so that was christmas

I’m going to go all old-school on you guys and do the whole label thing. Because I want to and I have too many things to catch up on.

three-kid room fail
We live in a three-bedroom house and I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it work when Preston transitions out of our room. So I had this idea. I’d put all three kids in one room – just their beds – and have the other room as a play room with their toys. They were all for it and Kaylie started sleeping in Liliana’s room (Liliana has a bunk bed in her room, Kaylie a loft bed in hers) to see if it was something she wanted to do long-term. On the second night, she decided she wanted to keep their rooms separate. But she’s still sleeping in Liliana’s room. Both girls hate sleeping alone. Whatever.

So the other day she comes and says to me something about being okay with moving her bed into Liliana’s room. I say something about the other room and she says that she’d like to keep it as her own private room. I asked her, “So you get two bedrooms?” Liliana piped up just then, quite heartbroken, “SO I DON’T GET A BEDROOM?!”

It’s not happening. Funny, though, that the 10-year-old thought she could get away with having 1.5 bedrooms, leaving her sister with half a bedroom while Noah, Preston, and I shared the third one. FUNNY GIRL, THAT KAYLIE. I still don’t know where we’re going to put Preston when (IF!) he (EVER!) starts sleeping through the night. Maybe we’ll keep him in the garage.

holiday time
Noah got home from work last Friday just before noon and does not have to go back to work until next Tuesday. That’s a whole 10.5 days off. It’s been wonderful. I’ve had entire days where I have not had to leave the house. I have not had to drive anybody anywhere. I’ve gotten an entire night’s sleep to myself because Noah took Preston and the two of them slept in the living room. (He offered to do this again, but I have to pump a bottle for Preston to have overnight and I really hate pumping.)(I don’t mind too much getting up in the night with Mr. P, but a whole night’s sleep is pretty fantastic.)

baking bonanza
My friend Melissa and her son Kesler came over a couple days before Christmas and we baked up a storm. We made peanut butter marshmallow bars, peanut butter chocolate bars, Toblerone shortbread cookies, and the Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls.

I’m pretty sure I ate an entire pan of cinnamon rolls that night. And one every day after that.

The girls helped out

and the boys hung out and napped and fought over toys.

I’m pretty sure we have to do that again soon.

baby
A friend of mine had a baby yesterday. Today, Kaylie and I went to visit them.

This little guy was half an ounce smaller than my smallest baby. He is tiny and precious and fits in one arm. I don’t think there’s anything I enjoy more than holding a sleeping newborn baby. I’d have a whole bunch of them if they didn’t go and turn into children so quickly.

and then there was Christmas
We spent this Christmas just like we have every Christmas since we moved to Saskatchewan – with my in-laws. You should feel sorry for them, they just can’t get rid of us, even during the holidays. My parents live two provinces away, and since driving on snowy icy roads is completely out of the question and flying is astronomically expensive, we aren’t likely to spend a Christmas in BC for quite some time.

One of my very favorite things during Christmas is the Christmas Eve service. I can’t remember ever missing one. When I was growing up, we attended a church that also had a Christmas Day service. I’ve really missed that since switching to a different church when I was 15, but with Christmas being on a Sunday this year, I got to attend a Christmas Day service again. I think I’m going to find a church that does it every year because I just really love it. We even sang carols from hymnals. It was very old-school and very perfect.

We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve, because growing up my family opened all our presents on Christmas Eve and letting my kids open one keeps that tradition alive. Since Christmas traditions matter more to Noah than they do to me, we mostly go with what he wants to do, which is open presents on Christmas morning.

Something Noah likes doing that I didn’t do growing up is stockings. Noah and I exchanged stockings on Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed, and first thing the next morning, Noah walked down the hall with the girls stockings saying, “Ho ho ho” in a monotone voice, just like his dad did when he was growing up. The girls aren’t allowed out of their beds on Christmas morning until Noah comes with their stockings.

After the present opening on Christmas morning, we headed to the Christmas Day service and then spent the rest of the day at the in-laws’. Noah’s sisters stayed in BC, but friends came for Christmas dinner, filling the house and making it feel more Christmas-y. I grew up around so many aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents that having lots of people around during holidays just feels right. And good. And merry.

I spend the entirety of Boxing Day packing up all the Christmas decorations and rearranging our living room to accommodate our giant new-to-us TV and and new-to-us keyboard. Hand-me-downs are quite wonderful. As is having everything Christmas-y all packed up. Decorations are festive and all, but they’re also cluttery and once Christmas is over, I just want them gone.

my sick-for-just-a-morning snuggly sleeping boy

This week has been full of eating and play dates and Lego-building and cleaning and organizing and shopping and game-playing and movie-watching and just enjoying being together with nowhere to be. I kind of don’t want this week/year/holiday to end.

Filed under: Christmas, family, friends, happiness, undomestic