Our 'first' family Christmas

If there's one thing I've learned being a parent for almost 12 years, it's that you've got to be flexible and traditions are made to be tweaked.

When my kids were first born we lived in Texas, a good day or two of driving. Being on our own, we were free to start any tradition we wanted for holidays and birthdays. After 3 1/2 years on our own with the kids, we moved back to be near family and the area I grew up. We then had to sort out some new traditions and how to do things now that we had others around with hopes and expectations as well. Brian's family has always done Christmas on Christmas Eve, so that was a no brainer. The only question is what time do we show up, what time are we eating and what time is Mass for those that are attending that day. Christmas Day had always been more of a wild card. For the last 5+ years, we've stayed home on Christmas Day, just our immediate family. It was our day to do whatever we wanted together and enjoy the time and gifts, just us with no rushing or having to be somewhere. We tended to get together with my mom's family on a different day (usually due to work schedules and other people's plans). Well, my mom lost her dad last December and is now looking at how to 'tweak' her family traditions without her parents around. She decided that it was very important to her that she be with her kids and their families on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. To me the day we get together is not important and I couldn't quite understand why she needed one of those two days that have been spoken for for years now. Then it hit me, it doesn't matter to me what day, so we chose to move our immediate family Christmas to the first Saturday or Sunday after the kids get out of school. This way we still get our day just the 4 of us, everyone else gets a day that they want and honestly, it means the kids get their gifts almost a week earlier than everyone else (what kid would complain about that?).

So yesterday was the day. Santa is still coming on his regularly scheduled night, so there was no early morning rising for anyone (which is a gift to me whether I'm pregnant or not). Brian had a 10 Titans game so he was up early. I joined him around 9:30 because the babies were starving. We woke Logan up at 10 so he could watch the game with his dad and Ciera slept until 10:30. I made Cinnabon Streussel muffins (my favorite) and we opened gifts during halftime. Waiting for us under the tree was a 'new' family tradition, a box of See's chocolates put together with all of our favorites (I was wrong on what some of the favorites are, but now I know for next year). That held us over until the game was finished and Brian went to pick up our 'Christmas Meal'. The other perk to celebrating on a different day is that everything is open. We decided to order a Giant pizza (pepperoni, mushroom and olive) that we could eat all day. We didn't use fancy dishes or have a lot of prep/clean-up, but we did have a very nice lunch together at the table-with no TV on.

After lunch we tried out the new games that were sent from STE and her parents. Blokus was a lot of fun and we played 3 rounds before moving on to another activity (pretty good for us). A bit later we gave Fluxx a try. I was very concerned that Logan would hate this game. Logan likes rules and doesn't like change. Fluxx is a card game where the rules and goal changes throughout the game. It really sounded like he'd leave angry. He LOVED it, and even played several rounds with just me later in the evening. I was also able to talk them all into 2 rounds of Skipbo.

Ciera received her much desired laptop and spent some time playing with the settings with her dad. She even cleared away the garbage off her desk to make room for it (something I'd been asking her to do for a week). Logan received Guitar Hero World Tour, so the kids and I rocked the house while Brian watched the rest of his Titan's game (which they won). We played until Logan's foot got tired playing the drums and Ciera's arm got sore playing bass. Some of you may remember the really heavy box we brought home on the top of the van on Black Friday. Well that was a pool/ping pong table. I had my brother come Saturday night to assemble it as a gift to Brian. The 3 of them spent a lot of time in the freezing cold garage playing pool together on Sunday as well.

We watched Leatherheads (yawn) and Forest Gump together as well. The kids really enjoyed Forest Gump. It was finally time to call it a day at 11, as Brian still had to get up to work Monday morning. Logan learned how to 'finger crochet' at school and spent 30 minutes in our bed snuggling, watching a show and crocheting before falling asleep. Ciera went right to her room and played around with her computer some more before reading some more Tale of Desperaux. I convinced her to reread it before we see the movie on Tuesday.

I on the other hand, desperately needed a hot bath. My calves hurt so bad from the leg cramps the previous night and my pelvic area was hurting pretty good again. By evening I had to very carefully get up out of a chair. A hot bath and a couple of chapters read, I was feeling much better, except the babies were hungry again. I had a quick snack, peeked at a sleeping Logan and said goodnight again to Ciera.

It was exactly the day I was hoping for. Ciera and I stayed in PJ's all day, Logan didn't have to comb his hair and Brian could shower just because he wanted to. I think we all had a nice day. I didn't even get heartburn until right before bed. The babies were very active, but gentle.

I hope everyone can enjoy their Christmas as much as we did this year!