Oh Christmas

Well, Merry Christmas.  I think.  I can't decide how I feel about Christmas.  A few weeks back I wrote a terrible, scathing blog post about how much I hate Christmas but took it down before too many people read it.  And then my sister came to visit and that was so fun so I liked Christmas again.  And now Christmas is over and I'm not sure if I'm excited to have the holiday season over and get back to regular life or if I'm super sad that the family is all leaving and I'll be left here alone again.

Christmas just isn't the same when you're the mom.  I have to do the crappy stuff like go shopping and wrap presents and worry about every one being happy and am so tired at the end of the day that I just go to bed instead of get some real scripture study in and so Christmas becomes more and more about presents and less about Jesus and then I feel guilty for leaving Jesus out of his own birth...and then there's the realization that comes with adulthood that things do not bring happiness.  Things are just things and even though I get everything I asked for and more my happiness level is still the same because things are just things and if I'd taken the time to let Jesus more into Christmas then I would be happier...and then guilt guilt GUILT.

So this year, no I was not a huge fan of Christmas.

What I did like was Christmas Eve Eve.  I decided to do a big family dinner two days before Christmas so that Greg's entire family (minus Sahar, but she isn't technically part of the family.  Yet) could come.  And it was great.   Amber was my little slave and things went almost 100% according to my super OCD plan.  Amber and I spent Saturday cutting up and preparing all the food so we could just put it in the oven day of and not have to do very many dishes.  I wrote out a script for the Nativity we were going to preform.  Amber and I set out all the costume.  I made signs.  We even put up a little curtain (the shower curtain) to separate "back stage" from the "stage."  Then the big day arrived and I ordered Greg's family around like a crazy person but they did what I told them to so I think I will try my extra-bossy method more often.  The other thing I didn't like: the Euchre tournament   I had intended this to entertain the adults while the children and I practiced the Nativity, but the Euchre tournament took over the evening. People were eating in shifts so they could play.  The only hitch of the evening was when Greg, who unlike the rest of his family is not afraid of me and my bossiness, tried to play Euchre on my stage when we were going to practice!  Luckily the other players were afraid enough of me to move their game to the preassigned spot and Amber coordinated the move of some tables to facilitate game play.   And that was Christmas for me.  The whole Baker family together, doing what I tell them to, having a good time, eatting, laughing and just being together.  Seriously, when they went home I signed because Christmas was over and I had survived.  And then I remembered that Christmas was still two days away.

Of course I don't have any pictures of my wonderful party because I was too busy entertaining.  But I do have some pictures of the cousins hanging out before Christmas.  Did I mention that my new favorite sibling came and stayed whole week with us over Christmas?

Our bathtub is broken so we had a cousin shower.

Our advent activity one night was playing along with some secular Christmas music.  Greg's idea.  So fun.  This is drumming to Little Drummer Boy. 

Alice had a very specific idea of where her drum should be.

The girls fought over this car all week.

Rex and Greg went to Greensboro on Saturday to visit Greg's family so the girls had a bath in the sink.

We went to the park to feed the ducks, who had apparently migrated south.  Pansy ducks.  The ones at BYU stay all winter long.