Christmas
We're packing away the last of the lights and wrapping up a lovely family Christmas. The kids enjoy the holidays so thoroughly and it is delightful to share it with them.
I did a better job of managing the holiday this year so it wasn't so overwhelming. This time I knew what was coming in terms of teacher gifts and school celebrations. We also started on the gift-buying right after Thanksgiving. We still had a few screw ups that necessitated some scrambling, but overall I spent a lot more time sitting by our new fireplace and a lot less time at Target this year.
Henry and Ingrid were both really into Santa, so we upgraded the Santa experience. You may recall that last year Henry, at the cynical old age of four, took one look at the 40-year old hardware store employee in a fake beard and said, "That's not the real Santa." So this year I went full yuppie and drove the children out to the fancy suburban mall with the awesome Santa. Where you can make an appointment so that, not only do the special snowflakes not have to stand in line to see the big man, he knows your children's names. OMG, their minds were blown. It cost $35 (but I got $25 of tinyprints credit, which I consider a cash equivalent). TOTALLY worth ten dollars. After scaring Heidi out of her everloving mind, we had a very nice lunch at Maggiano's in the mall. The old ladies seated next to us swooned over their matching Christmas sweaters.
I think we have settled on a compromise celebration routine. We made our fancy dinner on Christmas Eve with all of the Brodersen/Schrader family favorites (replacing mashed potatoes with mac and cheese because my kids hate mashed potatoes. Weirdos.). Everyone put on their fancy clothes and the kids got fizzy grape juice in real champagne glasses and it was really fun. After dinner we opened just the presents from one another. Henry got a new big-kid bike, Ingrid got some awesome boots and an art kit, Heidi got a giraffe hoodie towel. The kids were really into the idea of gift-giving this year and had been very thoughtfully wrapping and taping things for weeks. Henry made art for everyone and was really very sweet about it. Ingrid wrapped random objects from around the house (I think she was looking for excuses to tape things). Watching them delight in both giving and receiving gifts was really wonderful.
After dinner we changed into Christmas jammies and watched a movie. Karl and the kids kept an eye on the Santa tracker, which was more fun this year because both kids have studied the continents at school, so they could follow the map. Then off to bed, where the kids stayed awake FOREVER, listening for Santa in the chimney.
And the man delivered! Against all my parenting principles, Santa gave Henry a phone. Henry had asked us for a phone and on principle, I told him no. Of course we knew he'd just ask Santa, and Karl thought it was fine, so he found a refurbed iPhone 5. I consider it a down payment on extended belief in Santa. Plus he just uses it to FaceTime with his grandparents and uncles, plus send ridiculous text messages to our friends and family members. What he lacks in literacy he makes up for in enthusiasm.
Ingrid got the pink and purple dollhouse she requested despite the universe's best efforts to thwart us. I knew she wanted a dollhouse so I ordered a lovely wooden PlanToys Victorian right after Thanksgiving. A week later I got a message it was backordered and not available anywhere on the internet. So I found another simple one on Etsy, which was shipping from Germany but should have had plenty of time. As of January 9, it is still in Germany. Amazon Prime to the rescue on December 18. She ended up with this absurd pink mansion that came in one gazillion pieces plus another six boxes of furniture. But you know what? It was PERFECT. She LOVES it. She doesn't even want to help put Heidi to bed or read stories in the evening because she's too busy playing with it.
Heidi got her puzzle name stool. She heartily approved of everything about the holiday, from the prime rib to the sparkly wrapping paper.
We opened the rest of the extended-family gifts on Christmas and spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying our new toys. And then I got in touch with my inner Jew and ordered Chinese food for dinner. It was actually really nice to have the day to play with the kids and be lazy in our Christmas jammies (which was good, because we had a lot of champagne the night before) and not worry about cooking fancy dinner that day. I think we will make a tradition of it.
Just like last year, Karl took off work the following week. We enjoyed our staycation with lots of happy hour lunch spreads and checked off a million small honey-do items. I also got a little one-on-one time with each of the kids, which is hard to come by in our day-to-day routine. It was a really nice week of just being together.
We read a lot of Christmas and winter books, including Polar Express. I noticed the author's note on the book jacket says he was eight when he first considered the possibility that Santa was not real. It broke my heart a little to think that we only have three or four more years before Henry doesn't believe anymore. I'm sure Christmas with bigger kids will be fun in other ways, but these years with little kids are pure magic.
