Our Christmas 2014
So pregnancy is pretty much running things and making me choose really easy choices this season. I don’t want to stress at all. And honestly, I feel so much pressure on my belly right now. I have a very very active unborn baby right now. He’s the most expressively active pregnancy I’ve ever had. He moves a lot. He’s head down at this point and I can tell because he’s got a fairly strong kick although he has yet to use it on my ribs, thank heavens. And that isn’t a challenge that he use his little feet there either.
He is in the same direction as his brothers are. So who knows, they broke me in that direction and this one is just going with it because it’s the most comfortable or something along those lines. Who knows. The point is he’s running out of space and he’s letting me know it. That being said he’s an interesting character and I can’t wait to meet him.
So this Christmas. We didn’t buy a ton of toys/gifts for the boys. 3 or 4 each max. I didn’t ask for anything. Last year I got a brand new MacBook Air (with a beautiful leather cover!) and the year before that a new iPhone 5S. So I figured after all the expensive gifts I got the last two years, I’d rather just enjoy the holiday with no gifts. Besides the biggest gift we are about to receive is another baby and that will have plenty of expense attached to it. Even if I’ve saved EVERYTHING from my last two boys, and even if I can still breastfeed and cloth diaper, there are all the “other” expenses coming up. So I’d just rather enjoy giving gifts to the kids this year.
With all the bonuses from Mike’s work though, it’s like this year was free anyhow. It’s okay because we’ve definitely got plenty of important changes on the doorstep.
First off being we are going to be getting a new car soon. We have a Honda Accord and a CR-V. Now with the addition of Baby #3, we need something bigger. I can’t put an infant in the backseat with two boys who have behavior issues from time to time. With all the time we spend going from appointment to appointment I just don’t want them fighting over top of him. Because they will. Ethan has a stubborn streak that just puts mine to shame at his age. I know brothers do that sort of thing, but my sanity just can’t handle that AND a screaming baby all at once. Plus the practical side of things is that it gives us more room to travel places in since we spend so much time in the car.
We want to get a Toyota Sienna. “A Swaggerwagon.” (Look it up on Youtube it’s hilarious!) I’ve swore I’d NEVER get a van but the more I think about the practical uses of having another bigger car out weighs my sense of principle. And if Alex ever ends up in a wheel chair they make a conversion package for the Sienna as well so he can literally stay in his chair and wheel up into the car. (We of course hope it never gets to that point but, it’s definitely a factor in the decision to go van.) Plus, we are still knocking around the idea of adopting a little girl. We’ll revisit this idea in a year and decide if it’s what we’d like to do. (Which also means a move because this house and 4 kids? We are already busting at the seams.) Plus there is the times when family come to visit and we have to take two vehicles just to go out to eat or go anywhere. And it would be nice to have a car big enough to fit two more people in it. The boys have friends who occasionally come to visit and that would make picking them up and bringing them home easier. I can think of so many practical reasons to a bigger newer car, it just makes sense.
The sad part about it is we own the other two outright. We haven’t had a car payment in several years. So we are dragging our feet about that factor. It’s the “we’ll have another car payment again” groan. But the point is we’ll probably drive this car until it dies too, just like what we’ve done with the Accord and the CR-V. Which we’ll have to decide what to do with one of them as we only have a two car garage. (And the neighborhood HOA has street parking restrictions.)
So back to Christmas. We set up the tree a week ago. Yeah, sort of last minute but we’ve been busy and when we haven’t been busy, I’ve been too tired to do it alone. So the tree went up and then the lights on it the day before Christmas Eve. But it was still fun. The boys woke up to a Christmas Eve with lights on the tree. And that became our Christmas Day because this year we decided to open everything a day early. Part of this being because Christmas Day we were going to go to Flagstaff to spend the day with my brother and his family who moved there February 2014 of this year. It was either drive up early Christmas morning, or drive up Christmas Eve and stay with them. OR option 3, get a hotel. I opted for the hotel. (It’s not because I didn’t want to stay with family, it just made it easier for me to sleep with space and not squeezed into an air mattress on the floor somewhere.) And because sometimes I sleep really crappy I didn’t want to have to be there too early in the morning, plus they would be opening their gifts then too and I wanted to avoid the frenzy. (Not to mention getting my boys to sleep over at cousins house the day before they get up to open presents… so much fail attached to that right now with me being as big and as uncomfortable as I am.) The point is no stress. And I got it.
