Christmas Part II

Jeez. All I ever do is complain. I was going to make it a New Year's Resolution to stop complaining so much and count my blessings instead.
Today, the three oldest of my little blessings engaged in an interesting activity.
I sent them outside to crumble some leftover fruitcake in the yard for the birds and squirrels. A harmless enough activity, you might say?
When I checked on them a few minutes later, they were playing baseball with the fruitcake. It was so hard that the only way they could break it apart was with a baseball bat or by hurling it against a tree. At some point during this process, they figured it would be fun to play baseball with Mom's fruitcake.


So...for those of you who have doubted the indestructible nature of fruitcake...there you have it.
And that particular fruitcake was only a week old!
I'm wondering why I even bothered fighting the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping to get my children gifts when I could have just handed them spoiled baked goods and sent them outside to play all along.
We were pretty bummed out that we didn't go up to visit Alan and Mary Kay this holiday season, George especially. We tried to do some fun things for the children (and ourselves). We took them all downtown to Bear Plaza to see Santa on Christmas Eve morning. The little ones did really well, even Lucy, who had just woken up from a nap and was hauled out of her comfy carseat. Drake asked Santa for a "Dora present", Bart asked for a "Star Wars present", and Skylar asked for the new Harry Potter book (the Tales of Beadle the Bard).
I think Santa must have gotten a lot of requests for Wiis and iPods and Ninendo DS's, because when Skylar asked for her humble book, Santa just kind of looked at her and then looked at us and then back at her and said, "That's all?" like he couldn't believe it. It made me feel kind of good, like maybe we're raising our kids to be decent human beings, after all.
I'm not so sure what next year is going to bring, though. When Bart found out that Santa brought his cousins Mack and Leslie-Grace a Wii this year, he looked at me and said, all amazed, "Santa brings Wiis?" What am I supposed to say to that? Still, I'd rather him ask for an expensive electronic item than the request Skylar made of Santa two years running: a baby brother or sister.
Christmas Eve this year we tried to take it easy. We made and decorated cookies and the children sprinkled magic reindeer food on the front lawn. We ate a nice dinner of spaghetti, Italian sausage, and garlic bread around the dining room table. We turned on the big oil lamp I placed there on a bed of magnolia leaves and turned off the lights. It was really cozy with just the oil lamp and the glow of the Christmas tree.
After dinner, we took some goodies to some friends on our way to visit the Nicolaysens. We stopped by my friend Kelly's house and the Steels' house. We watched most of Prince Caspian with the Nicolaysens, but Drake and Lucy started to get cranky. Plus it was nine o'clock and it was definitely time to get the kids in bed so Santa could visit already.
We got home and opened our Christmas Eve gifts - PJ's. Then we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, set out cookies and milk, and the kids were off to bed. Skylar, Bart, and Drake all slept together in the boys' room. Bart had really wanted to sleep with Skylar on Christmas Eve, which they've done since he was old enough to get excited about Christmas. George and I watched a movie while we wrapped the last few gifts and filled stockings. We got to bed pretty late, but the children were under strict orders that they were not to even attempt to wake us up before 7:30am.
Before we knew it, it was actually 7:40 and no kids yet. Hmmm...had they overslept? We rolled over to go back to sleep, hoping for a Christmas miracle.
Nah. Their clock was just off by 10 minutes.
The hallway was full of the sound of running feet and three excited munchkins burst into our room. We fetched Lucy and marveled over the little gifts Santa had left them under their little trees they kept in their bedrooms. This is something Santa always did for my sister and me. My mom or Mimi always made sure that we had a little tree in our bedroom when we were children. Usually it was a big pine bough we cut and decorated for that special purpose. And Santa always left a small gift beneath it for each of us, a kind of appetizer to start out our Christmas morning feast.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night one Christmas Eve to find that Santa had already arrived and left a little gift under my tree. It was a book about a cat and a painter. I can't remember the title, but I started reading that book to help me fall asleep.
Another Christmas, Elsie and I, for some reason I will never be able to fathom, thought it was hilarious to say that Santa Claus had hemhorroids. We didn't even know what hemhorroids were (and let me tell you, after birthing four children, I don't find hemhorroids a laughing matter), but we knew that they had something to do with the backside, so naturally it was amusing. I think we stayed up half the night howling over our imagined cleverness.
I just really hope that our kids have as much fun as we did. I think they do...I hope they do...but how can you be sure?
Christmas morning was chaos. Duh. With four kids, what else can you expect? There was paper everywhere, Skylar and Bart both vying for the job of "Santa", and Drake trying to grab everyone else's gift and open it. And Lucy started bawling halfway through and needed to eat and go back to bed. So we had to pause the unwrapping process to put her back to sleep.
We tried to be slightly organized. George had even laid out a garbage bag the night before. He made sure everyone handed him the torn off wrapping paper, and I tried to collect discarded gift bags and tissue paper. I tried to make sure the opening process was relatively even for all three older children.
It was impossible to be organized. It's against the fundamentals of Christmas to be organized. Bart ended up opening up all of his gifts before the rest of us finished and moved on to help Drake unwrap Lucy's.
Did they have fun?
You bet.
I made a tasty breakfast casserole and put cider on to warm and mull. George and I even curled up on the sofas to take a short nap while the children played with their new gifts. We went to Mindy's for dinner and gift exchange. We played Mario Kart on their new Wii that Santa brought. The kids played outside in the balmy 74-degree December weather. We opened the windows and sweated. Then we packed up and headed home.
And just like that...it was over.
Christmas certainly doesn't linger, does it?
As much as I try to make it linger, so we can savor it a little longer, it only seems to sully it.
If you haven't noticed, I have a hard time letting go.