Well, I just reread that first paragraph and it sounds pretty whiney. I don't mean to complain--I am so blessed and have a wonderful life--but I need to figure out how to make Christmas more meaningful, even with a big family and lots of responsibilities. Any suggestions?
That said, here is recap of some of what we did:
Christmas cards. I sent out around 80 Christmas cards to 22 different states or countries. I love Christmas cards. I love addressing them and thinking about each of our friends who live all over. I love remembering them and the fun times we've shared and wondering what they are doing now. I love thinking about family members and how our families are growing--nieces and nephews grown and getting married, new babies and how I'm a great-aunt at least 20 times (sheesh--that's enough to make anyone feel old!) But even more than sending Christmas cards, I love getting Christmas cards. I love getting the mail each day in anticipation of finding a Christmas card. Thanks to all of you who sent me a Christmas card. You really made my day!
Decorating. This year we got a new artificial tree since David had had enough of trying to fix the lights on the old one. I love the new tree since it is a little taller and narrower and fits better in our living room. It took me days to decorate the house and get the bins put away (which is sort of sad since I really don't decorate very elaborately at all, and the kids helped do most of it), and now that it is the new year and I have to take it all down, I'm sort of dreading putting it all away.
Primary Nativity. Our ward asked the primary to do a nativity play for our ward Christmas party. So I wrote the script, assigned the parts and helped get the costumes ready (thankfully I had a wonderful counselor who sewed five angel costumes in the last week before the performance). It turned into a bigger thing than I hoped it would. I could say a lot more, but none of it is good, so I will just say that I was really glad when it was over.
Shopping. The kids each buy presents for each other. They love to do this, and I love to focus much more on the giving than the getting, but it is getting trickier every year to have each child shop for each of the others without them around. We were finishing this right until the last minute. (It is very hard to find a snow globe in Idaho Falls, Idaho.). We did some shopping on-line, but then some things we ordered didn't arrive and others were the wrong size, broken, etc. So, we had some last minute panic.
Christmas parties. The weekend before we left for Idaho we hosted three parties at our home. Friday night we had a progressive dinner with our neighbors and we had the main course here. On Saturday Sarah and Rachel had a Christmas party in the afternoon with their friends, and then that evening we had a party for some of the families in our ward, mostly the families that David home teaches (since he was only in town for less than a week during the month, it seemed like the best way to see all his families). All the parties were a lot of fun. I really love having people over, but...it is a lot of work too. We especially enjoyed the progressive dinner with our neighbors. We really have such great neighbors and I think we decided that it is going to be an annual event.
Baking. We made fudge, sugar cookies, turtles (these were a little bit of a disaster), candy cane bread, and peanut brittle. I ate way too much. We took plates of treats around to some friends and neighbors that couldn't come to the progressive dinner. We also made up several plates that David took into work.
Concerts. Sarah played in a band concert and Rachel sang in a choir choir concert. Ben and Kate sang with their classes in the elementary school Christmas concert. I love it that they actually sing Christmas songs in school here. Granted, they aren't the really religious ones, but at least they don't ignore Christmas like they did in Maryland.
Ben also played the piano with his piano team at a concert in Seattle. It was a super cool concert with several different piano teams from all over the Puget Sound. The concert was held at the Steinway store in downtown Seattle. It was a whole day event for us, since he had to be there in the afternoon for a practice, and then we had about four hours of time until his performance later in the evening. Days like that are a little stressful for me--taking five kids to an unfamiliar city and trying to find parking and navigate my way around and keep them all happy and fed and quiet all day--it can be a little tough. Especially in the pouring rain. And add in some clothes changes in the van. But, it went better than I hoped. We ended up going to the movie, Tangled, and then getting some dinner at a nearby mall food court. William doesn't really do movies that well, so I only saw part of the movie, but he was happy to push all the buttons on the video game consoles in the movie lobby, so we managed okay. Ben played great at the concert (I took some pictures on Sarah's camera that I will try to upload later) and was pleased with his performance. After the concert we went on the carousel at the Westlake Mall and saw an amazing gingerbread house display at a nearby hotel. It was a late night, but we got home okay and got everyone tucked into bed.
The Rest. Add to all of that dentist appointments for me and the kids, primary meetings for me, school assigments for the older ones, scouts for Ben and David (with me filling in for David while he was gone), eye appointments with new glasses and contacts for Sarah and Rachel, piano lessons for four kids, activity days for Rachel, basketball practices for Ben, and work responsibilities for me--it is no wonder that I had a busy December. How do people manage it all? I'm not sure; I'm feeling super worn out. I'm hoping January will slow down a bit.
What I didn't do. I couldn't do everything--there was a lot we didn't do this Christmas. We didn't go to the Nutcracker like we usually do. We didn't go to the drive-through animated Christmas lights. We didn't read our Christmas stories every night (we got a few in, but that's all). I didn't make it to my friend's cookie exchange. Maybe we can do those things next year. I'm hoping next year can be a little slower and a little more spiritual. I better start planning for it now.
1 comment:
I can't imagine how you did all that! I would have lost my mind. You are Wonder Woman!
Post a Comment