Christmas is over...

It's always a wee bit sad, isn't it?

I packed up all the christmas stuff yesterday. It's just kind of sad to see the house back to normal. But at the same time, it's nice to have the house back to normal.

I nearly cussed audibly while trying to rip the dang lights off the tree. Good Grief. What a pain in the hiney. I am making a trip to a few places today in desperate hopes that their is a super cheap prelit tree on sale somewhere. There are some things that are just worth paying for...

This year's Christmas was a lot different than I had hoped it would be. By the time I got out of school, I had little time before guests started arriving. My brother and sister in law came in on Saturday and it was so nice to have them here. They were only able to be here for one night due to work and a death in Kara's family. We don't get to see them near enough...Then on Sunday, Troy's mom arrived, followed on Monday by Troy's brother, Tim, and his girlfriend, Lori. We don't get to see them near enough either. My mom, Don, my sisters Gina and Bekah had been here since Friday.

So, by the time Christmas eve rolled around there were 12 people here. Let's just say there was no more room in the inn. It was fun and loud and very merry. Except Grant wasn't very merry. He was super fussy. He had a pretty bad cough and I think he is having a hard time adjusting to formula. Anyway, this is how Christmas Eve and Christmas Day went.

2pm: Mom, Cindy, Mason, Grant and I take a trip to Hobby Lobby. Those last minute deals, you see...
5pm: Discussions regarding the Christmas Eve Service begin. We had planned on going, but there were several obstacles. Don was feeling sick. I was feeling weird - like weak and faint and just weird. Grant was sick. Josh's plane(he is a pilot and had a very convenient overnight layover in San Angelo on Christmas Eve) didn't get in until 5:45. But we still went.
6pm: Christmas Eve service - wonderful, beautiful and perfect. Grant was fussy so I spent half of it in the lobby, but still, it was great.
7pm: Home for tamales and beans and queso. Yummy!
9:30: Tim and Lori arrive.
10pmish: A game of liverpool begins. It's like a ten round rummyish game. I didn't play because I anticipated Grant waking up. Of course, this was the one time he actually slept for a while.
10:30pm: Mason leaves gingerbread men and chocolate milk for Santa and apple slices for reindeer and then off to bed. I was really surprised at how fast he fell asleep. I thought the Santa excitement would keep him up forever!
1:30 am: Liverpool is still going. I start filling stockings. And setting up Mason's train set.
2:30 am: Finally crawl into bed. FYI Grant is in our room sleeping in his swing and Mason is sharing our bed with us. Like I said, the inn was full.
3:30 am: Grant wakes up screaming and coughing. He won't stop. He won't nurse. He won't do anything but cough. I rub him down with Vicks and troy sneaks into his room for the humidifier that we set up in our room
4:30 am: Grant finally is back asleep...on the floor with me holding him...with no blanket because all blankets were gone.
5:30 am: Grant is awake coughing again. and wakes up about every thirty minutes coughing uncontrollably.
8:00 am: By some miracle this is what time Mason woke up. Oh, but he peed in his pants...in our bed... nice.
8:15: Mason loves his train and totally loved opening his stocking. I loved seeing him so excited about all those little goodies.
10am: Opening presents and munching on delicious sausage balls - YUMMY!!!!

The rest of the day was great. We opened presents which was complete craziness. Anytime you have that many people all opening presents it will be mayhem. But it was great and I think everyone loved their presents. Mason cleaned up! Man alive! He is just at such a fun age to buy for. He loves his Geotrax train. He loves it!

So, Christmas was great even if I was a wee bit delirious from lack of sleep. But it was great.

But these are some things I want to change for next year:

The big one is that I think I am ready for Christmas to be just the four of us at our house. Don't get me wrong - i LOVE our families and I love spending time with them. Playing games, cooking together, watching them open our presents is great. But I think I am ready for it to be just us on actual Christmas day and then we will go to them like the next day. Is it bad to want that?

Also, I think next year we are going to set a budget for each person and stick to it. We did a pretty good job this year, but next year will be a little tighter since I hopefully won't be teaching. And I really hope people set a limit for us too. This was the first year that I was stressed out about christmas presents. I mean really stressed out. I just want to simplify...

And I am going to make presents for people next year. Not everyone, but at least mom and Cindy, and the boys. I just missed that excitement of seeing people open something I had made for them. I am going to make that a priority.

So, I guess that's it. I just wanted to write those things down so I could read this next year and remember what I was thinking.