Hustle and Bustle

The first Christmas for my kids they were only 3 months old and we traveled to see all of our family. It was perfect. They were babies so they didn't know the difference and we were able to visit family out of the state and out of the country. We decided to stay at home for their second Christmas to make everything easier for all of us.

Posing with part of the ICE exhibit

Two little penguins (and their Daddy)

I wanted to take the kids to see everything special around the metroplex. I had a long list and we were on the go and did most of it in the weeks before Christmas. First up was a Charlie Brown Ice exhibit. The best part was seeing my little penguins waddle around. We also visited scenic places to take photos, we visited Santa, we went to a historic village to see carolers, we went on a sleigh ride, we went to the town square to watch a parachuting Santa (he was rescheduled due to high winds), and on and on and on.

I think these are breakable!

We were always on the go and rushed. While my kids love being out and about it wasn't as easy and fun as I had imagined. Turns out, once again, the research was right and I was wrong. It's better to do a few fun things and enjoy your time together, rather than trying to fit in everything and being stressed making it all work. Here we are a year later and my kids only have two strong memories of that Christmas.

That guy's really tall.

The first memory they have is making gingerbread houses. I admit we don't do as much 3-diminsional art as we should, so that may be why this stood out. This will be an annual tradition.

We each did a gingerbread house.

Their other memory is what they got for Christmas in their stockings. They don't seem to remember that these specific toys came out of the stockings, but they do remember getting these toys for Christmas. We didn't go out and buy the newest, fanciest toys for Christmas. My kids already have more toys than they know what to do with. We rotate toys and for their second Christmas we simply rotated some toys into their stockings. They loved pulling out the dolls and balls. We gave our sweet daughter a pink doll and our charming son a blue doll. They immediately traded and have loved those dolls ever since. Our daughter calls her doll by our son's name and our son calls his doll by our daughter's name. That makes much more sense than giving dolls based on expected gender colors. Leave it to one year olds to out smart the adults. :-)

There are toys in here!

So my advice, based on my own error as well as research, is don't do too much. Schedule some quiet weekends during this busy season and enjoy each other rather than getting mixed up in the hustle and bustle of the season.

I want her doll, not this blue one...