There are certain times when it's harder to remember this broader goal. Like when the happy-families-opening-exorbitant-Christmas-gifts-with-sparkling-eyes commercials come on between all the fantastic Christmas movies we love watching this time of year. Or when we read over some of the long Christmas lists that get composed (and we take a few minutes to remind our kids that Santa brings them one Christmas gift and that they should give him a few choices about what it could be).
Other times it's really really easy to remember this goal. Like when we hit December and there's no exploding closet full of special stuff just waiting to be wrapped. Or when we're going shopping for the sixth time in a week and realize that we haven't even started thinking about what will go in the stockings. Then the low expectations standards flood back in a rush of welcome relief.
This year, it was a feat just to pull off a simple Christmas, but it was well worth it. Each child received one nice gift from Santa, a package of books from me (I can't believe I used to wrap these separately—presents take long enough to open as it is!), a package of some special clothing-type item from dad (coveted boots for Addy, a book-bag for Theo), and a gift from one of their siblings (we drew names), purchased with their own hard-earned, hard-saved money. By some people's Christmas standards, this probably seems a bit austere, but once gifts from grandparents are factored in (and they were so generous with us this year--thank you!!), it ended up being just the right amount to keep our morning occupied with gift-opening, our afternoon with enjoying the wonderful gifts, and our evening (and part of the next day) trying to get rid of all the extra boxes and wrapping. Everyone was so pleased with their gifts and so thankful for each of them, that I have a hard time imagining trying to keep up with more than that. And honestly, I'm even beginning to wonder (me!) if it's possible to have too many books. Between a nice fat package for each kid, a few extra separately wrapped book sets, and books from other people, I think we hauled in nearly a hundred new tomes. Jackpot! The only trick now is finding time to read them all—but let's face it, there's not much I'd rather have at the top of my priority list.
Meanwhile, after all that, I got spoiled spoiled spoiled. But we'll talk about my new boyfriend and my new baby in another post.
P.S. We actually tried out that Christmas caroling 'til the mom and dad wake up thing this year, and miracle of miracles, it worked! We started the morning around 7 am (as opposed to 3 am). We also kept the stockings downstairs. I don't think we'll ever go back.
Other times it's really really easy to remember this goal. Like when we hit December and there's no exploding closet full of special stuff just waiting to be wrapped. Or when we're going shopping for the sixth time in a week and realize that we haven't even started thinking about what will go in the stockings. Then the low expectations standards flood back in a rush of welcome relief.
This year, it was a feat just to pull off a simple Christmas, but it was well worth it. Each child received one nice gift from Santa, a package of books from me (I can't believe I used to wrap these separately—presents take long enough to open as it is!), a package of some special clothing-type item from dad (coveted boots for Addy, a book-bag for Theo), and a gift from one of their siblings (we drew names), purchased with their own hard-earned, hard-saved money. By some people's Christmas standards, this probably seems a bit austere, but once gifts from grandparents are factored in (and they were so generous with us this year--thank you!!), it ended up being just the right amount to keep our morning occupied with gift-opening, our afternoon with enjoying the wonderful gifts, and our evening (and part of the next day) trying to get rid of all the extra boxes and wrapping. Everyone was so pleased with their gifts and so thankful for each of them, that I have a hard time imagining trying to keep up with more than that. And honestly, I'm even beginning to wonder (me!) if it's possible to have too many books. Between a nice fat package for each kid, a few extra separately wrapped book sets, and books from other people, I think we hauled in nearly a hundred new tomes. Jackpot! The only trick now is finding time to read them all—but let's face it, there's not much I'd rather have at the top of my priority list.
Meanwhile, after all that, I got spoiled spoiled spoiled. But we'll talk about my new boyfriend and my new baby in another post.
P.S. We actually tried out that Christmas caroling 'til the mom and dad wake up thing this year, and miracle of miracles, it worked! We started the morning around 7 am (as opposed to 3 am). We also kept the stockings downstairs. I don't think we'll ever go back.
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