THE GOOD , THE BAD AND THE UGLY

So I am feeling bad about writing pretty much nothing of substance on this blog of mine as of late. But as I have mentioned in the measly 3 posts I have managed to write this month; things have been a special sort of crazy around here.

What has this month consisted of?

Getting the Christmas tree up and decorated, stockings up on the mantle, other Christmas decor out of boxes and strategically placed around the house, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, shopping some more, wrapping some more, crying about how much was spent, wrapping some more, going to Holiday parties, keeping the kids from eating every last Christmas cookie and Holiday treat at said parties, finishing up last minute shopping, making sure every child has exactly the same amount of gifts under the tree, as if one child has 4 and the other has 5, there would be hell to pay..... And in the middle of all this there was still the standard getting the kids to and from school, managing after school activities, homework, play dates, and all that other good stuff.... Christmas Eve morning was spent opening presents at our house, and attempting to get the toys they were given out of the boxes [which we all know is next to impossible with all the twisty ties, tape and other crap they use to make certain they are not removed easily.]Christmas Eve afternoon was spent at The Mr's side opening gifts and eating dinner, Christmas Eve evening [sounds weird, but you get what I am saying] was spent at home preparing for Santa, Christmas morning we were up at the crack of dawn with 4 out of 5 of our little monkeys at our bedside begging to go downstairs to see what Santa brought, opening Santa gifts, cleaning up mounds of wrapping paper, bows, tissue paper and boxes, Christmas afternoon was spent at my parents house opening gifts and having dinner while the kids played.

Whew.

And that wasn't the end of it.

After all of this, the kids still had another FULL week off of school. So this week we have been keeping busy building lego castles, meeting friends for play dates, playing new video games, breaking up fights, coloring, crafting, making creations with their new Bendaroo's, managing 4 very overtired kids from all of the holiday festivities, and dealing with their incessant ramblings of, "I am sooo bored! There is nothing to doooo!"

On top of all this I have a baby that will take a nap lasting no longer than 20 minutes during the day - which makes it next to impossible to get anything accomplished. You know, like throw in a load of laundry, make lunch, pry Anthony and Lucas apart after their wrestling turned into an all out brawl, change the sheets on Ava's bed after Liv decided she didn't want to use the toilet and peed all over them...

Wow. Now that was one hell of a tangent. My sincerest apologies for the tremendous amounts of run on sentences and general lack of flow of this here masterpiece. All this stuff is just pouring out faster than my hands can type - forget about it sounding good, right?

So there you have it, a little bit of the bad, a little bit of the ugly.

I must say, not all of it was bad. Actually, I believe the good most definitely outweighed the bad. You are probably thinking, "yah, right lady, you just bitched and moaned for paragraphs on end about how much work was put into it and what a pain in the ass it all was. What could possibly have been good about it for you?" And I would understand this train of thought, but as I have said before, I am all about keeping it real. And the Holiday season is not all about carolers happily knocking on your front door singing beautiful Christmas songs, sipping egg nog at the kitchen table while the kids play peacefully by the tree with their toys, family gathering around the fireplace reminiscing about Christmas' past.... You get what I am saying, it ain't all sunshine and roses all of the time.

With that said, we really did have some great moments. Breakfast with Santa...

As you can probably tell from the pictures, this event was very successful, with everyone enjoying themselves to the full extent. Well, I should say everyone but my Liv Grace. Don't get me wrong, she was a delight the whole time - except when Santa came anywhere near her. When this happened, she went into a sort of panic I have never seen before. Her eyes widened, her legs began to shake and she would cry like she had just seen a horrible goulish monster. Aunt Cindy and I took turns holding her and comforting her whenever the big horrible monster, AKA Santa, came within 20 feet of her. This seemed to keep her panic attacks at bay for the remainder of the Breakfast.

And to think she was the one who could not stop talking about meeting Santa, hugging him and sitting on his lap for days before this event.

As you can imagine, when it came time to take a picture with him she wanted nothing, and I mean nothing to do with him. I tried a few times to get her to go up and sit on the ground next to him, explaining she did not actually need to sit on his lap, and the answer was a firm "no." The grip she had around my neck was a nice reminder as to her seriousness on this whole not wanting to go near Santa thing.

And let me tell you the funniest part of this whole ordeal - as we were on our way home, she started in on wanting to see Santa again. Telling me how much she loved him, and wanted to hug him and sit on his lap. Seriously. That's my Liv Grace.

