Holiday Parenting Tips

Throughout this past Christmas season, my husband and I discovered a few things that have made the holidays a bit easier and I thought I'd share them with you guys in case they might be helpful for you also.

1) Tree ornaments: When you put away the Christmas tree ornaments, have 2 separate sections: one for the fragile ornaments and one for the kid-friendly ornaments. Then next year when it's time to decorate the tree, you can let the kids work with the kid-ornament box while you focus on the more delicate items. (Also, put the fragile items at the top of the tree and the kid-friendly items at the bottom of the tree.) I think this was my husband's genius idea last year and it worked wonderfully this year. The boys were able to happily participate in decorating without us being on pins and needles every time they grabbed something from the ornament box.

2) Gifts: If you want to know what your son wants for Christmas, take him shopping for his brother (or same-sex, similarly aged cousin or friend). Chances are pretty good that whatever he picks out for his brother will be exactly what he would like for himself, and he'll probably tell you this as well.

3) Gifts: If you have a lot of family, several different Christmas celebrations scattered over several days is a good idea. My husband originally wanted to be a traditionalist and only open presents on Christmas day, but this year we had a separate celebration with my family the Sat before, a celebration with his parents Tues before, and then our family (along with Santa's gifts and some gifts from aunts and uncles that came in the mail) on Christmas morning. Of course it was fun for the kids to open some presents early, but we also think it helped prevent "present overload" on Christmas day. I know some families even open their gifts on Christmas eve and save Christmas morning for Santa gifts, but since Santa only leaves us stockings and one gift each, it still works best for us to open presents Christmas morning.

4) Gifts: Yes, Santa only gives us one gift each (it's usually a pretty good gift) because we don't want Santa to get all the joy of giving on Christmas morning. Plus I think it may have curbed the greediness from Coulson because he only wanted one main thing for Christmas instead of a long list of toys. (I don't know if this will last as he gets older, but we can hope!)

5) Eco-tip: Years ago in misguided hopes of being thrifty and crafty, I bought a few yards of Christmas fabric after Christmas for very cheap, figuring I would make something out of them someday. Years later, the fabric was still nicely folded and stashed away. So last year I tried to use them as "reuseable" wrapping paper, just using tape to keep it together. The tape didn't stick so well to the fabric, so it wasn't a very practical idea, but my husband got a big laugh out of my wrapped packages. This year I tied the fabric with ribbons and it actually worked very well and was a lot faster than dealing with scissors and wrapping paper and tape. My method is for practicality, not presentation -the wrapped presents didn't look nice enough to give to others as gifts, but they worked great for my own family. (Besides, if I give away the re-useable wrapping paper, then I can't use it next year.) Now if I can make it to the fabric store before the after-Christmas sales go away, then I can wrap even more gifts this way next year. Maybe some year I'll take it that one extra step and sew the sides together to make a bag and thus wrapping will be one bit easier...

6) Cookies: Decorating sugar cookies is messy and if you want your kids to have fun, just prepare yourself for the mess and don't fool yourself by thinking that you can re-use any sprinkles or jimmies that are left in the jar for other projects, because chances are that whatever doesn't get dumped out will probably be tainted when they lick the jar or pour the sugar crystals directly into their mouths. Same with the icing. Resistance is futile - if you are decorating with more than one child, you can't possibly watch each one closely enough to prevent this behavior from happening in the first place, so your best bet is to make sure that either A) you don't invite any sick kids to help you decorate or, more practically in winter, B) all of the kids are already sick.

7) Cookies: You can sort of limit the mess that an older child makes while decorating cookies by having them decorate their cookies over a plate. For a preschooler, a plate doesn't really contain any of the mess, although a rimmed baking sheet worked pretty well. Even still, there will be plenty of sprinkles and icing for the dog to lick from the floor.


I'd love to include any of your holiday parenting tips, so please leave some comments to share your words of wisdom!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I'm trying to get better about uploading photos of the boys, especially since my original intent with my blog is to update friends and family from far away about the boys as they grow up.  So here are some of the photos from Christmas.