And that’s not the only lax thing we did. (I say lax because we cut corners all through this holiday.) We also clumped a lot of the presents for the boys into one box each. So several presents from various family members, plus mommy and daddy, all into one box per kid. Because we didn’t want to stay up late wrapping them. I haven’t been awesome super mom to wrap them as they arrived this year. So that made opening really really easy. And very little mess to clean up. But they got to open and rip something to pieces. Part of Christmas fun. And they STILL haven’t pulled everything out of the original packaging yet either. As they tend to focus on the one big gift and slowly move through them.
So we did things different this year. And honestly, it was still enjoyable and probably one of my favorite Christmas moments to be honest. Christmas Eve we drove up and I made hot chocolate for my boys (including daddy) while we watched The Polar Express. We were in a hotel room but it was cozy and the boys got to go swimming Christmas morning in the covered heated pool while I took a nap before we went over to visit family. We stayed until 8 pm that evening and drove home. We even got to have Christmas snow in the morning when we checked out. Didn’t last all the rest of the day but it was nice to have a real cold spell to be frozen over. (Phoenix is not so cold like that. It’s got its own cold.)
And now we have another week off until 2015 and back to school. And the tree will be coming down this week. Yep. That fast. Just want to have it all put away before the baby gets here. The boys have a small one in their room. I picked up a miniature one last Christmas so they could have their very own tree and leave the other one alone. And they have had that one up for most of December and I’m thinking I’ll let them keep it up a little while longer for being such good sports about everything else this year. But that was Christmas 2014 this year.
And I still have cards to get out. Doh. I’ll think of something or I’ll send out a photo saying Happy New Year. We don’t have plans for New Years yet either. Probably will just stay home and get things cleaned up and ready while Mike is home and during the half work day break. Sort of. He can work from home, but work isn’t really doing a lot right now.
He is in the same direction as his brothers are. So who knows, they broke me in that direction and this one is just going with it because it’s the most comfortable or something along those lines. Who knows. The point is he’s running out of space and he’s letting me know it. That being said he’s an interesting character and I can’t wait to meet him.
So this Christmas. We didn’t buy a ton of toys/gifts for the boys. 3 or 4 each max. I didn’t ask for anything. Last year I got a brand new MacBook Air (with a beautiful leather cover!) and the year before that a new iPhone 5S. So I figured after all the expensive gifts I got the last two years, I’d rather just enjoy the holiday with no gifts. Besides the biggest gift we are about to receive is another baby and that will have plenty of expense attached to it. Even if I’ve saved EVERYTHING from my last two boys, and even if I can still breastfeed and cloth diaper, there are all the “other” expenses coming up. So I’d just rather enjoy giving gifts to the kids this year.
With all the bonuses from Mike’s work though, it’s like this year was free anyhow. It’s okay because we’ve definitely got plenty of important changes on the doorstep.
First off being we are going to be getting a new car soon. We have a Honda Accord and a CR-V. Now with the addition of Baby #3, we need something bigger. I can’t put an infant in the backseat with two boys who have behavior issues from time to time. With all the time we spend going from appointment to appointment I just don’t want them fighting over top of him. Because they will. Ethan has a stubborn streak that just puts mine to shame at his age. I know brothers do that sort of thing, but my sanity just can’t handle that AND a screaming baby all at once. Plus the practical side of things is that it gives us more room to travel places in since we spend so much time in the car.
