Joanie's Family Journal: Christmas Stuff

Christmas is a crazy time. Last year I spent a lot of time trying to focus on service. It was great, but on Christmas Eve I had a bit of a break down. I think it was too much, trying to make it perfect for my kids, get everything done that we try to do in December, and do service for a number of people. This year I vowed to make it simpler. I was sick of so many toys that were forgotten about a month (or week) later. Ryan and I had tossed around the idea of going to Arizona on Christmas break, and as the plans finalized we ended up getting a flight out on Christmas Eve. And so we decided it would be fun to have that trip as part of their Christmas present and have it be a surprise.

So we quietly planned this trip while doing all the other December stuff. We visited Santa (minus the reindeer this year because they were delayed, but we did see the Grinch).

Neighbor gifts this year were Caramel Apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory as well as caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels. And I helped the kids make suckers for their friends.

Of course there were class parties. I put together the party for Kylee's class since I'm the room mom there this year. I made like 40-50 gingerbread people, but I delegated the other parts to other moms which was great. Then we played the candy bar game with dice, and Christmas Carol Pictionary. It was fun. Kaden had fun too.

I had plenty of gingerbread men/women left over and lots of candy and frosting too, so I let my kids decorate them that night too. Always a highlight of December. I was happy to do the men instead of trying to get a house to stay together!

They all asked for simple things from Santa- Kylee wanted a cute new alarm clock, Dylan a step-counting watch, Sadie a boogie board (for drawing not swimming). So simple! I loved it. But I wanted to have some surprises for them too. Kylee has been asking for a hoverboard for a couple years now. I found one that looked good and then it went on sale on Amazon so I got it, but I tried to play it off to Kylee like we definitely wouldn't be getting one. Otherwise it's not a surprise. This is also why I hate surprises- you have to make them disappointed in order to surprise them with something great. Anyway, we also got a trampoline. But as the time got closer and the weather was miserable we realized there was no way we were going to get it set up in the dark. And at the last minute I also decided to get Dylan what he had really wanted, which is an Xbox with Minecraft. This one was a surprise for him because we were pretty sure we didn't need it, that he didn't need another electronic to play. But it was all he had really requested other than the Garmin watch. Really the only reason I got it was because I had a couple friends that were upgrading their systems and were ready to get rid of their older ones. It was VERY last minutes, like as last minute as I could get, but I went to my neighbor's house and grabbed it and wrapped it. I needed to make sure the kids knew these gifts were family gifts though, not the hoverboard for Kylee and the Xbox for Dylan because not only did Sadie not have a big gift, but the kids would be stinkers about not letting others use those things.

With our flight on Christmas Eve, we decided to have Santa come a day early. This worked out GREAT!! Because the kids were not expecting it so nobody was up all night sneaking peaks or too excited to sleep. They just woke up and were very confused. Kaden and Sadie were up first, or at least we thought- turns out Dylan had come up and went into the office without noticing the presents, lol. He stayed in there with his audiobook for quite awhile until he came out to use the bathroom and we were all surprised. Finally we had them go wake up Kylee. Their reactions were a lot more calm and confused than I had expected. Kylee is similar to me, she's a planner, so this really through her off. She had made plans with her bff across the street and had planned out how Christmas Eve was going to go, so when we popped this on her early she took a few minutes to wrap her brain around it. Plus it was Sunday so we had to get them all ready for church by 11, and told them we had to pack because we were leaving later that afternoon for Florida. It was a lot.

I knew that Kylee would be expecting the hover. (She had seen a box that was delivered that said Hover Heart on it and it was about the right size for a hoverboard, but I played it off. I tried at least. She's no fool. It was seriously way back in early November so I hoped she would forget about it, but no luck. So I decided to hide the hoverboard (it's not like i could really wrap it) and send them on a scavenger hunt instead. I was still trying to make this Christmas memorable, but not because of all the "stuff". So after they opened their presents and we explained that we were leaving, Kylee kind of asked me what was in the box in the storage room. I said, "not sure what you are talking about". I had intended to have the scavenger hunt lead them outside to find the trampoline but since we didn't set it up, Ryan said it would be better to just wait to tell them about it until Spring. They had plenty for Christmas. So I just hid the hoverboard and after everyone was done unwrapping, I gave them their first clue. They had fun running around the house searching for clues, and they eventually found the hover- to which Kylee exclaimed "I knew it!!" Everyone was happy. Kaden was loving his new Paw Patrol table even if it wasn't completely put together. Dylan loved the Xbox, even though we couldn't set it up before we left for Arizona (partly because we didn't have much time, but mostly because my neighbor still needed to clear the hard drive). And everyone was riding the hover, but then we had to leave. Ryan had the idea to bring the hoverboard to play with in Arizona, and he actually paid for an extra bag for that purpose. But when I mentioned that to my mom she told me that some airlines don't allow them. Something about batteries exploding? So we did some research, and sure enough, they weren't allowed. Darn!