I will sit down and write a real blog again soon, since one of my New Year's resolutions is to be a better blogger.  But right now my house is a complete wreck since I haven't been able to absorb all the extra stuff we got for Christmas.  The boys were thoroughly spoiled by grandparents, aunts and uncles from both sides, in addition to the gifts that we got for them, so I have toys scattered everywhere and I'm not sure where to put the new toys and which old toys will get the boot yet.  And I have gradually accumulated 6 loads of clean laundry sitting in a pile on my bedroom floor that I haven't been able to fold or put away since I've been so busy from hanging out with family between Christmas and New Years  (But let's give me some credit because the clothes are clean).  So to properly procrastinate from these arduous tasks, I need to sit on the couch and watch a lot of TV or play Mario Kart on the Wii and that just doesn't leave a lot of room for blogging.

The boys had a great Christmas, I mean, three days of Christmas.  On Thursday we celebrated Christmas with just the four of us.  Then Friday was Christmas with my parents and brothers and sister-in-law and nephews and nieces.  Then Saturday was Christmas with Casey's parents and brother and sister and sister-in-law and so-to-be-brother-in-law.  Then we spent the next few days with my family while my brother and nephew and niece were in town from NY. 

For New Year's Eve, we held a mini party for the boys and their cousins, complete with a countdown (to 8:00pm) and a ball drop (I stood on the bed and dropped a beach ball) and noisemakers (empty toilet paper rolls wrapped in tin foil).  They were a very enthusiastic crowd, and of course I forgot to take pictures.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I know it's been a while since I've blogged.  It's been a busy Christmas season for us - busier than previous years, but I'm sure that's just going to increase each year as the boys get older.  This year we've had decorating, gift buying, cookie baking, preschool programs, church programs (which Coulson refused to participate in, but thankfully his cousin Lauren did a great job as a last minute stand-in wiseman!), bell-ringing for Salvation Army, cookie swaps and preschool parties.  We've had a great time preparing to celebrate Christ's birthday. 

I hope you all have a blessed and joyful Christmas or Hannukah!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A Very Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas Day!  Coulson was so excited about everything.  He got the scooter that he wanted, plus a whole lot more. He had his moments: "I want another Christmas present for me!"  But overall, he had a great attitude (And if you must ask yourself, "Why wouldn't he have a great attitude, it's Christmas?"  then you probably don't have a 3-year-old yet and you haven't experienced the massive and often illogical mood swings of his age group.  So yes, we were pleasantly surprised at his wonderful attitude.)  Charlie also had a great time playing with his new toys, but he didn't really get into unwrapping his gifts.  Luckily for him, his big brother was more than happy to unwrap his gifts.  His big brother was also generous enough to test all of Charlie's new toys for him to make sure they worked correctly.  And then he demonstrated for Charlie how to play with the toys.  Charlie is grateful to have such a wonderful brother.

Casey's parents celebrated Christmas with us, and then his aunts and uncle joined us for a delicious Christmas dinner.  Casey made a fabulous prime rib.  Plus he did most of the dishes and clean-up.  (I helped out when I could, but honestly he did most of it.)  So I had a great Christmas Day simply because I have the most wonderful husband in the world!  Charlie was taking his nap while we ate and Coulson played his new toys (which is very rare for him to play by himself!), so Casey and I got to eat a full meal with the grown-ups.  My kids never cooperate like this - usually Coulson would be trying to climb all over my lap and begging me to "come play with me" and/or Charlie would wake up right as we sat down to eat and refuse to sit in his highchair and thus be reaching for all the wine glasses and steak knives on the table and I wouldn't be able to listen to or participate in any adult conversation.  So I consider my dinner a special Christmas gift from my children, but orchestrated by God.

And Coulson was great when he opened presents from the aunts and uncle.  Every gift he opened, he exclaimed enthusiastically, "This is just what I've always wanted!" no matter what it was: books, markers, balls or robots.  It made the aunts feel great.  And the thing is, we never prepped him to say that - it was pure natural excitement.  Charlie was sweet to everyone and let the aunts hold him and play with him.  I'm still in awe that my kids were so good.

