Boxing Day Reflection

There are so many parts of Christmas that I absolutely love, and I think this year might just be the best one yet. For the first time in years I haven’t felt stressed or Grinch like at all. Maybe it’s because there are just so many other things on my mind lately to keep it busy, or maybe it’s because Jen looked after even more than usual. In any case I’m thankful that I was able to enjoy celebrating with my family.

Last night however, while sitting on the couch after cleaning everything up, and the pumpkin pies for tonight’s dessert were in the oven, I started thinking. I found myself worrying about how I was going to dispose of all the waste that comes with the packaging and wrapping paper. If that is not a hit of reality that you likely have or consume too much I don’t know what is.

Now I have to try to figure out what to do about it. Sometimes I feel like we buy stuff for the kids just for the sake of buying things. Not so much during most of the year, but during gift giving holidays I think this is the case. We do buy a lot of clothes which are certainly things that they can use and we would likely buy anyway. Of course a few fun gifts aren’t going to hurt anyone, but I’m certain we could scale it back. Get them something they really want or need and let that be that.

Maybe instead of more physical gifts we find ways to build more memories together. Not sure how we do that. We talked before about giving up Christmas and taking a vacation somewhere warm as our big family Christmas gift. That would be great, but it would cause us to miss all the other Christmas traditions I love. Getting to spend time with the rest of our family.

At this point I’m really not sure what the answer is, and I’m not confident I can get buy in from the rest of my family, but I’m sure something needs to change. We are at a point where we don’t really need more “things”. Sure we could use new tires for the car, and boring everyday life things like that, but those aren’t things you can put under the tree for the kids.

It’s also hard for me because I know first hand getting together with your friends after Christmas and comparing the things everyone received. It can be difficult when you don’t have either as much or that big gift to share. Obviously that shouldn’t be a big concern as you shouldn’t worry about comparing yourself to your friends or anyone else, but it’s also a part of our reality. There has to be a way we can do both. Scale back the needless things that they might get a few moments of enjoyment with and then not touch again for a long time, if ever, while at the same time give them something memorable that they can talk to their friends about.

There is a solution and it will likely take a shift in the way we consume things in general year round, so it won’t be quick or easy, but I think it will be a good goal to work towards.

Our Typical Christmas Schedule

Seems we’re full of Christmas traditions. We have a almost set in stone schedule for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. 

It works out well so we can spend lot of time with everyone. Christmas Day is also my Mother In Laws birthday. So we get up in the morning and my in laws come and open gifts with us. 

Then in the afternoon we head to my moms house to open gifts with them. Most importantly though we have a Mexican food style lunch!

Enchiladas, quesadillas, and guacamole. This is one of my favourite meals of the year. Mom makes two versions of everything, a kids version, that lots of adults including my wife eat, then the adult version that actually has some spice to it. 

Soon we’ll head back to our house to have a turkey Christmas / Birthday dinner with my in laws. 

I really love this time of year. Getting together with everyone and sharing good food,  presents, and conversation. 

Hot Toddies Don’t Cure Colds

I was hoping that hot toddies would cure this cold I quickly came down with last night but no such luck. 

I mean they didn’t hurt anything, and my throat feels a bit better, I think. But I’m still all stuffed up and can’t breath right. Now I’m just hoping that they actually help me sleep a bit tonight.

Last night did not go well, and Christmas morning being both sick and tired will not be fun. 

So the morale of this story is: don’t expect hot toddies to cure your cold, but go ahead and have some anyway.

Christmas Eve Gift Tradition

For the past few years we started a new Christmas Eve tradition. We do up one special gift for each kid and let them open it.

The gifts all include the same things and are meant for use tonight. Here’s a play by play of my son opening his.

A new snowman book!
New Santa Jammie’s!
Hot chocolate, mmm I’m going to eat this hot chocolate.
New socks? These look kinda girly.

What a kid.

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Even we put on our new jammie pants, or for me business pants!

Thank You

This year I feel incredibly blessed for many reasons, and I’ll likely get into a more detailed post closer to the end. For now I just wanted to say thank you specifically to Pam one of my amazing new team mates.

