What We Did On Our Christmas Staycation
We're back to the grind after a festive and restful holiday break. Karl had taken off the entire period from Christmas through January 4 when we planned our travels. Scrapping the travels plans meant we were left with an epic family staycation.
Boy howdy, we were ready for the break. Christmas prep was a full-time job this year. This was my first go-round with kids in school = cookie parties to bake for, teachers to make gifts for, holiday concerts, etc. And since this was our first effort at staging Christmas at home, I don't have a well-honed routine like I do for Thanksgiving. There is really no excuse for the number of trips I took to Target. Trying to preserve most of the family traditions without the family was an undertaking. Kudos to all you people who normally buy the prime rib and make the grasshopper pie and track down everyone's favorite flavor of Toblerone.
But we did it, and it was excellent.
Since this was our first holiday at home, we finally had to reconcile our respective Christmas traditions. Karl's family lets the gifts pile up under the tree in the run-up to Christmas, has a big Christmas Eve dinner, then opens the family gifts that night. Santa only brings a couple of things for Christmas morning. My family hid everything away and then it all magically appeared on Christmas morning (note: this may not be physically possible in our house) and then we had all day to play with stuff before having nice dinner on Christmas day. Personally, the Christmas Eve strategy with tiny kids seems insane to me. "Here are awesome new things! NOW GO TO BED!" Feel free to weigh in on this, dear readers.
Anyway, for this year, we split the difference. We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner. The boys and I dressed up; Ingrid insisted on fairy pajamas. The kids loved my fancy placemats and real stemware.
Then we let them open a couple of presents each before watching Rudolph. Halfway through the movie, the lights randomly started flickering, and in a moment of parenting genius I exclaimed, "It's the reindeer flying over the power grid! Santa must be coming!" Henry SPRINTED to bed and Ingrid followed. And then they stayed awake for two hours belting Christmas carols at each other.
When the kids woke up, they had to be reminded that it was Christmas, but then they were very excited. Henry rushed to open the big window on his beloved calendar before even opening presents. We wrapped the family presents in normal paper. Santa wrapped his with shiny silver paper and lots of glitter and ribbons. Henry looked at them with round eyes and said, "Santa wraps things really pretty."
Santa totally nailed the gifts this year. In addition to the requested hair bows, Ingrid got a puzzle name stool, OMG, puzzle + stool to move around = BESTGIFTEVER. Henry got slippers just like Daddy's plus a small Casio keyboard so he can stop playing the 5-note plastic toy keyboard from the baby play table.
The kids got lots of other great gifts from the families. Ingrid's favorites: Frozen puzzle, superhero underwear meant for Henry, $1 crown from Target bargain bin. Henry's favorites: remote control car, shapes game meant for Ingrid, and tool set for the birdhouse that got built immediately.
And then when Christmas was over, we had ten days to just...hang out. I don't think we've ever had that much time with all of us home and no houseguests. It was the most relaxing week of all time (at least for people with two kids under five).
We had one day when I almost gave the kids up for adoption, but for the rest of the time they were super cool. They played independently with their new toys, played together really nicely, and helped with all of our random house projects. They stayed up late yammering at each other and then slept late in the mornings. We took them to the aquarium and our beloved gym time, which Henry has really missed since starting school, but otherwise we just puttered around the house and the neighborhood. Henry and Karl may or may not have played multiple hours of Xbox Lego Hobbit every day. I did a grownup puzzle by myself and read books and baked things while Ingrid took long naps. It. Was. Awesome.
Sorry everyone, we missed you, but Christmas staycation was so good that we might never travel at the holidays again. Kidding. Sort of.
Karl's birthday on Sunday capped off the vacation. One more excellent excuse for baked goods before getting back to real life. We all had a rough time going back to school and work yesterday. Now we're settling in to wait for baby sister's arrival!
A very merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2015.
Boy howdy, we were ready for the break. Christmas prep was a full-time job this year. This was my first go-round with kids in school = cookie parties to bake for, teachers to make gifts for, holiday concerts, etc. And since this was our first effort at staging Christmas at home, I don't have a well-honed routine like I do for Thanksgiving. There is really no excuse for the number of trips I took to Target. Trying to preserve most of the family traditions without the family was an undertaking. Kudos to all you people who normally buy the prime rib and make the grasshopper pie and track down everyone's favorite flavor of Toblerone.
But we did it, and it was excellent.
Since this was our first holiday at home, we finally had to reconcile our respective Christmas traditions. Karl's family lets the gifts pile up under the tree in the run-up to Christmas, has a big Christmas Eve dinner, then opens the family gifts that night. Santa only brings a couple of things for Christmas morning. My family hid everything away and then it all magically appeared on Christmas morning (note: this may not be physically possible in our house) and then we had all day to play with stuff before having nice dinner on Christmas day. Personally, the Christmas Eve strategy with tiny kids seems insane to me. "Here are awesome new things! NOW GO TO BED!" Feel free to weigh in on this, dear readers.
Anyway, for this year, we split the difference. We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner. The boys and I dressed up; Ingrid insisted on fairy pajamas. The kids loved my fancy placemats and real stemware.
Then we let them open a couple of presents each before watching Rudolph. Halfway through the movie, the lights randomly started flickering, and in a moment of parenting genius I exclaimed, "It's the reindeer flying over the power grid! Santa must be coming!" Henry SPRINTED to bed and Ingrid followed. And then they stayed awake for two hours belting Christmas carols at each other.
When the kids woke up, they had to be reminded that it was Christmas, but then they were very excited. Henry rushed to open the big window on his beloved calendar before even opening presents. We wrapped the family presents in normal paper. Santa wrapped his with shiny silver paper and lots of glitter and ribbons. Henry looked at them with round eyes and said, "Santa wraps things really pretty."
Santa totally nailed the gifts this year. In addition to the requested hair bows, Ingrid got a puzzle name stool, OMG, puzzle + stool to move around = BESTGIFTEVER. Henry got slippers just like Daddy's plus a small Casio keyboard so he can stop playing the 5-note plastic toy keyboard from the baby play table.
The kids got lots of other great gifts from the families. Ingrid's favorites: Frozen puzzle, superhero underwear meant for Henry, $1 crown from Target bargain bin. Henry's favorites: remote control car, shapes game meant for Ingrid, and tool set for the birdhouse that got built immediately.
And then when Christmas was over, we had ten days to just...hang out. I don't think we've ever had that much time with all of us home and no houseguests. It was the most relaxing week of all time (at least for people with two kids under five).
We had one day when I almost gave the kids up for adoption, but for the rest of the time they were super cool. They played independently with their new toys, played together really nicely, and helped with all of our random house projects. They stayed up late yammering at each other and then slept late in the mornings. We took them to the aquarium and our beloved gym time, which Henry has really missed since starting school, but otherwise we just puttered around the house and the neighborhood. Henry and Karl may or may not have played multiple hours of Xbox Lego Hobbit every day. I did a grownup puzzle by myself and read books and baked things while Ingrid took long naps. It. Was. Awesome.
Sorry everyone, we missed you, but Christmas staycation was so good that we might never travel at the holidays again. Kidding. Sort of.
Karl's birthday on Sunday capped off the vacation. One more excellent excuse for baked goods before getting back to real life. We all had a rough time going back to school and work yesterday. Now we're settling in to wait for baby sister's arrival!
A very merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2015.
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