Is it too early to be in a holiday funk?

I was so excited for the Christmas Season to get here this year. I was ready. I had big plans. I was going to rock the season out this year. It seemed fitting, because my plan is to return to school next fall, so this is the last year I am going to be at home full time.

Then life happened. A. caught a cold, and shared it. My car needed new tires and an alignment. A. started breaking out in hives that I can't really explain. (At first we thought it was her antibiotic, but it has now been 72 hours since her last dose and she is still getting them intermittently.) Benedryl is causing A. To sleep in weird doses, and I keep waking to check on her, so in the last three days I probably haven't slept more than two hours at a time and wake up is sometime between 4:30 and 7. There was driving white knuckled to the in-law's house in torrential rain and pea soup fog. Because I feel unwell my house looks like no one has been cleaning, because no one has been cleaning. Several of our acts of kindness got pushed aside (it is hard to collect trash in the neighborhood when it is pouring, and playing with Grandma trumps writing to a solider). And I seem to have tweaked my back either hefting the tree, or the third row seats in my car, or some combination there of.

So, while I am not Grinch-like, I am having a hard time summoning up a lot of holiday spirit. All I want is to lay down and sleep. Hopefully to wake and find the housekeeping fairies have been to my house while I napped. For A.'s doctor to identify her source of allergic reaction definitively. And it could be nice if I won the lottery while I am piling up the wishful thinking.

Alas, I am the mom. A single mom at that. So I will drag myself up, swallow a handful of Tylenol and some coffee, pull on my big girl panties and use the early wake up time to blog then do laundry. I will drag the girl to the doctor's office and then to her hair appointment and our appointment for holiday pictures. Hacking all the way.

Look at all the lovely ornaments, where do they all come from?

When I first moved out of my parents house I, like many newly minted adults, had absolutely no Christmas tree ornaments. I was also broke, so buying a lot of new ornaments at $3-7 a pop was out of the question. So I bought a bunch of ball ornaments. I tried to get fancy ones that had glitter and snowmen (or something) on them. They were better than nothing, but not as satisfying as a tree covered in ornaments that mean something to you.

When I moved in with my husband, I had a little more money, but he was very Bah, Humbug about Christmas and our merger meant we were attending two family Christmases and were not home on either Christmas eve or Christmas day. I bought a couple cases of nice mercury glass ornaments and a metal ornament tree, instead of a real tree we would set it up on our entry table and put the presents under the table. It was pretty perfect for just the two of us. A good mix for a Grinch and a Christmas lover. That worked for a while. We acquired a few random ornaments including one from our wedding and one from our honeymoon. But it really wasn't a priority.

When A. came along, I started thinking about Christmas traditions and what I wanted for her. I decided to buy her an ornament every year she could take with her when she moved out. About the same time I read an article about buying an ornament while you are on vacations so every time you decorate the tree, you remember all the fun things you have done. So since A.'s birth our ornament collection has grown exponentially. We probably have acquired 10 a year between trips, buying for A. and just finding things I like. (Because once I get on a roll it is hard to stop.) Then there are the crafty ornaments A. has made in preschool and with mom and Grandma. We now have so many ornaments they don't all fit on a six foot tree.

Last year I decided to write down a brief description of where the ornaments came from. Which have really special meanings to me and which are just pretty little things along for the ride. And it got me thinking about other people's ornaments. How do other people collect their ornaments? Where did my Grandparents ornaments go when they passed? When my late husband's grandmother passed, there were no ornaments to be found. Where did they go? I asked a few of my friends and while most of them hadn't thought about it, they didn't think there were any ornaments left from their grandparents. They mostly knew their moms had ornaments from their childhood, but what happened to the one's from their parents childhood?

So, use the comments and tell me about your ornaments. Do you collect them with method in mind, or just the one's that speak to you? Are they too expensive to be bothered with, or does your tree need to be completely color coordinated and decorator approved? Do you have old ornaments from your childhood or from your grandparents? What's the story?

In parting, I will leave you with a picture of my latest ornament that we bought on our trip down the California coast this summer. It's hand blown glass was originally designed to be a window sun catcher, but with a change to the holder is now on the tree. One secret I will tell you is that buying ornaments on vacations sometimes requires a little creativity. In June you can't always find a good ornament, but things like sun catchers and keychains can often be converted from their original purpose to a great ornament.

A rough start to the Holidays

Yesterday I rolled out our first holiday experience. I had bought an advent calendar to use as our Christmas countdown. Each pocket is about business sized and I printed two business cards for each day, one with something fun for us to do and one with something nice for us to do for others. I added a small gift to each pocket (even though it was a tight fit for some of the gifts). I thought A. would be over the moon.

