Embrace the Chaos

December 29, 2013

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did... even though Christmas was just way too overwhelming for Bentley this year. He's 3, so he is understanding the concept of Santa and gifts but he doesn't truly understand.

The night before Christmas Eve, I was up until 3a trying to get the house cleaned and laundry done since we fell behind (again... story of my life) and trying to get the last stocking stuffers wrapped.

We had my IL Christmas on Christmas Eve, so I wanted stuff done before we headed over there knowing that once we left, we would be back late.

Dinner and gifts at the IL's went very well!

Here are my beautiful kids enjoying Christmas!

After Christmas at my IL's, we went home... I had to quickly get breast milk from my house freezer to my deep freezer in the garage since we were hosting dinner the next day and I had a house freezer FULL of milk. So that was a process! (I should hear back in the next week or so if I'm accepted as a Milk Donor! EEK!)

After I FINALLY got that task completed, it was time to start a new family tradition!

(We did Christmas Rice Krispies instead of cookies!)

We made green Rice Krispies for Santa and then Big Brother got to open his Christmas Eve 'something you can read' which was The Night Before Christmas. We laid in his bed and read the book, tucked him in, gave him hugs and kisses and told him how much we love him. Like every night, but this night he was too excited for sleep!

An hour later...

"Momma!" (whining... stomp, stomp, stomp)

"What's wrong?"

"Santa!" (cue TEARS!)

"Santa only comes when you're sleeping, do you need a sip of water?"

Finally, I get the kid back to bed and proceed with my Santorial duties.

...

An hour later...

(crying coming from stairwell)

"What now, buddy?"

"Santos! Santos!"

(he has a speech delay, so he often says things differently)

"Santa only comes when you're sleeping, come on!"

By this point I knew it was time to get shit done and get to bed so he would quit trying to come downstairs! We were ALMOST done with Santa's visit!

...

Finally, we go to bed.

...2:30a...

(crying)

"Buddy?"

(crying)

"Babe, it's your turn!"

I had Ben put him back to bed and do the explaining this time. I just laid in bed, half asleep thinking how overwhelming this must be for him. It's just too much.

Christmas finally rolls around and I wake up with Bailey, look over and neither of the boys was in the room. It's 9:30a.

(walk downstairs)

"MOMMA! SANTOS! SANTA! PRESENTS! MOMMA! MOMMA!"

The kid was so patient waiting for momma to wake up so he could see what Santa brought him.

This years we started a limit. Since we desire more children, we figured this was a good year to start. I found this perfect gift giving idea online:

Something They Want

Something They Need

Something They Wear

Something They Read

Bailey was totally mesmerized by Bentley opening gifts! She didn't care about anything else!

After the kids opened their gifts, we went into Mission: Dinner Impossible

My mom, her boyfriend and my sisters were all coming over for dinner...

I won't get into details, but I wasn't excited. My mom and I don't have a good relationship and there is almost always drama of some sort when she and I are around each other.

We had some breakfast first...

Then got the Turkey going

Tick Tock

Everyone arrived and shortly after the Turkey was done!

It was DELISH!

After we all ate, we opened a few more gifts and then Ben, I and both my sisters played a few rounds of Catch Phrase!

Much to my surprise, the day went PERFECTLY. My mom and I never had any drama at all! It was a very pleasant day, to say the least.

After it was all said and done, we chilled for the rest of the night. Bentley enjoyed some bath time with some bath paints (in which daddy FREAKED out!) which inspired me to put a daily reminder on the bathroom wall...