And Christmas itself was really quite memorable. It is always such a magical time of year for the kids, and I so love that. Watching their faces as they tear open presents in excitement - wondering what they will find, putting out the cookies and milk for Santa to snack on when he arrives[which I admit, we forgot to do this year], staying up late unable to fall asleep in anticipation of his arrival.... all that sort of good stuff. It makes me happy to see them happy, excited and full of the ever so magical Christmas spirit.

On top of all that, time spent with family always seems to be sweeter this time of year. There is always lots of wine to drink, lots of kids running around full of all that Christmas energy, lots of laughing - and I mean the good kind, where you laugh until you cry; until your stomach hurts. Lots of joking around - like when Anna and I sang some Christmas tunes in an ever so serious manner and so very out of tune that Grammy looked at us in disgust, put her hand on her forehead and with a big sigh said, "what happened? I am the only one that was lucky enough to get the gift of a good singing voice? You would never be invited into our church choir." [Anna and I being the ones joking, Grammy, not so much.] And the funny thing about all this is that Grammy, God bless her heart, has a terrible singing voice. And this little tidbit made us laugh that much harder.

Yes, their were infectious amounts of jokes, laughs, drinks, and all that jazz on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. And it was all had with family. So very much of the good.

So there you have it. The Shelton Holiday season, chalk full of the good, the bad and the ugly. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Christmas is sneaking right up on us, isn't it? 3 more days and counting, and I still have some shopping and wrapping to do. As busy as I am, I really do love this time of year.

I was all set to write a longer post, but as I type this Miss Liv Grace is pulling on my arm, crying for a snack. It is slowly turning into a melt down of grand proportions, so I must go.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[My apologies for the poor quality of this picture. I was having trouble uploading it from the site I made it on.]

HOLY HECK, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Not sure what happened, but December has flown by and I have only posted once. Actually, I take that back, I know exactly what happened; the Holidays happened.

I have been busy shopping, wrapping, shopping some more, surfing the net in search of the perfect one of a kind gift for certain someones and of course finding something only to realize it is going to take an act from God in order to get it in time for Christmas because I waited too long to order it.... You know how it goes. On top of all this gift buying/wrapping stress, we have been running from Holiday party, to Holiday party [don't get me wrong, they are fun and all, but too much of anything is never good. Yes, even Holiday parties.] And let's not forget the regular old run of the mill things going on - running to dance, hockey practice for Anthony and Lucas, play dates, and other after school activities. Oh, and the added stress of continuing to try and get Olivia potty trained and off of the Nuk. Both of which I thought I had licked in November, but it turns out Olivia is a smart little girl and understands that if Mom is crazy busy in an attempt to get a million things accomplished in a short period of time, she can grab her nuk and go to town on it all day long, or she can choose to poo in her pants, pee on the wood floor, or sometimes in her potty chair if she feels so inclined. [I know, crazy run on sentence, but it seems fitting, so I will just go with it.]

And top it all off, I received my credit card statement in the mail yesterday, and just about choked on the chips I was eating at the time, when I read the balance. For the love of everything that is good and holy was that out of control. I honestly had to go online and go through my purchases as I was convinced there had to be some mistake. Alas, I found there was no mistake.

And this is when the meltdown began.

It was a meltdown of grand proportions that entailed a phone call to the Mr. in tears, trying to explaining through my sobbing that I wanted nothing, absolutely nothing for Christmas. That I spent way too much money and I don't know how I did it as I thought I had really stayed on a good budget. That I was so upset and felt sick to my stomach as I had received the credit card statement for the month. That I was such a terrible spender and couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. That it was all my fault the credit card bill was so high and that I was good for nothing except spending money.

Yep, I was upset and a tad bit dramatic about the whole thing. That's the way I roll, like it or not. All this was followed by the Mr. telling me it was alright, and that we would get back on track in January, and telling me to calm down and not worry....

Whew, It was a doozy.

So this is where I have been. Busy doing all the things one does around the Holiday season, trying to keep up with life as I know it, and making an effort to not lose my mind in the process. So please forgive the lack of posts as of late.

All this, and I have to say that I have finally seen the light. It is the Holiday season, and I am supposed to be enjoying this time of year. Not stressing about all of the above. So I am going to forget about it all, sit back, and enjoy it in all it's splendor.

Lord help me.

MOMENTS

3 of my 5 little bugs were watching T.V. together this morning. Lucas and Liv were all snuggled up with their blankets and throw pillows from the couch, with Nathan comfortably sitting in his Bumbo chair.

It's little moments like this that help me forget about all the fighting over toys, name calling, and whining, and help remind me that they really do love each other. And that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.