There are generally two kinds of holiday stress I experience yearly. The stress from my expectations of myself and the stress from other people's expectations of me. The first is by far the most hazardous. I'm a bit of Chevy Chase's character from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation as it is, but throw being a month post op in there and I really don't cut myself any slack.
Mike grew up with one set of traditions, I grew up with another and now we have a family of our own. For the past several years we've failed to mesh everything very well. I started formulating an idea over the spring to give my parents a chance to join Mike's extended family goings on separately. That way it'd be less segmented and fewer stops for the kids. In the end the schedule worked out that we'd see my Dad and his wife the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Mike's Dad's side for dinner that night and I'd forgo my midnight mass in favor of rest. My mom joined us Christmas morning for Mike's Mom's side's brunch and for dinner with just our family.
I always got up in my PJs and opened presents and had breakfast with my family before I went anywhere on Christmas. Mike always got up took a look in his stocking and rushed out. We've been doing it his way, because he has more extended family here. It was really tough this year, I don't know if it was the toddler or my post op status or all of the DIY projects leading up to it, but I was really worn out by it all!
I busted my butt shopping early to make sure the kids had a good Christmas and got lukewarm reactions from Isaac which hurt. I had my DIY gifts done 2wks early and Mike waited until the last minute to finish up which was stressful. I took the time to put rollers in my hair, but it wasn't all the way dry and my curls fell out before dinner. We had to run back to the house between the restaurant and the family gathering to grab a missed gift and Riley announced as we were pulling out the driveway she had to potty and then didn't make it to the toilet in time. We didn't get home until 11pm on Christmas Eve. So, logistically I feel I missed some things.
My kids who never sleep past 7am, ever, woke up at 8am Christmas morning (brunch started at 8am). All that being said, while it took me years to get melding the families down I do feel we were successful this year. Now if I can only work out the logistics of getting us where we need to be on time, looking pretty and feeling less exhausted by next year we'll be golden.
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