We want to get a Toyota Sienna. “A Swaggerwagon.” (Look it up on Youtube it’s hilarious!) I’ve swore I’d NEVER get a van but the more I think about the practical uses of having another bigger car out weighs my sense of principle. And if Alex ever ends up in a wheel chair they make a conversion package for the Sienna as well so he can literally stay in his chair and wheel up into the car. (We of course hope it never gets to that point but, it’s definitely a factor in the decision to go van.) Plus, we are still knocking around the idea of adopting a little girl. We’ll revisit this idea in a year and decide if it’s what we’d like to do. (Which also means a move because this house and 4 kids? We are already busting at the seams.) Plus there is the times when family come to visit and we have to take two vehicles just to go out to eat or go anywhere. And it would be nice to have a car big enough to fit two more people in it. The boys have friends who occasionally come to visit and that would make picking them up and bringing them home easier. I can think of so many practical reasons to a bigger newer car, it just makes sense.
The sad part about it is we own the other two outright. We haven’t had a car payment in several years. So we are dragging our feet about that factor. It’s the “we’ll have another car payment again” groan. But the point is we’ll probably drive this car until it dies too, just like what we’ve done with the Accord and the CR-V. Which we’ll have to decide what to do with one of them as we only have a two car garage. (And the neighborhood HOA has street parking restrictions.)
So back to Christmas. We set up the tree a week ago. Yeah, sort of last minute but we’ve been busy and when we haven’t been busy, I’ve been too tired to do it alone. So the tree went up and then the lights on it the day before Christmas Eve. But it was still fun. The boys woke up to a Christmas Eve with lights on the tree. And that became our Christmas Day because this year we decided to open everything a day early. Part of this being because Christmas Day we were going to go to Flagstaff to spend the day with my brother and his family who moved there February 2014 of this year. It was either drive up early Christmas morning, or drive up Christmas Eve and stay with them. OR option 3, get a hotel. I opted for the hotel. (It’s not because I didn’t want to stay with family, it just made it easier for me to sleep with space and not squeezed into an air mattress on the floor somewhere.) And because sometimes I sleep really crappy I didn’t want to have to be there too early in the morning, plus they would be opening their gifts then too and I wanted to avoid the frenzy. (Not to mention getting my boys to sleep over at cousins house the day before they get up to open presents… so much fail attached to that right now with me being as big and as uncomfortable as I am.) The point is no stress. And I got it.
And that’s not the only lax thing we did. (I say lax because we cut corners all through this holiday.) We also clumped a lot of the presents for the boys into one box each. So several presents from various family members, plus mommy and daddy, all into one box per kid. Because we didn’t want to stay up late wrapping them. I haven’t been awesome super mom to wrap them as they arrived this year. So that made opening really really easy. And very little mess to clean up. But they got to open and rip something to pieces. Part of Christmas fun. And they STILL haven’t pulled everything out of the original packaging yet either. As they tend to focus on the one big gift and slowly move through them.
So we did things different this year. And honestly, it was still enjoyable and probably one of my favorite Christmas moments to be honest. Christmas Eve we drove up and I made hot chocolate for my boys (including daddy) while we watched The Polar Express. We were in a hotel room but it was cozy and the boys got to go swimming Christmas morning in the covered heated pool while I took a nap before we went over to visit family. We stayed until 8 pm that evening and drove home. We even got to have Christmas snow in the morning when we checked out. Didn’t last all the rest of the day but it was nice to have a real cold spell to be frozen over. (Phoenix is not so cold like that. It’s got its own cold.)
And now we have another week off until 2015 and back to school. And the tree will be coming down this week. Yep. That fast. Just want to have it all put away before the baby gets here. The boys have a small one in their room. I picked up a miniature one last Christmas so they could have their very own tree and leave the other one alone. And they have had that one up for most of December and I’m thinking I’ll let them keep it up a little while longer for being such good sports about everything else this year. But that was Christmas 2014 this year.
And I still have cards to get out. Doh. I’ll think of something or I’ll send out a photo saying Happy New Year. We don’t have plans for New Years yet either. Probably will just stay home and get things cleaned up and ready while Mike is home and during the half work day break. Sort of. He can work from home, but work isn’t really doing a lot right now.