It was nearly midnight last night when all the dishes had been cleaned, leftovers put away, and my wife and I finally crawled into bed. We survived the Christmas marathon! Every year it’s some variation of the same theme… a few moments of quiet before the storm in the morning, before the kids bound down the stairs unable to contain their excitement at some ungodly early hour. Next, there’s the holding period of at least an hour trying to appease them with either a stocking stuffer or one small gift before the calvary of grandma and auntie arrives. Then it’s like a scene out of a Toys R Us fever dream with wrapping paper flying in the air and kids screaming. At one point I swear Sloane (the six year old) was simply picking up random gifts and opening them for the sheer thrill of tearing wrapping paper.

If I’m lucky, (which this year I was thanks to my sister helping out), breakfast is ready and we’re able to seamlessly move from one scheduled activity to the next. By then it’s 11am, time for the first clean up of the day while the extended relatives gathered for the morning scatter back to their respective homes until Christmas evening dinner. For my wife, there’s no rest for the weary as she spent the next several hours preparing another memorable feast.

Meanwhile, I spent most of mid-day on Christmas following my recent tradition: helping the girls with whatever new gadget they’ve acquired. This year it was trying to set up the VR game (unsuccessfully) and watching some NBA basketball. I agree with Lebron James, I love football, but Christmas is for basketball. Though I will admit we all gathered around the television before dinner to watch the Beyonce Bowl (I mean the Ravens vs. Texans game halftime show).

We also went on a long bike/skating/dog walking (with 2 dogs!) adventure in the neighborhood which was an amazing way to get the kids out of the house and out of Samantha’s way for a few hours. We ended the evening around the TV again, this time to enjoy one of our favorites, The Star. It was a nice way to end the day, cuddled up together as a family making one more memory.

It wasn’t until last night after dinner, that I remembered just how much of an exhausting day Christmas can be, particularly for parents of young children or those with hosting duties. Personally, I love having a house full of guests and I even enjoy the laughter of children playing (outside of course lol). But it is taxing. My hope is that the juice is worth the squeeze as they say. That we’re creating life long core memories. But, who knows what they’ll remember from these days. It all feels like a blur to me while it’s happening since there’s so much to do. My new favorite part of Christmas seems to be the day afterwards… because there are no expectations for how I get to spend my time. There’s nowhere for me to be, nothing to prepare. I simply get to be, for a whole day. Last night as she prepared to head home my mother in law asked if we have anything planned for tomorrow, and we gleefully responded, not a thing.

SDW3