Christmas Day Fallout

What do you get when you mix a highly anticipated holiday with little sleep, lots of sugar, and 2 highly active toddlers? Crash and burn, baby. Crash and burn.

Christmas Eve was actually not too bad. Luckily we only had sacrament meeting, but even that proved to be a little too much for the kids as spent the last half in the halls chasing after the kids with Ethan begging the whole time to go home. After lunch we made our annual gingerbread house. They had a lot of fun and actually were able to decorate it together without any fighting. The only protests came when I told them they couldn't eat the house until Christmas Day.


That night before bed, we performed our Christmas Eve tradition of opening all family presents. Mostly because I just can't wait any longer! I'm kind of still like a kid at Christmas. Kind of sad I know. I should have developed some kind of self-discipline at this point, but I haven't. We also do the ever popular tradition of giving the kids new Christmas jammies each year along with a new ornament. The jammies were a big hit with Grace. After reading a Christmas story, and setting out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, the kids actually went to bed rather easily. Probably because we told them that Santa couldn't come until they were asleep.

Here are the Christmas Eve festivities:

I should have gotten a hint of what was to come when I checked on Grace before going to bed around 11 PM. She woke right up and sat up in her pack n' play and proclaimed "Look at my new jammies!" followed immediately by "I want a cookie!" Being the great mom I am, I sent Scott to get her one of Santa's cookies and gave it to her before safety pinning her back into her "tent" so that she wouldn't start running around and see the presents that we'd already put under the tree.


Christmas morning they were up bright and early around quarter to 7 and proceeded to rip through all the presents. I have to say that I think its almost more exciting for me playing Santa than it is for the kids to get his presents. And they were pretty excited this year.

Christmas morning:

Here's Grace in her new Christmas outfit (Ethan wouldn't even try his on)

Here is Ethan in the Costa Rican soccer jersey that he got from Uncle "Dodo" on his mission

Breakfast kind of got lost in the mix, as they nibbled instead on lots of peanut M & Ms, Hershey's Kisses, and Starbursts. By nap time they were so wired that Grace wouldn’t fall asleep for the 3rd day in a row. So, after running around for the rest of the afternoon, we decided an early bed time was in order, and put them down at 6 PM.

Of course, there’s no rest for the weary as Ethan kept waking up on and off throughout the night and finally was up for good at 5 this morning. After trying for 15 or 20 minutes to convince him to play with his toys in his room if he couldn’t sleep, I finally realized there was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep. Especially since around 5:20 I heard Grace awake and rocking. So, I got up and took them to the living room and tried to keep 2 cranky, tired, sugared out, fussy and fighting children quiet for the next hour and a half or so Scott could get some sleep, and so that they wouldn’t wake up grandma and grandpa.

By the time Scott got up, I was ready to be done with Christmas. It was fun while it lasted, but I am ready to get back on schedule with the kids! We took down the tree and decorations (except for my Christmas card display, which I couldn’t bear to part with yet) and Ethan helped to vacuum and straighten up while Grace rocked on the couch.


So after everything was straightened up, here is a picture of the kids playing nicely together with their new toys:


Oh wait a second, that’s a cardboard box Grace found while we were cleaning. Good to know that this is what captures their interest the day after Christmas!

Anyway, by naptime, the kids were out of control and I think I overdid it today, because I’ve thrown my back out or something, and I can’t even stand up straight much less try to walk. So, poor Scott had to deal with getting Grace to go to sleep after she ripped the safety pins out of the blanket and climbed out of her pack n’ play twice after putting her down, and Ethan kept coming out of his room crying saying he didn’t want to stay in there. However, the crash and burn alluded to earlier finally occurred and both children fell asleep for a good couple of hours.

Its at times like this that I’m kind of glad Christmas comes but once a year. Here’s to hoping they get back on track this week!