Saved the Best (or Most Annoying) For Last

Although I set and stuck to a budget this Christmas, I couldn't help but feeling a bit overwhelmed as I was placing the wrapped gifts under the tree a few days before Christmas morning. Many of them were just little things, but I started to think there were too many presents for each one to be fully appreciated.

So I hid two of them high up in the branches of the tree.

Then I forgot about them!

After the chaos of opening presents was over, we had all eaten breakfast, and were sitting around feeling fat and happy, I suddenly rememered about them! I called Mitchell over and told him I thought I saw one last present hiding in the tree. His face lit up and he went running into the Christmas room. After a few minutes, he came skipping back in with a small, wrapped gift clutched in his hands, and a huge grin on his face. "Mom! You were right! There is one last one left and it has my name on it!"

I had actually not only forgotten I put one there, but also what was in it, so I was almost as excited as Mitchell was! When he tore off the paper, he discovered a neat little wooden box with a shiny harmonica in it. "Oh mom! This was JUST what I was wanting! I thought you forgot!"

We then experienced the excitement of an unexpected and hidden gift all over again when Ben got in on the action and discovered his nestled in the branches as well.

I think I will always save a small gift and hide it up in the tree for later. I'm pretty sure that was Mitchell's favorite gift this year!

The Season of Giving

Mitchell loves his school friends. He finally prefers some of them to adults.

Lately, he has been excited about giving them special gifts. He has quite a bit of time after Jack has gone to bed and before Ben gets home to plan who gets what and what he will give each day. Most times, he just draws them a picture, puts their name on it, folds it up tightly, puts it in an envelop (which also needs their name on it), and carries it to the park, where all his friends are also waiting for their older siblings to get out of school. Last week, he even handed out some of my extra Christmas cards.

Sometimes though, he is in a more generous mood and he digs through his multiple treasure boxes, looking for something that is special enough to be a gift, but not so special that he can't part with it. Sometimes, not wanting to part with a jewel or sharp stick or old belt buckle, he makes a treasure out of something normally not considered one.

Today, one friend gets a tongue depressor, another gets a rock. Merry Christmas, best friends! You can cross "rock" off your Christmas list!

To be fair to my thoughtful boy, he did write their names on their gifts. He also drew a knife on the tongue depressor and a picture of himself and his friend on the smooth rock. Judging by these same friends' reactions to the earlier pictures, I think they're gonna like these...

The Christmas Room

I know many of you love Christmas decorations. You love to get the boxes out as early as you can and for a month, (or more for some of you if you can manage it somehow) you love seeing your house covered from top to bottom in lights, flowers, wreaths, reindeer, candles, trees, fake snow, snow globes, santas, snowmen, and all manner of twinkly, fragrant, red, green, gold, and silver decorations.

I am not one of those people. I am, unfortunately, a bit... decorationally-challenged. I love to see someone else's beautiful home decorated well. I actually like tasteful outdoor decoration (when I say tasteful, anything that requires its own pump to keep it up is most definitely NOT included!) And I have a handful of items I love inside my house: a tree and my nativity set are the main ones.

But in my own home, most Christmas decoration is just festive clutter - something else to buy and dust and straighten. I, find myself cringing as I pull out the boxes thinking, "Man... where in the world am I going to put this stuff that will be out of the way, won't tempt little fingers to explore it, and won't tempt me to clean the house every single day?" And I have to put it all away again in a month!

This year, I found the perfect solution! We decided to put up our tree in a room that was formerly the "fort room." This room has not been used for anything really since the boxes were finally all flattened and stored. But we did some rearranging and now this room has some comfy furniture, a beautiful Christmas tree, and almost ALL my decorations! Christmas kinda threw up in there!

I love this solution because it gives us a Christmasy place to enter when needing a little bit more Christmas in our day. The boys love it because it is how they would love EVERY room to look!

We are suddenly moving our favorite books in there and there is now a bin of blocks in there. Ben does his daily reading curled up under a blanket in there. The ornaments on the tree have become their new favorite toys and they all have names and occupations and keep having tree climbing contests (the ornaments, not the boys.)

I am so thankful to be in this house and be able to have an out-of-the-way-yet-still-convenient room to make-over in this way. And I have to say, we are all having so much fun with the Christmas room, I find the decorations slowly leaking out of there and finding homes in other rooms. Perhaps the joy it all brings my boys is worth the inconvenience of clutter for me.

And candles really are pretty...

Stinky Stockings

I have been shopping for Christmas stockings for years now. Every fall, I start shopping. Every Christmas comes along and I have, once again, waited too long to order them and we make do with old tube socks, the way my family intentionally did every Christmas (which is special in its own way.)