My favorite Christmas present came last night, although it wasn't so great for Casey.  A few weeks ago Casey asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I gave him a list, but then I added, "You don't have to get me anything if you would just throw away your Xbox."  Let's just say that Casey plays video games more than I would like.  Anyway, on Christmas Eve, Casey turns on his Xbox and gets the Red Ring of Death, which basically means that his Xbox died!  Of course, this is a problem that can be fixed, but he must send his box away to get fixed and it could take up to a month to get it back.  A month!  That's great!  Well, this wasn't so great for Casey for obvious reasons, but also because his big Christmas gift was an HD-DVD player that plugs into his Xbox so we can watch DVDs in High Definition (I know, I know, it's all the same to me, but apparently the movies are so much better than regular DVDs?)  So if his Xbox is dead, he can't use his Christmas present.  Well, he found a little trick on the internet that helped him "resurrect" his machine temporarily, for about 4-5 days, but he'll still have to send it in to get completely fixed or replaced.  So we were able to try out his Christmas gift and we watched Transformers this evening.  I just hope the mail is slow...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Conversations with Coulson: Christmas Edition

On hearing that his babysitter that night is named Mary:  He gets wide-eyed and says in an excited hushed whisper "Is it the Mary with baby Jesus?"

On giving presents:  Coulson is not good at keeping secrets.  Last year he told me what I was getting for Christmas less than 5 minutes after he came back from shopping with his dad.  This year he's doing better.  He waited a whole day before he told his dad what he was getting him.  And when he was starting to tell me, I tried to stop him: "Stop! Don't tell me! Don't tell me!" I yelled.  "But I have to tell you.  I can't stop."  So I stuck my fingers in my ears, closed my eyes and started to sing gibberish until he got it out of his system. 

As we were wrapping a present, I decided to try another approach to help him keep a secret.  "Coulson, do you know why we wrap presents at Christmas?"  "I don't know."  "Well, take a guess, why do you think we wrap presents?"  He thought for a little bit and then replied, "Because that's what Jesus wants us to do?"

On omnipresence: "Hey I just thought of something - You know how God is with everyone all the time?  Well, how can there be so many Gods?"

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Think of it as an online Christmas card

I got this idea from my brother yesterday.  He sent us a link to this greeting featuring my niece and nephew and of course it was hilarious!  When I showed it to Coulson, he quickly discovered the "play again" feature and watched 10 times in a row. 

So we have made our own version and we hope you will enjoy it.  (Click the link below)

Happy Holidays!

 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

my favorite

This is my favorite Christmas decoration:

 

DSCF0686

Coulson made it in preschool last year and I had enough sentimental foresight to pack it up with our Christmas stuff in January.  I'm glad I did, because I was so excited when I opened the box and saw them.  Of course, I had completely forgotten about them until I opened the box, so it was a wonderful surprise!

Coulson on Christmas: If you ask Coulson about Christmas, the first thing he'll tell you is that he is getting a scooter.  He says this with absolute conviction, even though we have tried to introduce some doubt - "You want a scooter.  Maybe you'll get a scooter."  "No, I am getting  a scooter for Christmas."  Thankfully he has been consistent with his desire.  [Unlike his choice for a Halloween costume which changed daily for two weeks.  Earlier in the month he was pretending to be a bat, loves the color black and was really into superheroes, so I encouraged him towards a Batman costume.  But he resisted and fluctuated between a ghost, a spider, Lightning McQueen (stupid and expensive costume, so I vetoed that one) a fireman, a dog, spiderman (but they never had his size in stock), etc, until we finally found a cute dragon costume that we both liked.  Then the day before Halloween, he tells me he wants to be Batman.  Too late because I already bought the dragon costume.  One hour before trick-or-treat he tells me he wants to be a fireman, which we already have a costume for.  So he starts to get dressed in his fireman costume, but then changes his mind and goes as the dragon.  The day after Halloween, he apologetically tells me, "Mommy, I'm sorry I made the wrong choice."  The wrong choice about what? "I should have been Batman for Halloween."  So we have agreed that he can be Batman next year and since then he has asked several times a week "When will it be Halloween again?  Why does Halloween only come once a year?"  So yes, we are very thankful that he consistently asks for a scooter so we can feel confident that we will have the right gift on Christmas morning.]

