I should be sorting laundry or putting away Christmas decorations or, heck, eating breakfast or going back to bed- things I can't really do that well when M is awake, but I wanted to get some reflections on "paper" about our first Christmas as a family of three.
Bottom line, there were many days when I was sure that I would be swallowed up by the preparations of Christmas this year. M is not a very good napper now that she is "older", and when she is awake, of course all I want to do is play with her, so that doesn't make for good conditions for a decorated house or perfectly wrapped gifts. Or Christmas cookies. Or anything else that I would have finished in the second week of December any other year of my life.
Because this year I was a little distracted by an amazing blessing. And I wouldn't trade her for any timely decorations or Christmas cookies.
But I felt a little guilty. It's her first Christmas after all, and isn't it supposed to be perfect? Don't tell her, but we didn't even wrap her gifts from us. (The ones from her aunts/uncles/grandparents were wrapped, of course.) As we were bleary-eyed wrapping one night at 10pm, we couldn't see the point in wrapping gifts that we would be unwrapping for her a week later. She didn't know the difference, right?
We never made it to take her to see Santa. We forgot to take a picture of the three of us in our Christmas outfits (we remembered while she still had her dress on, but we had already gotten into jeans..).
But it all came together. Mr. A helped out alot more than he has ever helped before, and I couldn't have done it without him. We had a nice time visiting his family, and everyone was very thoughtful with their gifts.
It is hard to believe Christmas is already "over", but deep down I am sort of glad. There is so much outside pressure for everything to be perfect, and it was a little overwhelming for me as a new mom. I think it ended up being perfect in its own way, and that's what I'm going to hang onto, not feeling guilty because it wasn't more perfect by someone else's standards.
Because after all, she is a perfect gift to our family, and she is worth celebrating every day of the year :)
6 comments:
All you need are the memories to make it a perfect Christmas. Thinking back, we never wrapped Kate's gifts for her first Christmas. And 20/20 hindsight, we needn't have wrapped this year's either. She really didn't understand what was happening yet. The toys, she likes (although she seemed to prefer the empty boxes initially). The wrapped gifts meant nothing to her; the few decorations I managed to put up, even less. I've learned all the wrapping and the decorating is more for the adults until the kids grow old enough to "get it." I'm told that happens when they're 2 or 3.
I'm glad it turned out to be the perfect Christmas for you and your baby girl. It doesn't take much. You have the perfect gift already. :)
Same situation at our house... Last minute shopping, everyone got gift cards, not much baking... I got Katelyn 2 books that weren't even wrapped. Her daddy got her 2 dresses and did wrap them, but I didnt even know that until I saw that package under the tree on Christmas. We went to 3 different family gatherings and brought absolutely nothing to contribute to the meal. I could go on! But all that is okay. People realize you have a new baby and can't do it all. And she won't remember it anyway. In actuality, Katelyn probably didn't even like Christmas much anyway because she was fussed over and held so much! ;) Next year will be more fun for her!
I totally understand! I realized how much I forgot to do that I always invisioned doing once I had a baby...but like you said, its perfect by just being a family...we have many years to add in all the "extra" Christmas stuff, this year it was time to just take it all in!
You realize the rest of us don't get all that stuff done by the second week of December even without an infant, right? :) It's just you who's crazy organized. And it sounds like you chose all the right things to do and not do. Merry Christmas!
Sounds like a perfect one to me! Hope you all are doing well!
Since having a baby, Amazon is my new best friend! I can get my shopping done in the dead of night when I get up to change a diaper, gets delivered to my door, and I never have to fight crowds. LOL. I'm so lame now, but you just have to find new ways of doing things once you have a baby. I am now dreading the un-decorating here. Taking down the tree and the lights, ugh!
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