But this year, I finally found exactly what I was looking for for an AMAZING deal, and pounced on it! As they were going to be hand made and personalized (and I needed FIVE of them), I knew I had to order now before the Christmas rush began. So a couple weeks ago, I picked out the colors I wanted and ordered them!

Today, they arrived! I had almost forgotten about them, to tell you the truth, and when Mitchell came running inside with a FedEx box (he checks the mail 3 or 4 times a day for packages from his grandparents), I had no idea what was inside!

The moment I ripped open the top, all 4 of us wrinkled our noses and said, "Whew!" Smelled like someone mailed us a smoker! I would only have been mildly surprised to pull out a bag of smoked cigarettes!

Instead of cigarettes (smoke sticks, as the boys call them), inside were individually wrapped, personalized, and BEAUTIFUL hand made Christmas stockings! I couldn't believe how quickly she made these, how quality they were, and yet how SMELLY they were! I can't decide if I am pleased or repelled!

I'd share the link with you for how to order some of your own (that's how great I think they are besides the granny cigarette stench), but that smell is almost a deal breaker!

On a positive note, the boys had a blast using up a bottle of Febreeze on them. They are now hanging around on the front porch until they air out a bit. Will that smell ever truly go away? I sure hope so.

Just Let Me Be Mad!!!

Tomorrow, we are off on our Christmas vacation!  The big boys are beside themselves with excitement.  Not only do they get to take a plane trip (as if they haven't done enough of those in their short lives) and see both sets of grandparents, they get to do Christmas all over again with both sets!  What's not to love about that?!

Notice I only said the "big" boys are excited.  Jack has no idea what is going on, and I'm sure doesn't really care much about two Christmases, but he is most definately not excited these past couple days!

My normally happy, peaceful, easy-going baby has fallen upon tough times, I'm afraid.  Let me list for you his ailements:

1 ear infection

1 nasty case of diaper rash covering the entire diaper region

1 common cold complete with constantly dripping nose and cough

3 molars breaking through the skin

1 hole through his lower lip (which is now healing and, I assume, itching like mad now!)

Let me tell you, this guy cannot be consoled!  He does not want to be held/snuggled/sat in my lap.  If I try that, he wriggles with all his might until he is just a heap on the floor.  He does not want a toy.  Don't try to give him one unless you want it thrown right back at your nose!  He doesn't want his big brothers to tickle him or try to interact with him in any way.  They get their hair pulled or head smacked if they get too close.  

Seriously, we have tried everything to make him forget his pain and discomfort, but he is not having any of it!  The only thing he wants to do is sit alone on the floor, point at me (as if I purposely did this to him!), make a mean face, and cry/whine at me!  The tone to the whole thing is, "Don't try to make me happy!  Don't touch me!  Don't you dare smile at me!  I am so MAD!"  

It appears he has inherited both a bit of Mitchell's attitude and also Ben's drama and is letting them both combine in his misery.  Poor little boy... Please get well soon!

My Favorite Stocking Stuffer

Nothing says "Merry Christmas!" like a pooping polar bear.  

The boys are having quite a bit of fun with these and I keep finding nuggets all over the living room.  Don't worry, they taste like root beer...

Just Doing A Little Re-Arranging

Because we are traveling to see family this year, Christmas is coming early to the Norquist family  Don't worry, we've already alerted Santa.

For obvious reasons (Jack), I have not put the presents out until just last night, but with the amount of fun the big boys are having with the presents even still in their wrappings, I wish I could have put them out weeks ago!

Ever since they discovered them this morning, the boys have been shaking, guessing, sorting, laughing, and constantly re-arranging their piles of presents.  Ben especially keeps coming up with new ways to group his loot: size, color of paper, weight...  At one point, I asked him what he was so busy with over there and he said, "Oh, just doing a little re-arranging!"

And They Play Christmas Music Too!

We bought my Christmas present early this year.  Do I care that there was no element of surprise or that I have no present under the tree?  Nope!  I'd much rather get something I really want/need and start using it the day it gets here, rather than wasting wrapping paper and waiting weeks.

I have been so grateful for my new boots every morning when I slosh through the snow and slush on our walk to school.  They were a tad more expensive than other boots of their kind, but they were the ones I wanted and they were my Christmas gift!

They have been well worth the money already, but this morning, I discovered a brand new feature I didn't realize they had!  I left Jack playing with my IPhone on the floor while I refilled my coffee cup, and when I returned, I found a grinning Jack, no visible phone, and a singing boot!  From the dark depths of my tall, black boot came the sounds of Bing Crosby crooning "Oh, Holy Night!"  Jack thought it was pretty funny and we played that game all morning until time to wake the big boys for school.

