Oh Christmas Break, Oh Christmas Break

Christmas as a grown-up is sure different than Christmas as a kid.  As a kid, I remember the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas rolling gently by, with parties and fun traditions that filled up my days and helped them move a tad faster than snail's pace.  Anticipation built up like a ball of fire - gaining more energy and electricity until Christmas Day finally arrived and my parents had found a way to deliver everything I had wished for (except for maybe my 16th Christmas when I was dead sure a box with car keys would be sitting under the tree and I turned out to be dead wrong).

Now that I am no longer a kid myself, but instead a parent of kids, the feelings are kind of the same....well, the same words could ALMOST be used....The days no longer gently roll by me, rather, I am steam rolled by the days.  Parties and traditions are not things for me to attend, rather, I have to create, plan and execute with the precision of a military sergeant with 4 young kids.  Days no longer move at a snail's pace, in fact, I'm often left wondering if I have been sucked down some space time continuum and days have been completely erased from my life.  And the anticipation I feel is slightly more stressed , as I scurry around coming up with fun activities for my kids AND trying to meet their Christmas expectations. 

All of the hard work was worth it though on Christmas Day.  Watching the kids get what they wanted is far more fun than getting something you always wanted.  But, it was a lot of work.  On the other hand, the week after Christmas has been an easy, breezy breath of fresh air and I'm quite sad to see it come to an end.   After some moments of reflection, and I won't call it thoughtful, because honestly, who has time for thought, I have come up with my list of after-Christmas presents that were my favorite this year....

• The gift of lazy mornings.  Boy, had I completely forgotten what these felt like.  Pajamas until 10.  Books, breakfast, games, movies, snuggles.  NOTHING beats it.  I am NOT looking forward to the days where I have to say "HURRY UP! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"  over and over and over and over again each morning.  I could resolve to not say it for the new year, but if ever a resolution were set up to fail....
• The gift of healing times 2.  X-rays pending, the 2-yo is back to setting up chairs on his bed and jumping down steps (insert face of horror here).  He no longer complains about his "neck" and while the collar bone injury gave us some minor setbacks in using the potty, we're back on track.  My legs also appear to be on the road to recovery.  I have ran 3 times...or at least ran and walked, which makes me one happy girl.  It's my Christmas miracle. 
• The gift of Heimlich.  Yes, while the 2-yo seems to have healed his collar bone, he decided it would be a fine time to test mom's first aid skills.  I've never done the Heimlich on anyone before and I sure hope I never have to do it again, but I've never been so happy to see not one, but TWO grapes pop out of someones throat before.  Sheesh...never a dull moment with that one.
• The gift of brothers.  Everyone has gotten along amazingly well over this break.  The tattling has been at a minimum, words have been nice and team work has been achieved.  Of course, I'm not stupid (or at least, I still have some common sense left) and my little pea -sized brain tells me that this will not last forever, so maybe it is actually good school resumes on Tuesday before everyone has a chance to erase all of these kumbaya memories I've currently got going on.
• The gift of warm weather.  This may have contributed greatly to the above gift.
• The gift of development.  The baby turned 5-months-old and suddenly he's rolling, sitting and on a solid schedule that is easy to maintain.  I've even witnessed him start scooting himself around to retrieve a toy.  This all is very exciting, but also reminds me that my days are limited until I enter a new realm of "crazy" when I have 4 active, mobile children, two of which have lots of toys with lots of little pieces and one of which that will be putting everything he sees into his mouth.  No.More.Heimlich.Please.
• The gift of friends and family.  Family and old friends in town, parties with new friends, phone conversations with some friends who had been absent from my life for way too long.  Well, it's just plain good for the soul.

Reading this post back to myself, I am surprised to see that it contains a lot of "cheese".  And I'm not usually one for the "cheese".  But, you know, the alternative would be that Christmas Break made me crazy, so I'm last, but not least, thankful for the gift of cheese.