Coulson has a general understanding of Santa, but I try not to overemphasize his importance during the holidays.  Personally I would've probably just told my kids that Santa is pretend from the start, but Casey thinks it adds to the magic of the season, so we compromise by going along with the stories, but not playing it up too big.  I told Coulson that Santa is Jesus' helper.  So he likes the jolly fellow, but he doesn't adore him.  In fact he's actually quite scared of him.  We went to a Christmas street festival last weekend.  There was a line to see Santa and I was asking Coulson if he wanted to go, but he was too interested in the shepherds and sheep and goats journeying towards the live nativity scene a few blocks away.  After the shepherds left, I asked again and started to show him where Santa was sitting, but he freaked out and started crying before we even got to see him.  Then we went to the live Nativity.  It warmed my heart that he was more interested in the story of baby Jesus than in Santa :-)

 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

O Christmas Tree...

For many people, the day after Thanksgiving is all about crazy shopping and great sales.  In our family, the day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season!  Casey and I both love Christmas and we don't see any point of delaying the decorations and the music for later in December.  And this year Thanksgiving was real early, so our Christmas season is even longer!!!!

Bikers!

We celebrated a warm Thanksgiving at my brother's home.  We all had a great time and the kids loved being able to play together.  The temperature was in the 70s, so the kids could play outside - bikes were the favorite activity.  Dinner was delicious.  Casey made the turkey and mashed potatoes (Thanks to Cook's Country for the recipes).  Nathan made the stuffing.  Kristine made sweet potatoes, wild rice, green beans.  I contributed a pumpkin pie (Thanks to Libby's pie mix in a can!).  Yum, I love all the traditional Turkey Day foods!

The next day, we left my brother's house and headed towards the mountains for our 2nd annual Christmas Tree Hunting Expedition.  It's so Norman Rockwell to go to the mountains as a family and pick out your tree - and we love all that sappy family stuff.  We even sang Christmas songs in the car together!  Don't tell anyone.

 

Please forgive me if I don't blog frequently.  Casey is in the process of interviewing for jobs, so we're in the middle of a pretty big decision that will change our lives forever.  Plus it's Christmas time, so we've a lot of extra stuff going on too.

 

***** Update on the project for the school in Kenya - The school would like to buy sweaters for each of the students.  Aside from providing the basic need of warmth for the children, I think it also helps them to feel proud about their school and their hard work and develops a sense of community among the students (all the sweaters will be the same, like a school uniform, which is pretty important in many cultures).  In all, the teachers estimate that it will cost $300 to buy all the sweaters.  So all funds raised will go towards this sweater project.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The next holiday...

It's already here.  I've heard commercials on the radio and seen them on TV.  I've received flyers in the mail.  I've seen festive yard and home decorations in the stores.  I've even seen a house all decked out with lights.  The jolly red icon of the season has already made an appearance at our local mall.  Yes, the Christmas season is upon us!

Most people dread this early onslaught of the holiday season.  I saw one person sadly shake his head as he observed, "Christmas starts right after Halloween these days."  Gone are the days when Christmas started the day after Thanksgiving. It's just a marketing scam to extend the shopping season and thus increase the profits.

But our home welcomes the longer season.  Casey and I used to break out the Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but we would hide the CDs from any visitors because it was such a taboo thing to do.  Like wearing white shoes after Labor Day. But it's a whole new world now. We can listen to our music proudly and loudly.  I could even unpack some of our decorations and buy and wrap gifts.  I could read books about the Christmas story to Coulson.  We are very excited about this new freedom to start celebrating the greatest holiday in November.  Critics might feel that this early attention to Christmas robs Thanksgiving of its well deserved attention.  I feel the opposite however.  Thanksgiving is all about showing our gratitude to God for the good things He has given us.  Joyfully celebrating Christ's birth is a great way to show our gratitude and the longer we celebrate, the better.

Of course we'll probably be so busy with kids and work and everything else that we'll forget to celebrate early.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend