Christmas in Life as a Mom of 2 boys.....and a girl!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Cody understood it a lot more this year and could hardly wait all December for the exciting day to arrive. We finished our Christmas shopping about 5 days before Christmas so I didn’t feel like I was rushing and I wrapped them a few days early while we watched some Christmas movies in the evening. I still felt like we spent too much on gifts even though we tried to keep it cheaper this year but that tends to happen when you have 14 people to buy for.

My parents returned from Florida on December 15th. Cody and I drove to Toronto and picked them up from the airport which was interesting as I have never picked anyone up before. I thought it would be confusing but it wasn’t. Their plane ended up being delayed a bit so we had a quick bite to eat when we got there at 6:30pm and then Cody was running around a bit and soon they were there. They stayed until yesterday and we saw them almost every day while they were here. The boys were so excited to see them often and gave them lots of hugs and love. My mom and I made Christmas treats a couple days with the kids, I helped her make perogies for a family gathering one day and she took me shopping for part of my Christmas gift which was some new maternity clothes. We also went for dinner a couple of times. It was so nice having them close but the time went by so fast. Now they are gone again until the end of March.

Christmas morning I woke up at 2am throwing up. I couldn’t believe it. Who gets sick on the one day they have been looking forward to for months? I managed to drag myself downstairs to see the boys open their gifts from Santa and their stockings but them running around was making me feel dizzy and I just wanted to go back to bed. I was happy they loved their new Blaze trucks though (he’s a character in a tv show they love). After that we always go to Mike’s grandmas to open gifts with his mom and grandma so I told him to take the kids without me and I took some gravol and went back to bed. I was a bit sad to not go but I was hosting Christmas for my family starting at 2pm that day so I wanted to try to get better by then.

They got home a few hours later and I dragged myself out of bed and was feeling a lot better, just tired thank goodness. So I sat on the couch and they showed me all the gifts they received and I got to open my gifts from Mike, his mom and Grandma. There were a ton! The kids were in love with these small nerf guns Mike and I got them. Guns for a 2 and 4 year old? Crazy right? Miles would laugh hysterically every time he shot one. It was pretty cute. The bullets stung a little bit if they were too close but luckily they listened to me and didn’t shoot anyone near the face.

My family came over later and we had a great visit with them and tons more presents. My oldest brother was nice enough to do all the cooking for dinner cuz I felt okay but still didn’t even want to look at food. Cody was in love with opening presents this year. When he ran out I let him open some of mine cuz he was just enjoying it so much. Including all their gifts I bet the boys got a total of 50 different gifts this year. Nuts eh? I put some stuff away to look at later and took a couple of huge gifts back which were completely impractical since we only have so much space. Like a giant wooden train that weighed about 40lbs! My brother with no kids got that one. I returned it and bought the boys a couple new bath toys. Or a 70 piece set of dinosaurs which wasn’t necessary since they also got a 10 piece set of dinosaurs which is plenty.

Some things I received that I can remember right now are: a new mug, some blueberry tea, the baby bullet, a few books, a wallet, chocolates, a calendar, a case for my phone, money, lottery tickets, a frame with the kids handprints from Mike (very thoughtful! He never does that sort of thing), baby clothes, gift cards, slippers, etc. We were all really spoiled as usual. My favorite part was seeing the kids enjoy their new gifts and having a couple of Christmas gatherings with family.