'Tis The Season...To Go Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been MIA for a while but for good reason-it was Christmas! I cannot believe how much running around I did (and money I spent). I was so concerned with my son having his best 1st Christmas that I think I drove myself & husband a little crazy. All I could envision during the whole process was a Clark Griswald Christmas. I imagine the presents not being shipped on time and the tree falling down and the house being a mess and a storm coming through (preventing everyone from coming, of course) and forgetting to pay the electric bill and the lights going out. I was trying my hardest to make sure that these events or any others I couldn't fathom at the time, did NOT happen this year. I thought to myself; "any year but this year". I had stressed myself and husband out to make sure we knew what we were doing and when. Who was getting what and who. How things were going to get done. During the month leading up to Christmas I'm pretty sure I cried a few times in between... but in the end, it was all worth it. My son had his first Christmas at home with family, just like I did growing up. We started some traditions like decorating the tree as Christmas music filled the house, we adopted our Elf on the Shelf. On Christmas eve we were outside feeding Santa's reindeer and leaving out the milk and cookies. We watched all the holiday movies and read The Night Before Christmas. And I have to say, I was very proud of my husband and I for hosting our families this year. We did one hell of a job preparing and prepping and putting everything together. There was no "last minute" running around, we seemed to have planned everything pretty brilliantly. 

But, being a control freak, I will have this even more under control for 2015! I'm already coming up with ideas of when we should shop, where we should hide everything and how we should wrap everything WEEKS before. (This last idea came to me because on Christmas Eve, we ran out of wrapping paper). We planned our dinner ahead of time and got to the grocery store days before and even put everything together so all we had to do was pop the lasagna in the oven. It also helped that our family brought the antipasta and the Italian bread the day of. But the cookies and the dinner were all set to go for the big day! The house was cleaned, the outfits all picked out. I couldn't have been more proud of my husband and I on our first married Christmas together and it being our son's 1st Christmas ever!

In the end, our son played with wrapping paper and boxes more than his new toys that Santa brought him. He took three naps and couldn't be more oblivious to the holiday we were celebrating. We will always have this memory and I'm happy that we did it the way we wanted. I'm glad my husband and I discussed what we want to do and the traditions we want to have each year with him. It really made it feel like we were a family (which we are, but this put it all into perspective for me).