Christmas 2012

I always go overboard at Christmas every single year.  I over-do the decorations, the gifts, the food, the cheer, the music, and everything else in between.

I loved Christmas when I was a child, and so did my Mom.  The time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas was a truly happy time in our home, and I loved it.  My Mom worked hard to make it that way, and she was very sentimental about it.  I am the same way.  I love Christmas.  I love to buy presents for my kids, and I love to see piles of wrapped packages under the tree.  I love the spirit of Christmas in our home and I love to hear Jackson scream "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!" at the little figurine in the nativity.  I love the smells, the music, and the aura of general awesomeness that encompasses the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

One of my most favorite parts of Christmas is Santa.  I LOVE SANTA!!  I know so many people who don't "do Santa" for whatever reason, and I totally respect that.  But I think it's INSANE.  Santa is The Man.  I totally get that Christmas is about Jesus, and we do NOT overlook that in our home.  But the memories I have of Santa when I was a child are some of the best memories I have.  One year my Dad literally climbed on the roof of the house and walked around on Christmas Eve so we would think it was the reindeer.  No lie.  Every red light in the sky was his sleigh watching over us before Christmas, and he would tease us about hunting Rudolph if we mis-behaved.  My oldest son Jamaal repeats those traditions with the small boys, and a few years back he walked around outside the house jingling sleigh bells and Justice almost peed himself.  He talks about it all the time.  Justice is ten and he totally still believes in Santa.  And I love it.  Kids have tried to tell him there is no Santa and he tells them to keep their grinchy attitude to themselves.  And the older kids?  They still pretend to believe every year.  Why?  Because Santa is AWESOME, that's why.   

And I refuse to go into Christmas debt each year, so I start buying Christmas gifts in August.  It truly makes my life easier.  I keep a micro-managed Excel spreadsheet of purchases, and where I've stashed them at (I've lost presents before, not cool.) and it works great.  This year was actually not too difficult, because all of the older kids just wanted cash.  That was great for me, because I had less planning and gifts to buy.   And this year, I bought nearly 100% of the gifts online because I was on bed rest and too sick to shop.  And next year, I will do the exact same thing because it was GREAT.  

And so as history repeats itself, I went overboard this year with the gifts.  I did not over-do the decorations, nor the sweet goodies, but I did over-do the gifts.  And boy were the boys happy.  

Well, except Jack.  He somehow managed to still be his little grumpy self on and off for most of the morning.  He was a little over-stimulated after just going through his stocking.  

Look at that sleepy face.  He jumped right up when Justice hollered "SANTA CAME!!!" and before his eyes were even open he headed out to the living room.  

Typical Jack face.  Grumpy for no reason.

Still not smiling.  

And this is what happens when you wake Shandi up too early.  I originally did NOT wake her up because she already knew she was getting cash and I figured she wouldn't want to be bothered.  She was funky because I didn't wake her up, and then came right out on the couch and fell asleep.  

Santa usually only brings one gift each year for each kid.  While I love the spirit of Santa, I do not like him getting the credit for every gift.  I somehow or another manage to keep greed out of Christmas in spite of me over-doing everything, and I think part of the reason is because I don't want the kids to think Christmas is "free".  

Santa brought Justice a PS3 this year.  We used to have a PS3 and the boys were absolutely addicted to it.  It was a problem.  Jack was the worst.  It broke this year in May, and we decided not to replace it immediately because of the addiction problem.  We will have clear and set rules with this PS3 so we don't run into the same problems again.  

Santa brought Jack some Jake and The Neverland Pirate toys.  I know I said "one gift" from Santa, but Jack's not into anything "big" yet, so he got more than one.  

 What a disaster.  Stuff everywhere!

And Dad was really having fun with the Batman thingie.  

And Justice was obviously over-stimulated.  Wearing the rainbow wig from Madagascar and his new bathrobe while dancing in the living room.  Whenever I take a picture of the kids doing something ridiculous, they automatically panic and beg me not to put it either on Facebook or the blog.  Yeah, not going to happen boys.  

Jack got in on the polka-dot afro wig action himself.  No dancing though.  And certainly no smiling. 

After everyone opened gifts we had a shamefully HUGE breakfast.  We always have our big "Christmas Dinner" on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day.  That started about five years ago when I honestly just got sick of being stuck in the kitchen all day on Christmas Day.  I mean seriously, how fair is that?  I put a TON of effort into Christmas every year, and I want to enjoy it with everyone else.  I still end up in the kitchen a few hours making that shamefully HUGE breakfast, but it's not the eight hours it takes to do the big dinner.  And who doesn't love a big breakfast on Christmas morning?  

After breakfast everybody sort of wound down a little, and we just enjoyed each others company the rest of the day.  We all had something else to look forward to...

The first snow of the year!  Fingers crossed it will snow tonight!  

I hope my friends and family had a beautiful Christmas.  We love you all very much!