Too much Christmas!?

If you have kids you probably know the llama llama series. I read the girls a book by Anna Dewdney called Llama Llama Holiday Drama. Christmas is summed up nicely when she writes,

I don’t know how it is at your house but I know at my house, my kids turn into nasty little buggers during this time year! There is a reason why the Gremlins is a Christmas movie!

I honestly don’t blame them. We create this. By trying to do everything that the holiday season has to offer, we create whiny children that expect, demand, and throw temper tantrum’s because…

It’s just too much for their little bodies and minds to handle!

For instance, the concerts! We have had 3 in the past week! 2 in 1 day! The excitement is enough to turn these young kids inside out. There is the rehearsal build up, the dressing up, the stage make up and of course hot chocolate and treats!

1st we had the school Christmas Concert. Every year I volunteer at the bake sale so I have always been lucky to get good seats. This year we had a big BC Winter Games meeting that night so I was unable to help out. That equates to sitting at the BACK of an overcrowded gym. Thank goodness my HotLunchBesty let SBean and I take her seat up front so that for the 45 seconds HBear was onstage line dancing, SBean and I could cheer her on 🙂 Ninja, my In-laws and Dad weren’t so lucky 🙁

 

 

 

 

 

SBean was awesome sitting through the music recital. Classical piano and violin is pretty tough for a 3 year old. Actually, it was pretty hard on us adults too, I cannot tell a lie 😉 I mean, the kids were wonderful but really, can someone explain to me how much Chopin is too much? LOL

The dance recital was more fun for her but we were packed in like sardines and it was HOT, as the owner of the dance company said “whoa they have it on cremate in here!” LOL It was a cute performance.

HBear’s part consisted of a crab walk across the stage.

I think.

We were in the 4th row and we couldn’t see a thing. I do know that she was on stage for 35 seconds and she made the most of it! During the finale she SMILED and DANCED hard! Her absolute delight made the $7 tickets a bit easier to swallow.

Oh and the parties. We can’t forget the parties. After SBean’s birthday and HBear’s birthday, there is a school Christmas party, a school craft day, school pancake breakfast, a friend’s Christmas party, a Brownies Christmas party, a Broadway Christmas party, and a dance Christmas party, of course all of these parties include dress up, treats, and staying up later than usual due to the crazy excitement for days a head of the function.

Awesome.

What about the festivities you ask? Oh yes, the Christmas festivities. We started the season off by taking gifts to the Charity Toy Drive. Of course to enjoy the children’s choir and the breakfast, which of course includes whip cream and smarties on your pancakes, we needed to be up early and there by 7:30 AM to make sure HBear was at school for 8:45 AM.

 

 

 

Setting up the tree and decorating it is a whole HAPPY morning experience LOL This year we managed to only break 3 ornaments and experienced no major meltdowns!

Score!

I bought the girl’s their this year’s ornament at the holiday craft show. They are huge metal Christmas bells with snowmen on the front! They are gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

The girls made their annual gingerbread houses with Grandpa, Papa, and Daddy. Now every single day I get to hear SBean incessantly ask me when she can eat the gingerbread houses. Maybe I should let her break a tooth as my verbal explanation is obviously not getting me anywhere.

 

 

 

 

While Dad and Ninja were working 1 Saturday I braved the crowds and took the girls to welcome Santa to the Mall. There were lots of wonderful activities like building a bear, face painting, and Bricks for Kidz.

 

 

 

 

We did the Santa Claus parade! It took me a half an hour to get the kids into their snowsuits (even though there was no snow and it was raining, but my kids are BC marshmallows LOL). In fact, it took me longer to get them dressed for the parade than the actual parade!

This weekend we went to visit Santa. We got there 10 minutes before he got there… and waited in line for over 45 minutes!

$25 later we had our USB drive with 5 pictures on it and MORE freaking candy canes. I would just like to thank the masses for giving my children shit loads of candy canes and peppermints in the past two weeks. I super duper love looking like the evil Mommy that is constantly taking treats away from them 😉

 

 

 

We tried going up to Apex to take beautiful winter photos. But, the fog was horrible and it was chilly out, -3 and all LOL I remember standing outside in -30 taking “beautiful” Christmas pictures! In fact, one year I made a Calendar for Ninja and I stood outside in -30 in only a fur hat, knee-high boots, and a scarf!

Granted, when I heard whistles and catcalls from behind me and realized there were a bunch of snowmobilers in what I thought was a deserted field, I began running and fell through the iced snow and skinned my bare knee… LOL always a good memory.

 

 

 

You know what the girls said the ENTIRE 30 minutes up the hill?

Plus, there are still just non-Christmas activities. Like the Vee’s hockey game with the Brownie pack. 

I LOVE Christmas. I can’t imagine missing any of these activities. I want the girls to have memories of all these wonderful events. 

But, the more we do the less sleep they get and the less routine and structure they have. December makes its own rules. I spend the whole month of January retraining them, reminding them that life is not all fun and holidays and getting them back on schedule.

The anticipation of Christmas is where the real memories are made. Christmas morning is over so quickly. To me, the crafts, the music, the concerts, the taking baskets and cookies to people in need, and the activities leading up to the actual day is where the Christmas Spirit comes from.

Yes, the kids are Christmas Gremlins…

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The way I see it is,

Yes Mommies there is a Santa Claus. He is in the air that we breathe, the sights that we see and the excitement that zings all around us. He is in the food we carefully prepare for our loved ones and the crafts that we all glue together. Christmas is in the details, the love that hugs us as we giggle and smile together and the Spirit is in the love that surrounds us as we run our asses off enjoying and experiencing all that is there for our Christmas pleasure.

January is soon enough to come back to reality. 🙂

Yesterday the whole family took time after dinner to do some Christmas crafts. We made S’more bags for HBear’s classmates!

Of course, I saw it on Pinterest! I went to Costco to the floral department and asked them if I could take some flower bags. They said help yourself! I picked up some chocolate chips, some honey Shreddies, and mini marshmallows.

I put the chocolate chips in the tip and HBear did the next layer of Shreddies,

SBean and Papa did the next layer of marshmallows

and Ninja tied them with ribbon and added the card I had made earlier.

 

For HBear’s teacher and principal we made glass ornaments full of hot chocolate, Christmas sprinkles, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

 

 

Next week activities and school are over so we’ll have much more free time… for visiting with family, going sledding at Big White, a Christmas lights tour, baking, crafting and taking baskets to SOWINS, the hospice, and a few retirement homes.

Hmmm free time?

riiiiiight 😉

I will leave you with Mama Llama’s wise words…