AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Whew. Well, I wish that made me feel better, but there is something about a typed out scream that just doesn't get out the inner frustration the way a real scream does. But instead of focusing on what is making me scream, indulge me for a moment (or an hour) while I share our holiday happenings....

At about 4:59pm on Christmas Eve I finally stopped packing and proclaimed the next 24 hours to be a vacation. We piled in the car and headed for IHOP, a great place for a Holiday Meal. You might not pick it as your A#1 place for a traditional holiday meal, but you do have to consider that it is very family friendly, my kids love, love, LOVE pancakes, Kyle loves himself an omelet, and I as you know, love a plate of anything set before me. So it wasn't your traditional Christmas Ham meal, but it was a meal, and we all were happy to be eating. After licking our platters clean Kyle gasped and said he locked his keys in the car and told me to look in my purse for a spare. Well whaddaya know? I found a remote to the Honda! I've wanted one for so long!!! To be able to lock and unlock the car or pop the trunk from a distance has been a dream of mine for a very long time. What a luxury!

With our kids high on syrup we headed to neighbor Barb's for the remainder of our festivities. (she was out of town and told us we were welcome to it since our own house is a disaster of boxes). We had the intent of watching the Nativity, but I couldn't find the remote to the DVD player so instead of scrolling down two titles, we watched the first one selected: Mr. Krueger's Christmas. It was a great movie, though growing up as a little girl I always thought it was such a depressing one and it made me sad thinking of all the lonely folks there must be on Christmas. This time around it didn't seem like such a melancholy movie. Perhaps I am more mature? Or maybe my heart has been hardened ove the years and I am more self centered. Hmmm. Considering Savannah's attention span, the 5 minute Nativity movie would have been a better choice. Krueger's story was a little long, but the continued appearances of the cat George kept her vaguely interested and excited.

Following the movie (boy is it nice to watch something on a big screen as opposed to our laptop. It's kind of dangerous. One of these days Kyle will come home to a flatscreen and we'll be stuck in front of it for 2 weeks straight) we headed upstairs for cookie baking, nativity coloring, and santa gluing. I just had one sheet of cookie dough that was perfect for 3 cookies. We baked them, and while they cooled we followed Sheppard tradition of coloring, cutting out, and displaying in a box the nativity. Problem was I didn't have THE nativity worksheets that I've colored from for the last 23 years. That was sad. I could have sworn I had a scanned copy on the computer somewhere, but alas, I was stuck googling "pre-school nativity coloring sheets" and getting a random, non-1980s=Joy-School version of the nativity. Tragedy. But hey, I continued with tradition as best i knew how. This is where Kyle learned first hand how much Cade HATES to color. It was so sad. The kid was so nervous to color out of the lines it caused him to break down in tears whenever he did. Savannah, of course, loved the coloring, lines or no lines and went to town. Kyle tried to boost Cade's confidence and get him excited about coloring, but Cade really really didn't want to finish for fear of going outside the lines. I was so heart broken that I tried to psycho-analyze the whole situation afterwards while lying awake after everyone was in bed. These were the possible reasons as to why Cade has such a hard time using a crayon on paper:
1. I have been too hard on the poor kid in other areas of his life so now his forced perfectionism is borderline extreme that it's hindering his ability to be creative
2. I haven't been building his confidence artisticly speaking, and did not provide him with enough opportunities while he was still young and impressionable to express himself; thus the tears and the fear.
3. I didn't watch any art or painting shows while he was in the womb.
4. The poor kid was just born this way and time will only heal his anxiety.

Back to Christmas Eve. So Cade was melting down over the Crayolas and Savannah was borderline lethal with crayons she was so excited. It came time to glue the cotton balls on the worksheet of Santa's face Cade actually got into that, since there weren't lines involved. Well, until Savannah starting teasing him and taking his cotton balls. I gently directed their attention to the cookies and we iced and decorated them. Once there were more than enough candy corns on them I said, "Great! Santa is going to love these cookies. Let's go find a plate to put them on!"

