Christmas Catch-Up

Christmas was a fun day. Christmas Eve we went to my in-laws house in the afternoon. There the younger kids played games and decorated cookies for Santa and the older kids played ping pong and wii. We had dinner together as a family and it was a great way to get into the whole Christmas Eve hype. The kids also received their gift from Huz's parents.

Going into the whole holiday season, we were prepared for a wide array of emotions, both ours and all of the kids:) We knew that the whole celebration could set off some raw emotions and memories for the boys. We knew that they had some vision of what an American Christmas would look like, and unless we could read their minds, no matter how incredible it might be, it would not be what they had envisioned. We weren't sure how they would handle that. Our girls know how Christmas works at our house, so that was not a big deal. The trick with them was making sure that they understood that the boys may receive a couple more things than they were going to receive. This was for a couple of reasons: 1) the boys have nothing to play with. 2) the boys need age appropriate toys and younger age level toys. 3) we wanted them to have something from Ukraine. And us? Well, it's still hard, no matter how you try to prepare yourself, when you try your very best to provide a wonderful and memorable Christmas with the right balance of holiday hype and Jesus' birth and the kids don't respond well.

On Christmas Eve, our tradition is to give the kids either pajamas, slippers, or a bathrobe, along with a book. The idea is that they will put their pjs on and read their book and go to bed like sweet little angels. We may also give them melatonin to assist with that. We do not gift wrap the melatonin. Maybe we should though, and address that gift to Huz and Wif. hahaha.

This year the kids were each getting a pair of slippers. We knew this would be our first no win situation with BoyOne. All the girls were getting big fuzzy slippers that look like they are wearing stuffed animals on their feet. BoyTwo was getting a pair of Trans Former slippers. BoyOne wears a size 9 shoe. He is 14. He is a big boy, wanting to be a big boy, but still desperately needing to be a kid a lot of the time. Well, we couldn't find him any big, fuzzy, animal slippers, nor were we sure that he would want those. We opted to get him a pair of black house slippers similar to the pair Huz has that he is always 'borrowing'. We figured that no matter what we gave him, he would want the opposite, either because he wanted to be a 'kid' or because we were 'treating' him like a kid and he is a big kid. Make sense?

Side note, BoyOne and One participated in the wrapping of boxed gifts. This is one of the life skills that is on their list to pass off. BoyOne was darling during this time. He was sooooooo concerned about getting it absolutely. positively. perfect. He accidentally tore the wrapping paper about a 1/4 of an inch and after that refused to cut the paper, saying, 'I scary!!' Which translates into him saying he is too scared to do it. We talked about how if I did a crap job wrapping his gift, would he decide to not accept the gift, based on the wrapping paper? Heck no!! He would still want his gift. Besides, he did such a great job that it didn't even matter. He was stressing over centering the piece of tape horizontally between the two pieces of paper. Yeah. He is a perfectionist. It was so sweet. He told me he had never wrapped a gift before.

Back to Christmas Eve. BoyTwo was priceless!! The girls were pretty pumped, as they know what to expect. They, like me, are a little nerdy and love to get new books. They are also girls and therefore love to get any type of clothing or shoe. BoyTwo picked up on the enthusiasm and the poor kid could hardly stand the suspense. We let them all open their slippers first and at the same time. Each pair of slippers was inside a box. The girls ripped (literally) their boxes open to get to the loot. Huz and I were both watching BoyTwo, you know the whole first Christmas thing, and boy, was he a treat. He ripped the paper off his box, then in true Olympic form, jumped to his feet holding his box with both hands above his head and yelled, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' That's right people. The kid thought he got a box. And he was thrilled. That was my favorite part of Christmas:) You can imagine how excited he was when he saw that he could actually OPEN the box and find something inside!

As we suspected, BoyOne was disappointed with his slippers. We explained that we are able to return them to the store and look for a different pair for him. Again, wishing I could post pictures. I have a priceless one of all six kids sitting on the couch together holding their new books, wearing their new slippers and big, huge, excited smiles. And then there is sourpuss on the end. It's pretty funny. I'm guessing that he was disappointed that he got boring slippers along with being disappointed with himself for being disappointed. Follow?

Christmas morning, fortunately, did not begin too early. Two was up first at 7 and she woke up BoyTwo because she saw he had received exactly what he had asked for from Santa. We made them come into our room until 8 when everyone else started to trickle down the stairs. I'm a mean mom and make everyone brush their teeth before going out. But really. They all like to sit on my lap and hug me and stand nose to nose when we talk and I about suffocate from all the bad breath if we don't make them brush first. All the kids received one toy from Santa, one toy from mom and dad, and a stocking which held fruit, mini m and ms, and the notorious nerf gun. The boys' stockings also included a little Lego kit thing to build a car and airplane and some matchbox cars. We also tried something new this year and gave them each an outfit and something 'active.' Their active gift was a tennis racket for each (Huz is a passionate tennis player) except Two who already has a racket. She got a basketball. The kids also each get $5 to spend at the dollar store where they buy a gift for each of their siblings. I'm not sure why we don't do all of our Christmas shopping at the dollar store as those random trinkets are often the prized present for the year. The kids were all happy with their gifts, with the exception of BoyOne who was not happy at all that in addition to his other gifts, he had received three more books.At first he wouldn't even open the books. He would hold it up, scowling, and say, 'This book. I book.' Translation, 'I know this is a book. You already gave me a book yesterday. Lame.' By the afternoon, he'd had time to think things through and was so sweet. He kept telling us thank you and then used the translator on the computer to type the following message:

'BoyTwo and I are very pleased with our gifts. Thank you mom and dad for Christmas.'

melt.