Whew. I survived Christmas. It is SO much less stressful whenever 
you live thousands of miles away from the majority of your family. No toting your entire family around from house to house. Though my sister in law and her new husband did come and visit us, it still was not nearly as stressful as it would have been if we would have been back home where we would have had to visit 3 or 4 houses minimum. Much easier.
That being said, gift opening was interesting…and over in less than two minutes. Which as a parent, is incredibly frustrating. I spent months planning and shopping sales so that the kids could get exactly what they wanted. And they went WILD. I dont know if it was because we had guests and the kids were slightly shy so they decided just to go crazy or what. But that photo up to the left is one of the only ones we got, and by far was the best photo we got. Incredible right? Oh well, there is always next year. Next time I will make each child stop after every single gift and pose for pictures, just to make up for this year. 
We were able to surprise the kids with bikes however. We had the kids go outside for a second to walk the dog, and whenever they came inside we had brand new bikes set up for them. They were ecstatic! Surprisingly enough even though they had not owned a bike for years (they totally lost interest) they were pretty good at riding them. There is a huge parking lot right behind our house so the kids have a huge area to ride them too. Yes I am aware that she should be wearing a helmet, but can you guess who forgot to buy them? Yep, totally forgot them!
Overall Christmas was okay, I guess its hard adjusting from a child to an adult (even this many years later) because every year I want the joy that I had as a child on Christmas and each year it is always different. As the kids have gotten older I have gone from wanting gifts to wanting to watch my children light up as they open the gifts we give them. I did not really get to see that this year, but its not the end of the world. Mostly because I was able to watch them enjoy the gifts, especially those NERF guns (more to come about that!)
I hope you and your family had an amazing holiday!
2 comments
Lin
December 27, 2012 at 8:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bikes are a great gift and you can tell they like really really like them. Way to go mom & dad!
Stephanie R.
January 1, 2013 at 4:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I know, my favorite gift I ever received was a bike! Go figure, since Im the opposite of athletic! lol