Cade instantly had a melt down. He fell to the floor screaming "I hate Santa! I hate Christmas. I don't want any cookies!" Translation: YOU TRICKED ME! I thought these cookies were for me. I am NOT sharing these with Santa. THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!

Poor kid. Granted, I probably should have picked one of the three crafts to do and put them to bed. It was wayyyyy past their bedtimes, but in the name of Christmas traditions, I HAD to do them all. Kyle was a great sport, very supportive of handling the meltdowns, (he knew 90% of their cause was sleep deprivation), and that meant a lot to me.

Once the little ones were nustled in their beds (Cade fell asleep in 2 minutes flat) I reminded Kyle that Santa had contracted him out to put together Savvy's gift. The look of realization on his face was priceless. Kyle was exhausted. From what, I don't recall. But he was pooped, and he wanted nothing more than to eat those sugar cookies and go to BED. He had totally forgotten about the work ahead of him. But out he went, near tears I might add, and retrieved Savvy's gift and pulled out the instructions, the screws, the doo-dads, the boards, and began assembling a darling little kitchen for his princess. (if it was for me, I don't think he would have done it. But for Savannah--- he'd do anything for her!) Meanwhile I set out the sticky buns (another tradition). Kyle finally finished the kitchen, ate a sugar cookie and nearly gagged. That's the price you pay for buying the Pillsbury sheets of cookie dough and not baking them from scratch. Yuck. After Kyle went to bed, I stayed up for a bit cleaning, and setting out a few more things and helping Santa fill the stockings. I don't think my kids caught me kissing him.

Christmas morning Cade ran into my bedroom screaming "MOM! Santa came down the chimney and brought me a THOMAS TRAIN!!!" He then proceeded to bring in all his gifts one at a time and show me. It was so cute watching his enthusiasm. Finally Savannah woke up and Cade led her to the Promised Land. The girl didn't skip a beat. As soon as she saw the kitchen she squealed with delight and began whipping up breakfast for us. That was my first time in the living room and boy was I delighted. I got an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid! My husband knows me better than I do. For nearly a year I have been asking for a wheat grinder attachment for my kitchen aid. In the name of being prepared and having something to grind my wheat with, I thought this was a very responsible and reasonable request. Well, Kyle knows that if we are in a crisis the first thing I'll need is a sugar boost. Not bread. It was a big surprise and I bet Kyle wasn't planning on getting it until he saw it either. (I found the receipt. It was purchased at 4:12 pm on Christmas Eve. )

I was beyond disappointed when I noticed the sticky buns weren't like my mom's. They looked hard boulders with sprinkled sugar. I don't know what happened, but the last 3 tries, my sticky buns have been a total failure and I think I have scared Kyle away from even desiring them. Kyle was polite and ate one before finishing off the IHOP leftovers. The kids didn't even try one. "Come on, they taste like donuts, only better!" I said. But to no avail. They just wanted hot chocolate. Maybe next year???

We then headed to the tree where Cade proved to be a master gift unwrapper. His enthusiasm was priceless. The kids were spoiled rotten. Between grandparents, neighbors and cousins, we would have been perfectly fine filling their stockings with coal. At one point, Kyle and I were cancelling their birthdays and next Christmas to make up for in influx of inventory. It was nice to lounge in our jammies, take in the day, and forget about the pending move, toys and all. (as much as you can when everything is in boxes around you!)

We all (except for Cade of course.) took a nap, and before we knew it, it was time to head to our dear friends for Christmas dinner. (You can't go to IHOP twice for Christmas). It was so nice to eat around a big table full of traditional yummies with great company.

Althought my attempts in carrying on family traditions turned out less than ideal, I learned that is one of the most important callings as a mother. I am in charge of making sure they happen. Whether the traditions play out as perfect as a Norman Rockwell painting or end in disaster, it will add to the memories years to come. It was indeed a Merry Christmas, tears, fits and all.

Pictures to come... eventually. Now I will return to screaming. More later!