Christmas 2013 Continued

    We did it! We spent the holidays on our own in the trailer. I was skeptical of it myself, but we pulled it off! We were lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents visit us during the season, but I was still worried it just wouldn't be the same. It wasn't , but it wasn't bad either, it was a good kind of different. Every phone call I made the week of Christmas I heard people saying" it's just not the same" to which I replied, "that's right, every year is different." We still weren't back in the Clear Creek RV park by Christmas, the evacuation order had been lifted but we hadn't had time to move between Ian's work schedule. This gave us a fortunate opportunity to meet some more line families and what better way to get to know one another, than over Christmas cookies! Christmas eve came and Ian got off work early, we had been watching the Star Wars Saga over the week and we only had two more movies to finish it off, so that's what we did. I made a nice big home made lasagna and we watched Star Wars. It was a very testosterone filled Christmas. Our middle child set out cookies for Santa, and everyone went off to bed. A quiet Christmas, but filled with family bonding. I was kind've in a pickle with the whole Santa thing. One of our boys wrote Santa this year and told him what he wanted. We never did the Santa thing with the oldest, but thanks to our ELF on the shelf, some of the boys over here were expecting Santa. That's great and all except I had already put all the presents under the tree, there was nothing else up my sleeve.... so when my son woke up he got this letter in his stocking...

 

My son was a little confused. He said "what does he mean, I got everything I  asked for?" So I reminded him of what his grandparents, uncles and parents got him. He didn't really ask any more questions after that. We had a really good Christmas , the boys got an xbox 360 with kinnect, this was a huge upgrade from our wii and now everyone has access to netflix. Ian got a new guitar, which was a huge upgrade from the one I bought him 11 years ago and I got some awesome, made in the USA, snow boots by LL Bean. Score!

Christmas day , I made twice baked potatoes we heated up a honey baked ham and watched Tommy Boy. Low key but a great day. 

We've been winding down the holidays, I showed the boys where to put all of their new loot. I asked them to clean their room two days in a row and then I exploded. Anybody else with me on this? I went into their room yesterday morning, to put on a workout video and there was stuff everywhere. I couldn't even pile stuff on their beds, because stuff was already piled there. So another tradition was displayed for my kids. The Italian tradition where mom takes out a hefty bag, and bags up all your stuff that wasn't where it belonged. Believe me we had tears. I felt like a big meanie. But they had so much warning. They even had space to put stuff away, I had thought it out so carefully. Every new present had a spot and it was not under their pillows. So reality has set in and everyone is trying to take care of their belongings and earn back the stuff they lost. I'm sure this seems a bit harsh to some of you. The truth is, I don't want to raise children who think they are entitled to stuff and once they get it,  treat it like crap, because we will replace it. I'm torn because I want to shower them with presents but I want them to be responsible. We, who have so much in this day and age, how do we teach our children that possessions are not a right but a privilege? I know this morning when I woke up, their room was already cleaned and they couldn't wait to show me. I'll keep you posted on the rest of the week.

 

---UPDATE-----   So the boys cleaned their room everyday that week. Everyday , when the room was clean, I let them take out a toy from the trash bag. By the end of the week , I brought it all back and they decided they didn't need all of it anyway. So they tossed some of the clutter. I have to say a month later, their room is a mess. Such a work in progress....