So long, Santa!

I love the holidays--the decorations, the lights, the music, the time with friends and family, food (ohhh... the food!). Usually by the time Christmas Day gets here, I'm ready for it to be over, but this year was different. I felt like we just didn't have the time to do all the "Christmassy" stuff we'd normally do, like going to see lights, doing crafts with the kids, and watching favorite Christmas movies together. I wasn't even sick of the music on the radio, which is really weird because the station here that plays it only has about 30 songs they repeat endlessly from pre-Thanksgiving through the 25th. Even THAT hadn't gotten on my nerves yet! I had all my gifts squared away, but I just wasn't ready for Christmas yet.

We did our first Christmas on the 24th at my in-laws. It was an all-day affair, but even by the end of the day, I was still excited that we got to do Christmas all over again the next morning. But by the end of the 25th, I had had ENOUGH. And apparently I wasn't the only one. The kids were making us crazy too--Audrey wouldn't open any more gifts, which drove her sister up the wall and she was repeatedly begging to open them for her. They were so grumpy and irritable that from that point on I was DONE. I could have packed up most everything that night and had everyone go back to their normal routines the next day.

I was sick of the cranky moods. I was sick of the mess. I was sick of eating like a disgusting pig and having to keep policing the sugar intake of the kids (which normally can be avoidd because I just don't bring that kind of junk in the house--mostly because I wind up eating it myself.) And I was tired of hearing my husband say to the girls, "Why are you so grumpy? Look at all these toys you just got to play with!" (I mean, seriously, they'd been living on a steady diet of crap with no sleep--you could have each gotten them their very own pony and they'd be pissy at this point!)

We had one more weekend of Christmas to go, though, in New Orleans. I think at this point we were ALL over it. My brother even mentioned that maybe next year we should do NOLA Christmas BEFORE actual Christmas, as the spirit was pretty much gone at this point, and I think he is right. It was hard to get too psyched up about it, and really, all I wanted to do was just get back to our normal, boring, every day routines! And now we have, and it's glorious! Funny how you can't wait for the holidays to get here but once you're into the thick of it, you can't wait for them to be over too!