Christmas 2009. Here are some things I learned...
DON'T.
1. Go Christmas shopping and then accidentally leave all the bags in the back of the car so that when your 4 year-old son gets in the car and sees a bag full of Star Wars presents he freaks out and start saying, "WHO ARE THOSE FOR?!?! WHO ARE THOSE FOR?!?!" 2. Give your kids Hot Cocoa. No matter how much they ask for it. Do not do it. Even if you put ice cubes in it and pour cold milk in it to cool it down to luke warm, they will still spit it all over your couch and Pottery Barn rug as soon as it touches their mouth.
3. Eat so much sugar that you feel like you are going to throw up.
4. Leave sweets setting out within reaching distance of your 3 year old daughter because she will eat enough sweets to make herself throw up.
5. Wait until Christmas Eve to have your kids write their letter to Santa. You must have them write it EARLY. That way, when they see millions of commercials for a talking, walking doll, or Malibu Barbie, or freaking Star Wars the Clone Wars light sabers, and start saying, "OH NO! I want THAT from Santa now." You can tell them, "Tough luck. You already wrote your letter to Santa and it is TOO late." Santa is not going shopping anymore...if you know what I mean.
6. Forget to eat the cookies that your kid's left out for Santa leaving them in a state of frustration and confusion as to why Santa didn't like their special cookies they made for him...OOPS!
7. Wait until the last minute to buy snow boots when there is 6 inches of snow projected to hit on Christmas Eve so that the only thing left in your son's size is a pair of black boots with glittered fur at the top and pink and purple hearts embroidered all over them. Yes he will kill me when he grows up and sees the photos.
8. Hide your husband's present in the back of his closet assuming that he will never clean his disaster zone of a closet except he does for the first time in two years and finds his present....awesome.
9. Tell your mom to get your daughter a Leapster game that she wants to go with her Leapster that Santa will be bringing her, then let her open the gift from your mom on Christmas Eve when she has not yet received the Leapster so that when she opens the gift she exclaims, "OH NO! IT'S NOT A LEAPSTER!!!" So embarrassing! Just say THANK YOU, Emmy Grace!
DO.
1. Make family traditions and do them EVERY year! On Christmas Eve, we eat an early meal with family and then go to look at Christmas lights together afterwards (except this year there was a blizzard so we didn't do Christmas lights). After Christmas lights, we go home and open two presents....our Christmas pj's and a special ornament for each of the kids. They each get a special Old World Christmas ornament to put on the tree that tells something about them at that age (i.e. Emmy got a dance slipper because she started dance this year and loves it). After that, we all curl up on the couch together and watch Polar Express before the kids go to bed.
2. Teach your kids about the true meaning of Christmas. We read the Christmas story every morning throughout December while we are eating breakfast and talk about Jesus' birth as being the real reason for celebrating Christmas.
3. Find a fun way to countdown the days til Christmas. We have a little snowman that they move a candy cane up on each morning from 25 to 1 to countdown how many days until Christmas.
4. Some type of Christmas project with your kids. I like to cook so I usually like to have my kids help me with baking and putting together Christmas goodie bags.
5. Get your kids their own little tree to go in their room. My sister and my friend Trina do this and I LOVE it. Meant to do it this year but didn't quite get to with all that we had happen this December. Also...this works nicely because you can let them put all the
6. Find a way to teach your kids that it is more important to GIVE than it is to RECEIVE. For me, I want to make a tradition of having the kids go through their toys in December and choosing things to give away to a family in need or an organization that gives to families in need. If any of you have any suggestions, let me know. I will be doing this a little late this year. Didn't quite get around to it yet for obvious reasons. It is NEVER too late to give though so I am still planning on seeing this one through. Oh, we also like to get an Angel Tree and do that together as a family, letting the kids pick out toys for the kids on the Angel Tree.
What did you learn this Christmas and what will you DO and NOT DO again next year???
Easton and my mom with his favorite present....the DK Ultimate Star Wars Dictionary. For those of you who don't know about DK Publishers, they are amazing! Their Children's Visual Dictionaries are awesome! You can check them out at http://us.dk.com/.
Letters to Santa. These crack me up. I love how Easton tells him "I have been a good boy and have gotten good reports at school in Decmeber." Backstory: he did get a bad report at school the week before Thanksgiving Break. Much to our dismay, he got another bad report the next day. Michael and I were pretty upset about it and Michael told me that he was going to tell Easton that he was on Santa's naughty list so he'd better shape it up. I completely disagreed with this "Naughty list" style of parenting and told him to please not tell Easton that. The next thing I know, I hear him telling Easton that even though I asked him not to and I could not believe it! So here is the truth....although I still do not support this type of parenting because I find it manipulative and not truthful...I have to admit that it was the single most effective parenting move EVER. After Michael told Easton that, he got GLOWING reports at school every day since then. Still don't agree with it, but it DID work. I hate being wrong.
Kids in Christmas pj's. Poor Cohen. He is so tired and just wants to be left alone so he can go to bed.
Cohen's first Christmas. He LOVED opening his first Christmas present!
Not sure if we'd agree with Don't #2....Ben loves the stuff. :)
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more with everything else!