Let's talk Christmas

Are you an early shopper or a last minute person? What's on the top of the lists this year? Plans??
 
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I planned to do almost nothing this year, and tasked Kris with finding an air hockey table. Then I went a bit overboard getting the kids a bunch of small stuff (books, pyjamas, a few toys they asked for, pokemon stuff). And then Kris lost his mind and is getting them an air hockey table AND a wii U. So now I will have to venture back to the mall to return a bunch of crap. I am not buying for anyone else.
 
We are going over to a friends' house on Christmas eve, and her dad is cooking a traditional paella over the fire. Then we are going 3 hours away to visit my cousins on Boxing Day. I am looking forward to the break.. and so are the kids. They are getting crankier by the minute with all of the running around in December.

 

I'm done all my shopping.  I usually finish up with the Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales.  Doing a little less this year, trying to keep the craziness under control.  Twin A wants Madden 15 or 16?  Whatever the newest one is.  Twin B wants a Star Wars video game.  The 4 year old says he wants a machine in the garage that will pump gas into the car.  I like the way he thinks!  The baby hasn't said what she wants yet but she's getting some stuff I hope she'll like.
 
 We plan on making the trip back home for 10 days over Christmas & New Years, visit my family and my husband's.  I am NOT looking forward to 11+ hours (one way!) in the car with four kids.  :crazy:     I miss my family like crazy this time of year and there are so many years where we haven't been able to go home or won't be able to go home in the future.  Although next year I swear I'm putting my foot down and making them all come to us.  (So next year it'll just be us for Christmas with lots of guilt tripping phone calls about how we never come visit.)  Here's hoping we get to enjoy ourselves and aren't worn down from traveling and/or the stress of trying to see everyone and their brother in a short amount of time.  

 

I am an early shopper.  My mother is not.  She does all her shopping the last minute.  Last year she got the real flu.  Fainted and I had to take her to the ER in the middle of the night.  So I got to finish her shopping on zero sleep.  I think the two days before Christmas Eve between shopping, cooking, wrapping I got exactly 6 hours of sleep in 48 hours.  NEVER EVER AGAIN.  I told my mom if the shopping is not done 3 days before Christmas whoever is left gets a gift card.  I've actually done a lot of online shopping for her this year just to get it done.  Our family goes overboard on Christmas and now that I do most of it no wonder my mother was always cranky and in need of an adult drink by Christmas Eve.

 

Last minute.  I want to be an early shopper but it never seems to work out that way.  I still have not gotten anything for my husband yet.  My daughter wants the zoomer kitty (the robot cat that does stuff) and my son wants a globe and both kids want microscopes.
 
Most likely Christmas Eve we will celebrate the feast of the 7 fishes with my husband's family, we host Christmas dinner-which is a spectacle because it's like second Christmas for the kids (the perks of being the only nieces/nephews between my husband and his sisters) and then the day after is the kids birthday, so my Mom is taking them to lunch and we will do a few low key things with them.

 

I'm finished, We brought Mum a ring with her and Dad's names on it with birth stones back in September and kind of couldn't wait until Christmas so gave it to her for the anniversary of Dad's passing. I feel bad she won't have anything to open from me so I'm going to find her something small which I'll hopefully do in the next week. Everyone else besides Chloe I purchased in Vanuatu, managed to get everyone (10 people) like 4 gifts each and spent less than $500 between Chloe and I (we decided to do shared gift giving this year)! Have to love duty free shopping ☺

 

Ugh. I love Christmas, and the kids excitement. But I do too much, and that magic is dwindling…. 

The kids: Annabella asked for an iPad mini(thanks to her brothers buying their own with their birthday money), so Santa will bring that. Plus some AG stuff as well as shopkins. Anthony is more difficult, as that kid asked for an iTunes gift card from Santa. :faint: Help me out here kid! So he got an AG entertainment set for his bitty twin(Annabella will NOT be happy…, but they share anyways), some legos, a Chelsea soccer jersey, and I got him some snap circuits, or whatever they are. Nicholas is difficult in the sense that he asked for THREE items-all being impossible to find soccer jerseys. DH was able to find his most prized request(Inter alternate jersey), and got his name and number on it. Only thing is he's a size 7/8 and it's a 10/12. Let's hope he sees past that…lol! He also got some legos, a crystal growing kit, another jersey, and a Brady jersey. I'd like to think I didn't go crazy…and in amount of gifts, I probably didn't(pajamas, bathrobe as well). It's the COST of these items! Oh! And Nicholas got NHL 16. 

