Festivities

Someone once called me "festive." That's a lot of pressure to live up to. This Christmas, I think I give myself a B- in that department. I got the decorations up, planned 2 parties for Samuel's birthday, and hosted Christmas with the Lundgrens, but none of the actual outcomes were quite what I had planned.

First, my mom came home from Utah with me and we threw together Sam's birthday party for the next day. I had crazy visions of the kids making their own super hero capes out of pillowcases (marrying Sam's two favorite passions: crafts and super hero dress-up). Reality hit, so my mom borrowed my friend's sewing machine and made capes for all the boys. I ironed their first initials on the capes.
I had played up their reaction to the capes in my head as "Oh Wow! A cape with MY initial on it! Thank you Samuel's mother! This is the best party favor EVER!" but the reaction was a little mellow. I had sent them on a scavenger hunt to find them, so when the shower curtain was flung back to reveal them hanging there, the boys were looking everywhere else for what they thought the treasure would be. I think candy would have caused a bigger reaction. Oh well. I remind myself that it's not about me, right?




Samuel was in his first real Christmas pageant...that I didn't get to see because Evan got sick. I stayed home to take care of him and to get ready for the youth group Christmas party at our house later that night.

I hear that Sam did not go unnoticed in the performance...someone said that she was surprised that Evan and I couldn't hear him at home because of how loud he sang. The high schoolers brought orange white elephant gifts, so I went with all orange food. I made cupcakes with orange frosting and jello jigglers and buffalo chicken, etc. Sam helped decorate a little bit.




We had some friends over for dinner on Sam's actual birthday, and it kind of took the steam out of his first party because he suddenly decided to not consider it "real" because it wasn't on his real birthday. That's a fun argument to have with a 5-year-old..."This isn't your real birthday party! We already had it last week, REMEMBER? Remember how late Grandma and I stayed up working on it? This is NOT your birthday party, we are not having Spiderman cupcakes!" We did end up having a cake with Spiderman on it...which sidelined my idea of celebrating Jesus' birthday with the kids on Christmas--we were sick of cupcakes and I didn't want to add any further confusion to the birthday party situation.


I had more visions and plans for homemade Christmas gifts for everyone--once again imagining exclamations of "Wow! You MADE this? For Me? This was the most THOUGHTFUL gift EVER!" Once again, reality hit and I was lucky to have thrown together stockings and gifts for the few people we actually saw on Christmas (yes, I still have shopping left for the people we didn't see). And, I forgot to get Jeremy a gift from the boys. Oops. (on a sidenote, though, I did score him a down vest for 60% off the next day, so it paid to procrastinate). We did manage to team up and create this:

A craft table for the boys fashioned out of two dressers I found on the side of the road and a portion of a countertop taken from a monstrous countertop that Jeremy got at a junk store and drove home on the top of his Subaru (he held onto it with one hand while driving--it was like 12 feet long at least and weighed a ton--I'm not sure what he would have done if it had started to slip). Once again, I don't need to tell you the reactions I had IMAGINED in my head vs. how the big reveal actually went...I will just say that we had to point out the desk and chairs because the boys were too distracted by the Scooby Doo sketch pads from the dollar store on top. The chairs need a little work and new cushions, but they were scrounged from the snow in the Salvation Army yard.

I had planned to make all sorts of Christmas cookies with the boys...these were all I came up with and I can't decide whether they were good or not. They are rice-krispy treat style wreaths made with cornflakes instead of Rice Krispies. I went a little heavy on the marshmallows and they were quite...sticky. I did let them have hot cocoa.


We made it to the Christmas Eve service at church, where Jeremy was the speaker. The kids were good and Jeremy did great despite being sick--especially the part when he said, "God Rest Ye Jerry Bentlemen" (it wasn't a joke).


The boys enjoyed Santa coming and finding baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning. Samuel told me that Santa wasn't real, but he must have realized he might not get any Santa gifts if he continued talking about it, so he played along for my sake--I mean Evan's sake.
I didn't want Christmas day to be full of people sitting around breathing stale air amidst wrapping paper scraps and dirty dishes, but after a pep talk from Jeremy, I realized that that's what Christmas is. I mean, it's not the REAL meaning of Christmas, but it is what the holiday is and is supposed to be because it means that people are together and cared to get gifts and no one has to go to work and it is snowy outside and we are BLESSED! I find that I am able to experience the Christmas feeling more in the days leading up to Christmas...going to the Rescue Mission or looking at lights or taking the decorations out of the boxes and explaining their meaning to the kids. On Christmas day, in the middle of all the chaos, Evan came up to me and whispered, "I found baby Jesus in the manger. Come and see!" which made it all worth it. Then he asked if he could play with baby Jesus, which seemed like it would ruin the moment, but it didn't because he was so sweet and tender and didn't rip off the swaddling clothes to laugh at baby Jesus' Cabbage Patch Kid butt.
The day after Christmas, we went to Williams with Jeremy's parents to see some of their friends and eat at their restaurant.
Jack and I took the kids over to the train station to see the Polar Express (Jeremy was at home, sick) and Jack bought the kids little toy locomotives. Even though they didn't get to see, much less ride the train, they loved the lights and decorations and Evan keeps talking about his "new favorite Polar Express."
So, I think the holiday was a success, despite me not living up to my own expectations of what "festive" is. And, a friend reminded me that having a baby in a barn probably did not live up to Mary's expectations of her first birth experience, but look at the fun and specialness of retelling the story to our children generation after generation. It just wouldn't have been the same if Jesus had been born in a bed or a hospital or a crowded inn. That wouldn't have made for very cute Christmas pageants, either :)