The reveal started well. A. was excited (mostly about the presents, those pesky cards are just an afterthought). I explained we were going to open one a day but if she opened any of the other presents I would remove them all. We looked at the cards, our fun activity was going to be going to the town parade and we were going to donate some canned goods to a food drive when we attended a Girl Scout event. A. opened her present and received a ornament that was shaped like Merida from Brave. But within five mins, she was overcome with the need to open another present. She was fiddling with them and managed to sneak one past me and into her room. Then she returned to ask me where the present for day 20 was, in a sly little voice that told me she knew exactly where it was. And asked if she could open yet another.

All hell broke loose when I made good on my threats to remove all the presents and screaming, crying and some hitting broke out, earning her some time in her room on top of the loss of her presents. After a couple more minor squirmishes I decided I was definitely not taking this show on the road and canceled our Girl Scout outing. But I was unable to find information about a food drive drop off that was active online, so that meant our good deed for the day was out. The Christmas parade went pretty well until I made the error of deciding to skip the tree lighting part. (Because I had underestimated the amount of arm strength in the kids so I was lugging 3 camp chairs, 2 blankets and 2 umbrellas the 3 blocks to the car while trying to make sure 2 children didn't get lost or run over. This did not lead to me wanting to stand around in a large crowd.) There was much disappointment over that decision that lead to A. losing some toys for a week. I was trying to make a point about being thankful for what we have (ie. getting to go to the parade) instead of getting upset about what we don't (seeing the tree lighting), but it is possible this lesson in managing our disappointment so as to avoid a melt down and a bad attitude is currently beyond her.

I don't know what is going on, but we are definitely in a phase of pushing every limit and trying to see which requests and statements I REALLY mean and which are just suggestions. (Normally I do want her to do everything I ask her to, but in the interest of picking my battles, sometimes I let go of things I don't care as much about if I get push back.) I think part of it is that I find that I am finding myself expecting more from A. At five and in kindergarten, I expect that she is reaching a point where she should listen better and help out more. I also am reaching the point where I expect her to start managing her attitude after being disappointed or corrected. Up until now, as long as she took her time out or did what I asked, I didn't fuss much about the 'tude, but that is changing. I don't expect her to like everything, but I do think she needs to start finding the ability to be respectful even when she doesn't like what is happening. Maybe that is pie in the sky thinking, or maybe it is something I should have expected a long time ago. Parenting is hard that way.

So yesterday was a day of frustration for everyone involved and the countdown was more of a let down. But today is a new day, and maybe we can both find some new 'tudes to go with it.

Thankfulness

I think I am going to try this blogging every day for December thing.  Like Holidailies, only without joining, because that would be too much commitment.

For November we did thirty days of Thanksgiving where I asked Audrey every day what she was thankful for and we put it on the wall on a leaf.  It was nice decoration and helped try to focus her on one holiday at a time while Christmas was popping up everywhere.  This entry may be boring to everyone else, but I wanted to take a minute and write down what we are thankful for in the last month, to refer to in December when the holidays threaten to make me lose my mind.

So in November Audrey was thankful for.....

1. Thanksgiving Dinner (At first she wasn't that clear on the idea.)
2. Playdates
3. My Guinea Pigs
4. Tv
5. Finding caterpillars
6. Family
7. That Christmas is coming  (Ok, that focusing on one holiday at a time is hard.)
8. Grandma Meg and Grandpa Creed
9. Friends who can play
10. A sleep over at Grandma's house
11. Going to see Beauty and the Beast
12. Seeing the beautiful monarchs
13. Karate class
14. Family
15. Sleepovers with friends
16. Mom buys me fun crafts to do
17. Lighting a candle at dinner
18. My friend Patricia
19. Grandma Leslie and Grandpa Carl came to dinner
20. Tyler coming to play
21. My friend Tyler
22. My cousins
23. Sleeping over with Grandma Leslie
24. Playing with Brynna
25. Having a friend over tomorrow
26. Cabbage White butterflies
27. Being a Girl Scout
28. Going to Storytime with Mr. John
29. Candy
30. My friend Kerigan

I was thankful for ......

1. A wonderful daughter
2. My parents
3. My brothers
4. A good night sleep
5. Good food
6. The right to vote
7. Audrey goes to school (What?  I never claimed to be the parent of the year here.)
8. Great neighbors
9. Good Company
10. That I have been able to stay home
11. Good Friends 
12. We live so close to so many beautiful nature preserves
13. Audrey has a great teacher
14. The ability to take a long walk
15. Mom's night out
16. To never have worried about being homeless
17. Time to exercise
18. Being able to volunteer for the Girl Scouts
19. For fun outings with my daughter
20. Having healthcare
21. A big backyard
22. Never being without food
23. Time to prepare for Christmas
24. A clean house (however briefly it lasts)
25. A warm blanket and a snuggle with Audrey
26. Time to play with Audrey
27. Dessert
28. Audrey's active nature
29. That our family is healthy
30. Rain! 

So there you have it.  Thirty days of feeling thankful for things we have all year long.  Mostly we are thankful to have great friends and family.