I actually did shopping on Black Friday and dh and I went out that Monday. So essentially we were done with the kids then. Keep finding stuff in the store! DH went out last night and got a few gift cards. He will go again on Saturday while I (stupidly) host a cookie swap. Or, we will go on Amazon and get as much as we can shipped to the house lol.

Last year I was up wrapping gifts until 5:30 am. I set my alarm for 7 am, and told the kids they were NOT to go downstairs until everyone was awake-they had to come into our room as they woke. This year, I have 70 dozen cookies due next Friday for one order, and then about another $1k in cookie orders I have to whip up right after that. I have it in my head to be done with cookies by 12/22-12/23 in hopes of having my sanity. Oh, and dh's birthday is next Saturday. 

As for plans, my mother in law will host Christmas Eve. The grandmother doesn't eat meat on Christmas Eve(per Italian tradition), so she will make some fish for that and meat for me and my mother lol. We will host Christmas dinner with upwards of 17 or so…I'm thinking we are doing a prime rib and the sides. 

Two years ago, Christmas night, we booked two nights at the casino. With the kids. IT WAS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER. Last year I cried from exhaustion, and how I was surrounded by Christmas mess, etc. I SO wish we had gone away last year. I don't care if we don't leave the house until 11 pm. Just get in the car and go! Best.Thing.EVER.

 

I'm nearly done, but not quite.  We are spending Christmas out of town (with my sister-in-law) so some stuff has been delivered to her place and some will be waiting at home to open after christmas (stuff I don't want to have to deal with trying to pack into our luggage or ship home!).  The girls are both getting kindle fires.  We decided against iPad minis because of cost and because we can control the amount of time they spend in apps on it We got Ana a kindle paper white last year and so I think I can transfer over her books saved in her "free time" account from one kindle to another (and then maybe sell her kindle?).  Since those are small and packable santa will deliver them to my sister-in-law's house for christmas morning They'll also get clothes and stocking stuffers there too.  Waiting for them at home will be a midi keyboard that they can attached to their computer or my iPad and lego mindstorm.  I know its for 10+ but I have one kid who is already learning how to computer program and wants to build robots.  The library has a group that she'll join after the holidays too to learn more about it.  
 
This seems like the year of big kid stuff instead of little toys... makes me a bit nostalgic, but makes shopping a lot easier

 

We keep Christmas pretty low key. We're doing our Activity Advent again - each day the kids open an envelope with a Christnas themed activity in it that we then do that day. Most are easy things like drink hot chocolate, color a Christmas picture, etc. Some are practical like decorate the tree, draw names for gifts, etc.

We still have most of our shopping to do. We're usually pretty last minute about it but we don't normally have a ton of stuff to buy. We keep gifts to a minimum.

We do the Christmas Eve candlelight service at my ILs church, then home to bed and Chrsitmas morning at our house, we head up to my ILs later in the morning for the rest of the day and my MIL usually hosts Christmas dinner. Justin's brother will be here this year which will be a treat. We don't get to see him often. Then we're going to get some skiing in while the girls are off for Christmas break.

 

I love that idea - I have to remember that for next Advent.
 
I did most of our shopping online this year and we are nearly done. The kids each get one big toy from us (Lego spacestation for DS, Playmobil stable for DD and an activity table for our toddler), plus lots of books and a few small gifts like Christmas ornaments. The twins' wish lists were long this year, they are in prime toy age now and old enough to plan and wish for something over more than a couple of days.
 
We are also doing more small hand-made gifts for the grown-ups in the family and a couple of close friends to cut down on the craziness and cost of shopping and make it more personal.
 
But I have just started on the Christmas cards - I never get them all mailed before Christmas. I have moved so much and like to keep in touch with my friends all over Germany and the world, but the list is daunting and gets longer every year ...
 
Our plans are always the same: We go to my mom's grave and then have breakfast with my dad on Christmas Eve in the morning. Then we all to the stables where I used to ride for a Christmas potluck brunch - it is very relaxed, the kids can run around, we can meet old friends and chat, then Santa comes for the kids and we sing a few carols. In the late afternoon we go to the nativity play in our church and then we go home, light the tree and sing, and open gifts (Christmas Eve is the main celebration here in Germany). On Christmas Day we have a leisurely day with all the gifts and with Christmas Day mass. On Boxing Day we have my dad over for a festive lunch (he is growing too old for an evening celebration and it's easier with the kids anyway). We drive to DH's parents for New Year's and spend a couple of days with them.

 

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