided to start crying at the worst possible moment and the walk all the way to the back felt like it took forever! I thought it was safe to come back to my seat since he was asleep in my arms but as soon as I sat down he started to cry again!!! And to make things worse Raelynn fell asleep during church and had quite a bad attitude when I poked her in the side to wake her up! After church we went to a light show and Cole cried the entire time! By the time we got home, none of us were in the Christmas spirit and I was tempted to skip dinner and head to bed.  After a quick break down in the bathroom, I got myself together and tried to salvage what was left of the evening.  Once we got Cole to bed, we were all able to relax and the rest of the evening went great. Raelynn, Chris and I stayed up late drinking hot chocolate and playing scrabble.

The next morning we opened gifts and as soon as we were done Chris was paged by the hospital and ended up having to work all day! Of course I had planned a big meal but Raelynn and I decided to have a frozen pizza since Chris wasn't home to eat with us.  Raelynn left after lunch and Cole and I spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies and sleeping!

I learned it is best not to have high expectations, especially with children. I wanted so badly to have the "perfect" first Christmas that I set my tired baby and moody pre-teen up for failure. Most of all I am thankful that my normal dysfunctional family was all together and that the point of the holiday was not about having fun but about our Savior's birth!