Christmas 2010...revisited

Christmas has come and gone, and once again it feels like it went so fast. This year was very different. We didn't do our usual Christmas eve activities, and we didn't "travel" around at all. It was a very peaceful, stress free holiday, and I loved every minute of it! Mike and I decided to have our little Christmas with the girls on Christmas Eve.

The Christmas story was read on the pull out couch,the night before.
The girls finished out the evening with a  little sleepover downstairs by the fire.

Christmas eve morning we let them open our gifts to them and check out the goodies in their stockings.

Christmas morning my parents came up for breakfast and more presents.

After a few games, and dare I say, a nap from a few people :-0
 we made lunch together and proceeded to consume a more than imaginable amount of calories.

It was a very enjoyable day. To make sure that we didn't repeat the major consuming of calories the next day, our chickens got to enjoy a lot of the left overs. ;-) Hey, it's their Christmas too!

One of our gifts to the girls was not paid for in money. It was paid in time and sweat! We decided Christmas day that we would give them something special. A little over a year ago we moved all the girls into one bedroom. We didn't do this because we were short on rooms. I had a vision in my brain of the girls bonding and talking about their day after they were tucked in bed, which they did into the wee hours of the night!!  I had wanted them to have a close relationship. I was the younger sister growing up, and was never allowed in my sister's room. I remember being so frustrated by this injustice, that I hid under her bed and proceeded to mark up her handmade doll from our great Aunt, with lipstick. This plan did not work out the way I had planned, and I think my bum was sore for several days, ;-) I didn't want that same situation here. I realized not to long ago, that in my trying to force that relationship, that maybe I was hindering it a bit. One of the princesses is very responsible and doesn't want a messy room. One has a touch of OCD and has to have everything just so. And yet the other is an adventure taker that finds joy in seeing how big of a mess she can make and still not contract a disease. With this hodge podge of personalities, it left one doing the major cleanup, while the others did their own thing. Now I do believe that responsibility is a learned thing, and I kept waiting it out, trying to use this as a teaching moment. They haven't complained (too much) about the sharing of a room, but the other day I overheard them talking to a friend. They were expressing their desire to have their own room.  An HGTV special on Christmas afternoon got my brain a thinking. I talked it over with Sweet Man, and we decided right then and there to surprise them with their own room. It took most of Christmas day and the day after, but we are pretty happy with the results. And the girls, well they are too!!

We couldn't decide which room to give each girl. The downstairs formal dining room was going to be up for grabs, and they all wanted it. We are not formal dining room type people. This room just sat empty, except for the Christmas tree this year. I had dreamed of getting a very large farm table to put in this space, but when I saw the price tag for that table, I dismissed the idea very quickly! We numbered each room and then had the girls draw numbers. Hope was the lucky winner for this room.

Sadie got the second bedroom, which was Sweet Man's office.
Didn't I say he was sweet?!
He moved his desk back into our room, and hung the pink curtains back up ;-)

 

Grace drew number 3, which was the room they were already in.
She took it very well, and I was so proud of her. 

I was worried that they would get that attitude of "this is MY space"...
but this is what I woke up to the next day.

Grace went straight to Sadie's room to read her a book, and I got to snuggle in Hope's bed, and just have some alone time with her. Where was Sweet Man you ask? Well he was enjoying his room too.....as in sleeping in =)