Wake Up, It's Christmas!

Merry, merry, merry Christmas from the Fertitta, party of four!

Shew, we are right in the thick of the Christmas magic ages.  At 5.5 and 2.5, these girls were all about His birthday, all about Santa, all about Elf on the Shelf, all about coming down those stairs Christmas morning.  Much more than last year.  I really miss those extra two hours of sleep.  Now I know to put that on my Christmas list for next year.

More sleep was exactly what was needed after staying up until 2 a.m. on Christmas morning finishing up things for the girls.  A lot of my gifts didn't arrive until after the girls and I had already left for West Virginia, so Sam had 1.2 million Amazon Prime boxes waiting for me when I got home late on Christmas Eve, all hiding out in the guest bedroom.   Seriously, what did we do before online shopping and free two-day shipping?  (Sam is reading this and saying, "We had a lot less cardboard.  That's what."  ha!

After the girls were fast asleep, I finished wrapping up the few gifts of theirs I had left to do (and the many for other folks that were still unwrapped).  To be honest, maybe I wasn't even in a hurry.  I had on a YouTube playlist that I created last year with some of my favorite non-traditional Christmas songs by Kari Jobe and Francesca Battistelli, and I just sang along and gave thanks.  Maybe it was sleep deprivation, but moreso I think it is because Christmas becomes so much more special once you're a parent, but I couldn't help but cry.  I had tears streaming down my face as I gave thanks for these babies He's given me to parent, to love on, to spoil, to surprise.  How great a gift of which I am so undeserving.  It is often in these quiet moments that I feel the full force of motherly love, this full human experience of parenting.  I finally summoned Sam up from the basement to survey my handiwork and laugh at my sentiment.  He came up and saw the Santa gift laid out, and our four sets of presents for each girl.  

He said, "I'm really proud of us, babe."

Aww, so sweet.  He loves my color-coordinated packages.

"Those are some pretttttttttyyyy pitiful piles."

So true.  They were pretty pitiful piles!  Part of me felt a little bad about that, but then part of me felt proud, too.  I'm sure when I talked Sam into we thoughtfully discussed this trip that Sam figured that I would say that the cruise would be their big gift, but then it'd be the week before Christmas, and I'd feel bad and go buy a bunch of stuff.  I scored some major points because while that did cross my mind, I stuck to my guns.  We don't need more toys in our house.  We don't need children that are already quite spoiled to feel even more entitled.  And really, we don't want the massive pile of presents to be all Christmas is about. 

Santa brought the girls each a "car seat" to attach to their bicycles with a matching dolly helmet.  Sweet Aunt Betsy bought them American Girl dolls, and now they can come along on a ride with them!  In addition to our adoption of the Four Gift Christmas last year, we also decided that Santa would give each girl one gift, unwrapped, and likely not their "Big Gift."  Santa loves them, yes, but not as much as Mom and Dad do, and we want to reinforce that every chance we get. 

Sissy Snuggles on Christmas morning

 

And despite the hesitance in my heart over "how their Christmas morning would turn out," there were still lots of smiles.  And lots of hugs.  And lots of thank yous.  At the very end of their opening time, we told them there was one more present left.  Their mermaid dresses and new Keen sandals were a hint.  They opened up their 'big gift' together, and pulled out matching mermaid tails and their cruise countdown.  Of course, they had no idea what that meant.  So, we excitedly spelled it out for them.  To really help them understand, we pulled up the cheesy YouTube video tour of the Norwegian Star.

Then things got a little more exciting!  The water slides and restaurants are what they seemed most excited about.  It was the crazy, "we won the lottery!" reaction, but it was sweet.  And you know, just as I am hoping this teaches this some delayed gratification, it is teaching that to me as well.  I'm forgoing the immediate satisfaction of seeing Christmas morning bonkers for a week's worth of memories with my girls.  Ones that I am positive they will remember more than Christmas morning.  But, I do hope they remember this, too.  :)