Building a Small Village

Are you familiar with those little Christmas villages some people collect and decorate with?  Some have a piece or two, while others have dozens covering an entire table or mantle with the town they have collected, complete with ice-skating ponds, carolers, post office, grocery store, giant Christmas tree, etc...

Well, my kitchen counter tops are beginning to resemble one of these collections, and I am feeling a bit gigantic looking down on the town forming around me.  

A few days ago, Matt and I decided the boys would just love making their own gingerbread houses.  I got some supplies, got it all set out, then fully intended to stand back and let Matt and the boys create some masterpieces together.  One look at Matt's plan for Mitchell's house though, and I decided I had better step in and help Ben with his if I wanted it to have any resemblance to a real house (only slightly kidding here, Matt.  You and Mitchell were really on the same page with this!  Mountains of M&Ms on the roof, lava in the front yard, and a giant robot monster gingerbread man in the yard are really not traditional in this activity, but are so "Mitchell" that how can one argue?)  

It just looked like too much fun in the end to stand back and cringe every time frosting got plopped on the floor, walls crumbled to pieces all over every imaginable surface, M&Ms scattered and rolled under refrigerators and tables and cabinets.  If I have to clean this gluey, sticky mess up, I might as well get my hands dirty and get creative myself!

Well, that turned out to be just "phase 1" of the home-building project.  

Today, after Mitchell acted out being a "storm" and completely demolished his house and surrounding... decorations, we decided to tromp back to the store for further supplies.  The theme this time (chosen by the boys, not me) is ogre houses in the swamp.  My instructions as I walked the boys to school this morning were "Make sure you get ogre stuff, mom!  We need green frosting and worms and bugs and eyeballs and that kind of stuff!  Do you think you can find green frosting?"

So in addition to one normal house, one house post-tornado, and several oddly decorated gingerbread men on the side, we now add ogre huts to our "Christmas village" and I think round 3 will have to spread out into the dining room (or else we'll have to pretend to be giants and start eating.)

So It Begins

Needing something to do today to get out of the house, Mitchell, Jack, and I headed off to the craft store.  I can always use something from there and we needed an excuse to get out.  Mitchell LOVES the craft store, mainly because there is always some holiday close enough for this type of store to just go nuts over it.  For the last couple months, it has been all the Halloween decorations that have enthralled him - spooky costumes, skeletons, costume "weapons" and anything "haunted" (which to him, just means scary) were his favorite points of interest.  But I am finding out that was nothing compared to what is coming.

When we walked through the doors, Mitchell's eyes got as wide as can be and he just stared.  He literally stopped moving and just stared.  I feel like we were just there a couple days ago, but since then, the place has completely transformed into Christmas land!  He was too young last year, and we were busy with a new baby and just didn't get out as much during this season, so I think this really hit him as something never seen before.  Once his thoughts caught up to his initial physical reaction, he exclaimed, "Mom!  It's already Christmas in here!  Let's stay here all day!"

Oh Mitchell, you have made my day.  Yes, it is a bit early to be so excited about Christmas, but you have captured for me what Christmas can mean to a child.  He was so enchanted by every last thing on the shelves.  Each one was magical and worthy of complete inspection and discussion.  He was trying reindeer antlers on Jack, putting on Santa hats, ringing loud bells, rubbing sparkles off ornaments and onto his face, literally skipping up and down isles, shaking snow globes, asking questions, looking for Baby Jesus, and keeping Jack and me quite entertained.  

His top picks (for me to buy for him for making our house look just like this store) were:

reindeer antlers for baby Jack

a GIANT tree

loud jingle bells for the door

a cheesy snowman/penguin candle

a giant ornament covered in loose sparkles that were falling off everywhere

cookie decorating kit

Santa costume 

a dog elf costume (I don't think he  knows what an elf is or that it was for a dog)

No, I did not actually buy any of this stuff.  He actually wasn't upset by that at all.  He was just having way too much fun "shopping for cool stuff" as he put it, and didn't seem to have any expectation of actually buying it.  

I remember when Christmas was so enchanting for me and I can't remember when it lost that magic exactly.  Since then though, this is what I have been waiting for: to see my kids' faces light up over the things that have lost their luster for me and do my best to establish traditions (some borrowed from my childhood, some new) for them that will only  make this season even more special and meaningful for them.  Thank you for brightening my day with your enthusiasm and childlike wonder, Mitchell!  We will definitely be back soon!