Of course no Christmas Eve would be complete without one last trip to grab some forgotten things. So on my way out I stopped to check the mail. Even though I am still very new Pam had taken the time to send me a Christmas card with pictures of her adorable family on it.

Everyone on my team, and the company in general, has made me feel extremely welcome. We all work distributed and I haven’t met anyone face to face yet, so in this digital world of communication I find it’s all the more special to get a card sent in the mail.

Thanks Pam and I look forward to meeting you and everyone else very soon!

Disturbing Wakeup Call

As any parent knows broken sleep is pretty par for the course. There are still many nights when some kid will come into our room having a nightmare, or they aren’t feeling well.

This past while has been fairly bad because of a round of colds going through the house. It seems there has been at least one of them who is up coughing or waking up because they can’t breath through the night.

Last night however the kids slept great. Our cat Zeus however had other plans. It is a disturbing way to be jolted awake at 3:00am by the sound of a cat vomiting on your bed.

Our cross eyed Siamese friend was kind enough to try to get to the edge of the bed at least so only some of it landed on it. The rest splattered across the floor thanks to the height of the bed.

To top it off my wife got mad at me for not kicking him down off the bed. I of course apologized for not being totally aware of what was happening microseconds after being being ripped from my sleep.

If there is a positive to this story though it would be that it’s likely a good sign that at 3:00am, while cleaning up cat puke, you and your spouse are able to laugh with each other at the situation.

One on One Kid Dates

One of my favourite traditions that we started a few years back, is to go out on one on one Christmas shopping dates with our kids.

It’s not very often that we get to spend time alone with one of the kids so it’s nice when we get to do it.

We put let the kids draw either a Mom or Dad name out of a hat. This way we each get two dates. This year it actually worked out the exact opposite as last year. Ella and Noah came with me while Alexandria and Caile went with Jen.

The kids choose where they want to shop and we go pick out little gifts for them to give their siblings. We keep it small so under $10 for each gift.

The shopping is only part of it though. We also let the kids pick out a little snack of some sort and we go and do that with them as well.

I did both my dates today. Noah wanted A cheeseburger for his snack so we went to McDonalds for lunch and then hit the shops. When we were done and home at a good time  Ella and I decided to head out in the afternoon for our date.

While Noah and I were able to do the shopping all in one store, with Ella we ended up at three different ones, but she was happy in the end with what she picked for everyone.

Then to top off the Big Mac I had for lunch, Ella and I had a hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen. So many calories for a day but also a lot of fun too!

 

Christmas Café with Hot Chocolate

Tonight at our Church we held our annual Christmas Café. We get together with friends, very talented people get up and perform, and there are snacks and hot chocolate for everyone.

This year my two youngest Daughters Caile and Ella along with my twin nieces decided they would sing The First Noel. They did a wonderful job.

Last minute Alexandria found the courage to get over her stage fright and went up and sang Silent Night a capella.

Noah didn’t perform but he enjoyed the snacks. He even patient waiting for the hot chocolate to cool off. Just as it reached the right temperature he went to take a sip to test and promptly spilled a bunch on his leg. Without missing a beat he looked, grinned at me and said:

“It feels just about right.”

The Café is always one of my favourite nights and I’m very proud of my daughters for sharing their songs with everyone.

Hillbilly Cappuccino

Recently I picked up an AeroPress coffee maker which is absolutely fantastic. I’ve been making a pile of Americano style coffee.

Tonight I tried something different I made a very hurting attempt at a cappuccino.

I put some milk in a mason jar and shook the crap out of it. When it was all foamed up I put it in the microwave to hear it up.

From there I dumped the milk into the coffee and the foam on top of that. It was far from a real cappuccino but not absolutely horrible either. Next time I’ll heat the milk a bit more.

Good For Something

While tucking my son into bed tonight I gave him a hug, told him I loved him, and started leaving the room. He called me back.

“Just one more hug! Ah, I like you because you’re warm.”

At least I’m good for something I guess.