Merry Christmas
Well, another christmas has come and gone.
This year we decided that trying to be two places at once was not going to work. It hasn't worked in the past, and the kids have had enough of just getting settled in at one home when we have to leave to be at the other home. We decided that missing everything at both houses in trade for attempting to see everyone at once was not worth the trade. So this year we have started to try a different plan.
We spend T-day with one family and switch each year. That year we spend Xmas EVE with that same family and Xmas with the other. Then next year we switch families. This has the added benefit for the kids of being able to open a few presents on Xmas eve. But we get to spend each day with that family and really get to spend some quality time with everyone.
This seemed to work. We spend Xmas eve with my family; went to church with them, spent the day with them and made the kids wait until my sister got home from work to open their presents from the grandparents. Jb started counting the hours and minutes from noon to 7pm. When my sister called to tell us she was on the way, Jb then calculated how long it would take her to travel the distance to his grandparents home, and then began ticking off the minutes. He was pretty much right on. It's a good thing Em didn't make a stop for anything and messed up his calculations.
The next day, we had our own Xmas at home in the morning. Jb figured out the secret about SC last year and did an excellent of selling the dream to his little sister all year. S thought that a good idea would be to let him be and elf and help with stuffing the stockings on Xmas Eve. He really looked forward to that. But what she didn't anticipate was that it would temper his excitement for the Xmas morning experience. He kept getting up every 15-20 minutes and coming out until 4 am. You may ask how she knew that. Well the excitement was too much for her as well, and she couldn't drag herself to bed before that. She did check to see that Jb had actually fallen asleep first. And staying up till 3-4 am, didn't keep Jb from getting up at 7 to see when we were going to start opening presents. Since his little sister was still sleeping, we decided that we would wait until she woke up or 8 am whichever came first. 8 am came first. We then woke her up and began the day. The kids opened their present and we spent a few hours playing with them, before we had to get cleaned up and go to Grammy's home.
At my wife's family we got to spend time with all her family and we had pretty much the whole day. When we finally all got together we opened presents and the kids got to play together for quite a while. They seemed to get along better than they have in the past, which hopefully is a sign that they are maturing. The adults got to hang out and talk. My SIL packed up her troupe and had to go after a few hours. The rest of us hung out playing games and laughing until the wee hours of the morning. Jb even played with the adults and was pretty good too.
This year we received an extra special gift from some people in my family. It was pretty much the same gift we got last year from a similar group of people, with the exception that last year we didn't know who the participants were, this year we knew that they were my parents and sisters. Since I am going to school and we are without any kind of real income, Christmas the past few years have been pretty lean, and next year will be as well. We knew that coming into this program, and have been able to deal with that pretty well. But my family has taken it upon themselves to see that our kids are not left without a huge pile of presents to open on Christmas morn. Both last year and this year we were sent home with a large bag of 'extra' presents to open for our kids. This is not necessary, but is very much appreciated and we are incredibly grateful for their generosity.
Over all it was a real nice Christmas. The kids got to spend some time with some of their cousins, and both sets of grandparents. We were not rushed for once. They got some neat and cool gifts. And more importantly we really had a wonderful time with all.
I still have 2 weeks before school starts. Which is really the fun part. I will have to see about making sure that I have time off during the holidays when I graduate and set up my own practice. That is one of the things about running my own business that I am looking forward to; I am the boss, I set my schedule and I have control of when and how much I work. I also decide how much I will make. Many people don't get that part of the plan, but that is for another post.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
This year we decided that trying to be two places at once was not going to work. It hasn't worked in the past, and the kids have had enough of just getting settled in at one home when we have to leave to be at the other home. We decided that missing everything at both houses in trade for attempting to see everyone at once was not worth the trade. So this year we have started to try a different plan.
We spend T-day with one family and switch each year. That year we spend Xmas EVE with that same family and Xmas with the other. Then next year we switch families. This has the added benefit for the kids of being able to open a few presents on Xmas eve. But we get to spend each day with that family and really get to spend some quality time with everyone.
This seemed to work. We spend Xmas eve with my family; went to church with them, spent the day with them and made the kids wait until my sister got home from work to open their presents from the grandparents. Jb started counting the hours and minutes from noon to 7pm. When my sister called to tell us she was on the way, Jb then calculated how long it would take her to travel the distance to his grandparents home, and then began ticking off the minutes. He was pretty much right on. It's a good thing Em didn't make a stop for anything and messed up his calculations.
The next day, we had our own Xmas at home in the morning. Jb figured out the secret about SC last year and did an excellent of selling the dream to his little sister all year. S thought that a good idea would be to let him be and elf and help with stuffing the stockings on Xmas Eve. He really looked forward to that. But what she didn't anticipate was that it would temper his excitement for the Xmas morning experience. He kept getting up every 15-20 minutes and coming out until 4 am. You may ask how she knew that. Well the excitement was too much for her as well, and she couldn't drag herself to bed before that. She did check to see that Jb had actually fallen asleep first. And staying up till 3-4 am, didn't keep Jb from getting up at 7 to see when we were going to start opening presents. Since his little sister was still sleeping, we decided that we would wait until she woke up or 8 am whichever came first. 8 am came first. We then woke her up and began the day. The kids opened their present and we spent a few hours playing with them, before we had to get cleaned up and go to Grammy's home.
At my wife's family we got to spend time with all her family and we had pretty much the whole day. When we finally all got together we opened presents and the kids got to play together for quite a while. They seemed to get along better than they have in the past, which hopefully is a sign that they are maturing. The adults got to hang out and talk. My SIL packed up her troupe and had to go after a few hours. The rest of us hung out playing games and laughing until the wee hours of the morning. Jb even played with the adults and was pretty good too.
This year we received an extra special gift from some people in my family. It was pretty much the same gift we got last year from a similar group of people, with the exception that last year we didn't know who the participants were, this year we knew that they were my parents and sisters. Since I am going to school and we are without any kind of real income, Christmas the past few years have been pretty lean, and next year will be as well. We knew that coming into this program, and have been able to deal with that pretty well. But my family has taken it upon themselves to see that our kids are not left without a huge pile of presents to open on Christmas morn. Both last year and this year we were sent home with a large bag of 'extra' presents to open for our kids. This is not necessary, but is very much appreciated and we are incredibly grateful for their generosity.
Over all it was a real nice Christmas. The kids got to spend some time with some of their cousins, and both sets of grandparents. We were not rushed for once. They got some neat and cool gifts. And more importantly we really had a wonderful time with all.
I still have 2 weeks before school starts. Which is really the fun part. I will have to see about making sure that I have time off during the holidays when I graduate and set up my own practice. That is one of the things about running my own business that I am looking forward to; I am the boss, I set my schedule and I have control of when and how much I work. I also decide how much I will make. Many people don't get that part of the plan, but that is for another post.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.