Thanks for all the nice comments yesterday! I tried to answer the questions and add a few notes in the comments section. Your kind remarks made it easy to share our story. :)
...
1995 was my most organized Christmas ever! It still hovers in my brain as an impossible standard to try to match each year. Why was I so organized that year? Well, the year before was one of my least organized holidays so I overcompensated. I also had only 1 child (who actually took naps), no yard to take care of, a tiny little house that didn’t require a lot of upkeep, and a hubby who was gone all the time since he was working full time and going to school full time. Even though I was working about 30 hours a week from home as a bookkeeper, my life was much more organized at that time than it is right now.
I decorated a high window ledge in our rental home kitchen. The kitchen had green shag carpet. lol! I was pretty proud of myself for this little display though.
I hung up a Santa advent calendar and I put a treat in the pocket each night for Alex to find in the morning.
I had all of our presents purchased and wrapped by the first of December. That is the ONLY year in my entire life that I have pulled that off! It was easy to buy for a 2 year old boy.
The big gift for Alex was a portable ball pit. We had taken him to a few ball pits at playplaces and he would always have a huge meltdown when we had to leave. (see yesterday’s post). So being the geniuses that we were (and are) we bought our own ball pit. He loved it!
He was totally into Barney (major obsession) so he got some Barney videos too. He enjoyed snuggling with Daddy and lots of blankies on the couch.
We even had him take a picture of us! Of course we had to wait until it was developed to see how it turned out.
I remember taking most of these photos on Christmas morning so I know we spent the morning at home just the 3 of us. I’m not sure how we divided up Christmas Eve and Christmas Day between our two families who lived fairly close by. I do remember this as being a happy and peaceful Christmas.
1994 was a crazy Christmas for me! I had so many stomach problems during my pregnancy in 1993 (I’ve always had a lot of tummy issues) and they never went away after Alex was born. I used to get deathly ill if I ate pizza. Then it became a lot of other things. I actually lost quite a bit of weight because I got sick so often. We finally figured out that it was my gallbladder. I had an ultrasound and I had tons of tiny little gallstones. The doctors said I needed surgery (I hate surgery!) and since my husband was working full time and going to school full time, I needed to do it over his Christmas break if I wanted any help with Alex. I was working about 30 hours a week from home as a bookkeeper (for my Dad). I also worked occasionally for the business where my hubby worked. I always had a lot of extra work at Christmas time for both jobs because I would address all the Christmas cards. We desperately needed the money so I was always glad for the work. I also washed and folded muslin wraps for hubby’s work. In later years, I even sewed them. We had been “lucky” enough to get a HUGE batch of these wraps to be done and there was no way I was going to turn down the opportunity even if I was sick and preparing for surgery. Our apartment was literally overflowing with blue pieces of fabric. There was hardly even a place to sit down!
In fact, I’m sitting on the floor in this photo because our couch was full of wraps. And there are still more in the background! And my glasses are GINORMOUS! silly
In the middle of all this chaos, two of my high school friends dropped in on my one day for a visit. Just out of the blue. I was sooooo embarrassed. Our apartment was very messy. Christmas cards for two companies spread out all over the table, Bookkeeping papers all over the desk. Pieces of blue fabric in every nook and cranny. My son crawling around in an undershirt watching Barney on tv. I could tell that they were embarrassed for me. They kept offering to help but I was just mortified over the whole experience. Neither one of them has ever dropped by for a visit again. I can’t say I blame them. I shouldn’t have answered the door. I must have thought it was a package or something. I was ready the next year for anyone, but no drop ins that year. It figures.
Anyhoo… it all got done somehow and I had surgery on December 22nd which was a Thursday. Christmas was on a Sunday that year. I remember that I didn’t feel all that great on Christmas, but I made it through the whole thing. I also felt much better once I got my gallbladder removed and got all healed up.
We were so excited to give Alex this Little Tikes playset. It had a door and a mailbox and he was completely fascinated with opening and closing doors. He used to hide under our kitchen sink cupboard all the time. We had to leave it empty so he could crawl in there.
Barney rain boots from Grandma and Grandpa. He wore these for years!
The box is the best gift of all!
.
1993 was our first year as parents at Christmas. We went to Kiddie Kandids in Cottonwood Mall to have Alex’s picture taken as a surprise gift for all the Grandparents. Someone who knew hubby’s parents saw us and told his parents what we were doing though and spoiled the surprise. Note – if you see young parents at Kiddie Kandids right before Christmas, don’t tell their families that you saw them! Hello!
Look how cute he is
We giggled over his fist pump for a long time. He was only 2 months old in this photo but he was such a chunk! He was 10 lbs. 5 oz. when he was born though so he got a running start on the size thing!
And I don’t seem to have any other pictures of “Baby’s First Christmas” – feeling like the worst Mom evah! How can that be? I didn’t take a lot of pictures back then though. That makes me sad. I currently have Grandmas checking their stashes so I’m still hopeful
.
…
Want to play along? What was your most organized Christmas? How about your least organized? Any embarrassing stories of friends coming to visit when your house was a disaster?
