Christmas Stuff

Well after a couple of days of dealing with an exceedingly excited 3 year old I'm ready to put fingers to keyboard to describe Christmas...

On Christmas Eve we visited my Mother-In-Law for dinner and had a pretty good time. Got home at 7:00 (about half an hour before Maya's normal bedtime) and immediately started the bedtime routine with no fussing (because, as she said, Santa won't come until we're all asleep). She got to bed in record time, skipping some of the normal elements of the routine and hunkering down under her covers with her eyes scrunched closed determined to fall asleep immediately. Which she did - there wasn't a peep from her room.

Elliot (our 6 month old) had a pretty good night. He woke up at 3:00 to be fed but was back asleep in his crib by 3:45. Maya woke up at 7:15 - which is a little later than normal for her. So far, so good.

We then proceeded down to the family room to see if Santa had come. Maya was so excited when she saw the 'big present' that Santa had left for her: a 'Rapunzel Castle'. She had seen this set up in Sears when we went for Christmas pictures of the kids three weeks ago and had talked of nothing else since. She asked for it in her letter to Santa, and when she saw Santa at the mall and at the TVWorks holiday party. So, unless we were going to teach her a life lesson about disappointment, she was going to get that castle. (more on disappointing your kids intentionally in another post, I think). Maya also got a watch in her stocking, but to my disappointment, she wasn't interested in it at all despite asking for a watch a number of times and always expressing an interest in my watch.

After about 30 minutes of play downstairs with the kids and the stockings we headed up for breakfast. Maya was too excited to eat and was jumping all over the place, but we managed to get something in her. Elliot was getting hungry at this point, so Kelly fed him, while Maya and I went back downstairs to play with the Castle. After eating Elliot fell asleep.

So Kelly, Maya, and I started opening the presents under the tree. Some highlights:

Me: Shoes, CD (Love - The Beatles), and an IOU for the Wii - Kelly couldn't find one in time and was very apologetic. I kept telling her that it was the thought that counts and I was just as excited for the IOU as actually getting one. Delaying the gratification is good too.

Kelly: Necklace, Sweater, PJs, CDs (Sam's Town - The Killers, Continuum - John Mayer)

Maya: Lots of Little Mermaid paraphernalia - I'm not comfortable feeding the Disney conglomerate, but I'm doing it anyway...don't feel great about it though.

Elliot: Clothes, a couple of big rubbery dinosaurs (T. Rex, Pleisiosaurus), some plastic animal toys that make noises when you move their appendages.


In the afternoon we went over to my Mother-In-Law's for turkey dinner. It was excellent. My sister in law and her new boyfriend were supposed to be there at 3:00. Dinner was at 4:00. At 4:30 she called to say that they went for brunch with the boyfriend's family and weren't hungry and were too 'tired' to come over. She told her mother that if she wanted she could bring the presents over to their place after 7:00 when she got her kids back from her ex.

I couldn't believe how inconsiderate and rude that was. My mother in law was almost in tears as she got off the phone. She went over later so her grandkids could have their presents - but there is still a lot of tension between the two of them. I would normally enjoy that tension, but it's almost beyond that now.

We got back home around 7:00 again, and once again, Maya was so tired she went straight to bed without any fuss and slept through the night.