The One With the Early Christmas

I never blogged about Christmas

Silly me.

Although, let's be real here, it's not like there hasn't been a bit going on in the Marshall household, so don't hate me.

But I figured I better get a little bit of it out there, you know, for posterity's sake. And so in twenty years my kids can't say they didn't get a Christmas the year Pax was born. I can be like - here it is you nit wits, its all in the pictures!!!

Aww Christmas . . .

I have a problem. Eric and I spend all this time shopping for presents, and then I spend all this time wrapping them, and then every day I rearrange them under the tree to have them look just so. Problem: This all happens before Thanksgiving.

Which isn't bad in theory, but in practice it's bad because by about December 2nd I'm already ready to open up all those presents. Not because I want things - let's face it, you have kids and getting gifts pretty much goes out the window most years - but because I LOVE watching little kiddos opening presents, and hopefully getting excited about what they got.

This year we tamed it back pretty well. You wouldn't have guessed I don't think by the looks of our tree. We had to move it from the living room into the office because the presents were spilling out from the corner where we had stuffed the tree into the center of the room. In the office there was much more room to spread them out to the sides, so the forward effect was a little less in your face. Eric and I are pretty good at finding good deals, and we're even better at making sure our kids don't know about any toys OTHER than the ones we got for them. GO US!

We let the kids open a few presents here and there "for good behavior" throughout the month. Come the night before Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve Eve - or for those of you numerical ones December 23rd, in the evening I told Eric I thought we should open presents. My reasoning was that on Christmas day we were supposed to go over to my parents in the morning, so we wouldn't have time to open our presents beforehand. And we couldn't even do it Christmas Eve because there was cooking, and baking, and candlestick making, and parties to attend to as well. So I convinced my uber cute husband to let us open them early. Even at December 23rd, I think it's the latest we have opened Christmas presents . ..  . yes yes yes, I am THAT girl.

But think about the timeline here folks! It's a WAY GOOD thing we opened up presents that night, because bright and early the next day, I was in labor with the littlest mister. So in reality, I saved Christmas for my little ones. Yes, now I am THAT girl (not to be confused with the previous THAT girl as this one takes on a slightly more superwoman physique).

So we crammed into the office, and it was dark outside (seeing as it was night time) so our pictures didn't come out that great. But it was still amazing. The kids were great. They were both willing to take turns and let everyone open presents one at a time. There wasn't any fighting, it was just awesome.

So this year Parker got (that I can remember a month later) well actually I don't want to go into this long list of things. So essentially, Parker's biggest present from us was a bunch of Pirate playmobil stuff - seriously like a million sets. And now I step on their little plastic bodies and their surprisingly sharp little swords all the time being that they are usually scattered throughout the house. Eric brought up his "BIG" gift to the hospital for Parker to open up in front of me on the actual Christmas Day.

Let me just dive off topic here for a second.

Why is it that Santa gets all the freaking credit? I mean really? Here I found this amazing deal on a iPad-esque (it's a knock off, even I won't spend that much money on a toy for Parker) tablet for Parker for Christmas. But do I get to give it to him and have him light up and say "Thank you Mommy, I LOVE it!" ERRR WRONG!

No I don't.

Instead I get to sit there and pretend with my child that Santa came down the smoke stack into our house, getting completely deformed to do so as Tim Allen does in the movie Santa Claus since we don't have an actual fireplace, and brougth this truly amazing "big phone" to Parker.

I'm not a fan of this Santa man.

At least I'm not a fan of giving him the credit. I think next year Santa will be doomed to only give our kids socks and underwear, that way all the cool presents can be given by Mom and Dad.

Sounds like a plan to me.

So yes, Parker got a tablet that he loves to play on, takes to church to keep quiet, takes in the car to keep quiet, watches movies on the works.

Preslie opened all her presents that night. I didn't want her to wait. Among a million squinkies and My Little Ponies, and dolls, her big present was a DOLLHOUSE!!!

So wierdly exciting for me. But it was. I'm excited to get her more furniture for it for her birthday and for more years to come. She LOVES IT! Exciting stuff.

Eric and I - well now that we are old, it all gets boring. Eric got some super hunky clothes for work. Yes super hunky! Cause he has to get dressed up every day. So he gets to wear nice clothes and look way too hot for his own good. And I got jewelry and a million new pairs of boots - Eric knows me so well.

All in all it was a great Christmas. I'm just looking forward to next year when I can once again be involved in the actual festivities!