Christmas Break- Day 1

It's the time of year when people talk about the ways the Holidays delight their senses.  Wafting holly candles, pine garland, cinnamon.... twinkling lights, tumbling snowflakes, decorative wreaths... festive carols and traditional hymns...

Those people don't have kids.

Basically, the familiar sensory experience in OUR home is, well, to put it simply, Stimulating.

No one else ever mentions the sound of ornaments crashing together when a ball goes flying through the living room, but it regularly happens here.  The Monkey in the Middle is just not tall enough to screen drop kicks from the 3 year old.  He doesn't mean to be destructive... he just has awesome aim. Even from 2 rooms away, I am quite adept at knowing when it's just brass ornaments, or when I have to jump up and grab the vacuum cleaner.

There are traditional Holiday tastes and smells, but here there is also the constant "stick" that is gnawed on candy canes, still in wrappers. Or globs of glitter glue that won't fully dry.  Or the rejected fancy candy with the gooey centers that taste like "yuck" ("Well, then stay out of your father's Ghirardelli!").   I want to scream when asked for the 15th time, "Mom, where's MY candy?"  It's only 9 am.  I should spare myself the agony and just eat the stuff myself.  But how then should I handle the situation when I hear "Why is the baby carrying around a bottle of ketchup?" 

Our one-horse open sleigh is real enough.  The circle loop that links the sitting room-living room-dining room-computer room is a first class obstacle course for the new Radio Flyer wagon.  I've been told not to overreact:  Speeding is of little concern since the thing actually has seatbelts.  Doesn't candy count as an accelerant?

I don't hear other households lament that, now that it's Christmas break, they are the loudest family on the planet. Well, maybe other families do have such complaints, but I certainly wouldn't be able to hear about them.  The din here can be deafening.

Am I the only person who drinks a beer to STOP my head from spinning?

My poor husband. 
The man is a professional who runs a building with nearly 400 children in it, aged 7 and under.  SEVEN AND UNDER.  It's a RESPITE compared to here.  I'd ask him what his thoughts are about this apparent juxtaposition of his life's work, but I think he went to have a beer.

Elfin Magic

For the third year in a row, The Elves have arrived.

While I suppose they could arrive anytime, they hitch a ride to our house with St. Nicholas on the eve of December 6th.  This is when the empty shoes that make up a huge array surrounding the Christmas tree skirt are filled the next morning with gold chocolate coins, favorite candies, and old-fashioned bottles of Coca-Cola.  Merryn and Andy squealed aloud this year when they spied the 12 inch NorthPoleans nestled in their own stockings hanging by the Christmas tree.

Brownie and Charlie supposedly were sent to make sure the Krenz kids are good and kind in the days leading up to Christmas.  However, even though we have never actually seen them move, these elves have been known to cause mischief and commotion all over our house!

Last year they baked brownies, and made good use of the abundance of powdered sugar strewn everywhere by also making snow angels on the kitchen table.  Somehow, one snow-filled night, they snuck outside and had a blast in the snow, which they smartly preserved inside.  Merryn eventually found them in the freezer with a mound of snowballs and a stuffed polar bear too.  We've also found them in the refrigerator with fresh sugar cookie dough for the kids, and they even provided a cookie cutter shaped like an elf!

If the snow was not in the forecast, they made their own winter wonderland by TP-ing the livingroom or having marshmallow wars.  Other mornings we found them watching a big stack of Christmas movies and eating microwave popcorn, or playing the Wii.  They had even figured out how to make their own Wii Mii profiles!

They've played Scrabble (the whole board was a criss-cross of Christmas and winter words), decorated the children's bedrooms with lights and sparkly ornaments, switched out all the drawers in every dresser of the house (imagine the difficulties of getting to school on time THAT morning), and actually ordered themselves a Pizza Hut pizza.  (The empty pizza box and the car parked crooked in the driveway were proof of it!). 

I won't soon forget, however, the night they spent cutting huge letters out of colored pieces of paper, using every one of our decorative craft scissors with scalloped and sharp-toothed edges.  Nearly 30 letters!  It was a jaw-dropping sight to first see the scissors and rolls of messed up tape and residual scraps that literally covered the entire floor of the sitting room, the room into which everyone enters our home.  But on a single wall, the fruit of their labor:  "JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON".

I left that pile of stuff on the floor there all day, and the graffiti until The Epiphany.

The elves come during a busy and often stress-filled time of year.  The calendar is jam-packed with meetings and programs and practices and games and shopping and commitments and festive parties.  We're often rushed and hurried and heavily burdened.  On tired, wintery nights, those elves add to the list.

However, I'm sincerely grateful for the opportunity to host them.  They bring joy and expectation every morning to our children, and they provide these weary parents an opportunity to remember how to just be PLAYFUL.  Afterall, we're anticipating the arrival of Jesus who truly brings Joy to the World.

And that, for me, is really a gift.

Decorating with a Purpose

Last night we finally accomplished some real Christmas decorating.  We assembled and fluffed 14 artificial Christmas trees, hung 15 wreaths topped by red velvet bows, strung 30 feet of garland,  and fashioned a rather large, 20 piece nativity scene with camels big enough for Finan to mount.

Now, before anyone starts organizing charter buses to visit our embellished holiday home, I have to correct any misconceptions that our house actually looks this festive.  However, St. Joseph Church looks terrific!

For the last several years, the parish priest here has asked our family to set up the Giving Tree.  We make about 75 paper ornaments in various shapes, and on each one write a suggested item for needy people in our community.  Winter clothing such as gloves and scarves, hats and socks are listed, and parishioners take the ornaments and return gifts, all of which are donated to the local food pantry.  On the first Wednesday of Advent, we decorate the Giving Tree when the rest of the church is being adorned too.

The children love this evening.  They enjoy the small group of older church members who have been doing this every year since... well, forever.  They thrill at the opportunity to pull out boxes from the eerie church basement, as well as peek around the pipe organ in the huge choir loft.  They get to scale ladders and crawl under pews, and even use loud voices IN CHURCH. 

They also get to experience what it feels like to really contribute to something meaningful.

So, even though our own Christmas tree is ornamentless and may stay that way until Valentine's Day (when we get around to taking it down), I don't mind at all.  We've already got a jump on fostering the holiday spirit, and we've been blessed with the gift of anticipation and the magic that is Christmas. 

And I have not had to vaccuum up a single shattered ornament....
yet.