I did a better job of managing the holiday this year so it wasn't so overwhelming. This time I knew what was coming in terms of teacher gifts and school celebrations. We also started on the gift-buying right after Thanksgiving. We still had a few screw ups that necessitated some scrambling, but overall I spent a lot more time sitting by our new fireplace and a lot less time at Target this year.
Henry and Ingrid were both really into Santa, so we upgraded the Santa experience. You may recall that last year Henry, at the cynical old age of four, took one look at the 40-year old hardware store employee in a fake beard and said, "That's not the real Santa." So this year I went full yuppie and drove the children out to the fancy suburban mall with the awesome Santa. Where you can make an appointment so that, not only do the special snowflakes not have to stand in line to see the big man, he knows your children's names. OMG, their minds were blown. It cost $35 (but I got $25 of tinyprints credit, which I consider a cash equivalent). TOTALLY worth ten dollars. After scaring Heidi out of her everloving mind, we had a very nice lunch at Maggiano's in the mall. The old ladies seated next to us swooned over their matching Christmas sweaters.
I think we have settled on a compromise celebration routine. We made our fancy dinner on Christmas Eve with all of the Brodersen/Schrader family favorites (replacing mashed potatoes with mac and cheese because my kids hate mashed potatoes. Weirdos.). Everyone put on their fancy clothes and the kids got fizzy grape juice in real champagne glasses and it was really fun. After dinner we opened just the presents from one another. Henry got a new big-kid bike, Ingrid got some awesome boots and an art kit, Heidi got a giraffe hoodie towel. The kids were really into the idea of gift-giving this year and had been very thoughtfully wrapping and taping things for weeks. Henry made art for everyone and was really very sweet about it. Ingrid wrapped random objects from around the house (I think she was looking for excuses to tape things). Watching them delight in both giving and receiving gifts was really wonderful.
After dinner we changed into Christmas jammies and watched a movie. Karl and the kids kept an eye on the Santa tracker, which was more fun this year because both kids have studied the continents at school, so they could follow the map. Then off to bed, where the kids stayed awake FOREVER, listening for Santa in the chimney.
And the man delivered! Against all my parenting principles, Santa gave Henry a phone. Henry had asked us for a phone and on principle, I told him no. Of course we knew he'd just ask Santa, and Karl thought it was fine, so he found a refurbed iPhone 5. I consider it a down payment on extended belief in Santa. Plus he just uses it to FaceTime with his grandparents and uncles, plus send ridiculous text messages to our friends and family members. What he lacks in literacy he makes up for in enthusiasm.
Ingrid got the pink and purple dollhouse she requested despite the universe's best efforts to thwart us. I knew she wanted a dollhouse so I ordered a lovely wooden PlanToys Victorian right after Thanksgiving. A week later I got a message it was backordered and not available anywhere on the internet. So I found another simple one on Etsy, which was shipping from Germany but should have had plenty of time. As of January 9, it is still in Germany. Amazon Prime to the rescue on December 18. She ended up with this absurd pink mansion that came in one gazillion pieces plus another six boxes of furniture. But you know what? It was PERFECT. She LOVES it. She doesn't even want to help put Heidi to bed or read stories in the evening because she's too busy playing with it.
Heidi got her puzzle name stool. She heartily approved of everything about the holiday, from the prime rib to the sparkly wrapping paper.
We opened the rest of the extended-family gifts on Christmas and spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying our new toys. And then I got in touch with my inner Jew and ordered Chinese food for dinner. It was actually really nice to have the day to play with the kids and be lazy in our Christmas jammies (which was good, because we had a lot of champagne the night before) and not worry about cooking fancy dinner that day. I think we will make a tradition of it.
Just like last year, Karl took off work the following week. We enjoyed our staycation with lots of happy hour lunch spreads and checked off a million small honey-do items. I also got a little one-on-one time with each of the kids, which is hard to come by in our day-to-day routine. It was a really nice week of just being together.
We read a lot of Christmas and winter books, including Polar Express. I noticed the author's note on the book jacket says he was eight when he first considered the possibility that Santa was not real. It broke my heart a little to think that we only have three or four more years before Henry doesn't believe anymore. I'm sure Christmas with bigger kids will be fun in other ways, but these years with little kids are pure magic.
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