This is a post that came out today and felt it was great to post it on my blog as well. She has a tradition of picking out her Christmas tree out from the forest. I love this tradition and can't wait to see what this tree looks like when is decorated. We are actually leaving town in two days to be with our children who live in Utah and hope to see those in Idaho too. I like to re-post things I find interesting and this one is from Cristi.
I ambaaaack and ready to get started once again on this blog! With a babe on my lap- I type you this post with one hand so excuse typos…here we go.
The smell of cloves and cinnamon and sound of Michael Buble’s Christmas in the background while my family dances around decorating the Christmas tree… heavenly.
Okay that is how it looks in my mind.
It usually really ends up with my husband and I struggling to get the tree to stand just right while the kids put a few ornaments on the bottom half for five minutes then run around like wild little animals. But overall- this time of the year is magical.
But with all that holiday magic there are a few things I am growing tired of and wouldn’t mind doing away with all together. But I don’t… My kids love them and in my heart I do too. I just now have tweaked them a bit and will share with you soon of what I do!
Okay….drum roll please….here they are.
#1) Wish Lists! Oh the many lists we write during the holidays! Shopping lists, grocery lists, to-do lists, guest lists, (wait this blog post has a list!)….ahhh! You should see my gift shopping list- it’s enough to make me want to hibernate until February! But the worst list of them all… the kid’s Christmas WISH LIST!
Toy catalogs make an appearance about early November and my kids will drop everything they are doing to spend hours fantasizing and circling what they want. Little Bear (my two year old) will point to anything with wheels and exclaim, “ I want dat and dat and dat and dat.” He looks up at me with his big blue eyes and I for a split moment am sucked in. I want to make this little boy’s dreams come true and see his face light up on Christmas morning. “Snap out of it woman!” I tell myself. And I let them quietly fantasize and dream up their wish lists as I respond with, “Wow that IS really cool. Wouldn’t it be so cool to have that” …and then when nobody is looking I accidentally drop the toy magazines in the recycle bin. Oops.
#2) Elf on the Shelf! We started this tradition a year or so before the commercialized Elf on the Shelf made a debut in the big stores. My kids still can’t figure out why Santa would send Elves to a store to be purchased. Don’t they just magically appear in your home? Anyhow, this cute and fun tradition has ended up being one more thing to have to remember as a parent during this holiday season. There are mornings that I leap out of bed with the first sound of my children waking, and scramble to get to the elf before anyone else does. For this sleep deprived mama…it exhausting! I feel like it’s one more thing I will have to explain later. But for now, we keep doing it- but in a different way then most and I will talk about that later in a post.
#3) Santa! There I said it… I cringe even writing his name down. I mean he IS a cute jolly old man who you just want to hug and eat cookies with. He has such great intensions but I am just not a fan of his naughty or nice list. It is like we are telling kids that they are either a ‘good kid’ or a ‘bad kid.’ And I feel like as parents (we all have done it) we use that to manipulate, bribe, and threaten them if we think they are misbehaving… “If you aren’t nice to your brother than Santa won’t bring you your gift this Christmas” or “You better cut it out- Santa is watching.” I remember as a kid waking up Christmas morning wondering if I was “good” enough that year to receive what I wanted. Does he really give coal?
Then it brings me back to lists and expectations kids have of Santa. “Dear Santa, I would like this year” Big donut (my five year old) this year wants a particular Starwars toy that retails to be over $280. He is convinced that if he asks he will receive. Who ever thinks about Santa wants?
There you have it- My rant. But I have solutions and ideas coming right here so stay tuned.
besitos, xoxo
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