You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘holiday’ tag.
The big four kids are actually in this picture, sitting under the table which holds their pumpkins. I’m not really a photo-taking genius. Or even average.
and I mean that in the plural noun sense, not the singular verb sense.
So far, it’s been a good Christmas, especially for our first one as foster parents. I certainly hope there are many more, but this one has been mostly a success.
One of the biggest problems is due to the fact that Mark and Nikki’s relatives provided two big sacks of gifts for them. Some problem, huh? It was quite a blessing. However, their family, it seems, does the traditional ‘open-everything-at-once’ on the 25th. And then Christmas is over. Husband and I decided several years ago to spread out the present opening over the whole Christmas season, a la The Twelve Days of Christmas.
(We still haven’t gotten a satisfactory answer on when Christmas officially ends. It seems there are three big choices: Jan. 6 (Epiphany), the Sunday after (Baptism of Christ) or Feb. 2 (Candlemas), depending on your denomination.)
Anyway, it’s usually worked for us. But with Mark and Nikki’s presents, things have gotten off-balance. I unwrapped and checked their presents, but then I rewrapped them, so I don’t know what they will be each morning until they open them. That came to a head on Saturday, when Nikki unwrapped socks and shoes, Mark unwrapped two pairs of shoes, and Junior got a cool dinosaur fighting toy. Yeah, I don’t blame them for having green eyes and grumbling voices.
So I guess I’ll either have everyone open all their presents, or I’ll have to try and give my kids lame presents too. It’s all a bit complicated for me; I like Christmas to be as simple as I can make it, and this is just not working like it usually does. But I really like my Christmas traditions! Whaaa whaaa…
Oh, and one more minor fail: this morning, Nikki unwrapped Battleship (the game). An odd choice for a 5-year old girl, yes? I thought so too when I checked it, but I’m not here to question their choices, so I let it go. It just occurred to me they probably mislabeled it, and it was supposed to be Mark’s, which also makes sense because Nikki has 3 extra presents.
