Monday, December 28, 2009

Change is different

Things change. I know this. Everything changes even Christmas.

At my house this year here are a few things that changed:

* On the Eve, I only had a couple of gifts to wrap that were last minute purchases. The boys were sequestered in a room doing wrapping of their own. We could hear them having more fun that gift wrapping normally warrants and we were suspicious but it was nice to hear.

* Santa was summoned to the workshop. They boys couldn't wrap a perfect square. They had gone through half a roll of paper before calling me in to show them how to wrap. Over exuberance of fun was now understood.

* I woke up by myself. I went and prepped a light breakfast, tidied up the kitchen, got batteries for the camera, let the dog out, fed the dog and then

* I woke up the family to open gifts. This was completely new. I have always been the one woken up not the one waking others on this particular morning.

* Sleepy children and hubby gathered around the dinning room table all wanting coffee before opening gifts. I was the only one excited about the gift opening.

* They started with the stockings because they were closer and didn't require getting up. They could easily open the items while drinking their coffee.

* I had to urge them to open the gifts under the tree from Santa. They dragged their chairs over to the tree. No kids sat on the floor scrambling to grab gifts. They in a very civilized manner opened one gift after the other placing the garbage in the bag which hubby supplied.

* Everyone calmly left their gifts behind to dress and go to another house to deliver gifts. It was all very grown-up.

* At the homes of others where we delivered gifts they handed them out one by one waiting for each person to open their and react to the surprise inside. There was no mad dash around the house handing everything out at once.

What didn't change. I still blinded them with the flash of the camera. We all had a good time.

Things change but change can be good. My kids are all grown up and that was very apparent this Christmas but that's a good thing.

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