In Captivity

Here sits our lonely tree. I broke down and bought the mondo octagon gate due to one very busy 18 month old who will remain nameless. I thought I was outsmarting his roadrunner-like pace and super-stretchy-arms and whatever super-hero qualities he seems to be hiding from me, but to no avail. Super busy baby can climb inside of the gate, but that was before discovering that he could slide the gate to reach his own new private collection of ammunition (Christmas balls) to throw at the great big green target (afore mentioned tree in captivity). Did I mention my right eye has a twitch?

roadrunner with super hero powers

Every year since having the three musketeers, I have tried to make tree trimming night a fun family night together, in hopes of creating the same magical memories I had with my family as a child. This year was especially exciting for me because Bailey and Jake are old enough now to really remember this Christmas. We had decided to put up our tree the night before we left to Utah for thanksgiving so that when we got home it would be shining in all its Christmasy spirit and glory when we returned ready to start our Christmas season. This year I had grand expectations, and just a little bit too much on my plate it turns out.

As if packing for a trip with three small children (okay, just taking care of 3 small children) isn't chaotic enough, I wanted to finish getting packages together to take to Utah with me (which included baked goods and candies), I had started this whole 12 days of Christmas project to do with my 30 or so 8-11 year olds at church (which for starters included 6, no kidding 6 hours of cutting tags with my Cricut cutter) and of course I wanted a clean house for tree decorating night so we could get out the video camera and take pictures without toys and laundry running amuk (Carter loves to drag laundry all over, and socks, lots and lots of socks). And maybe this still doesn't seem undoable, but there are no words to fully explain the storm that brewed in my head.

Not to sound like I think I am the greatest, but I am often pretty impressed with myself when it comes to multitasking and time management and get frustrated when it all doesn't work out how I planned. Well, I think the motherboard in my brain shorted out. It got fried. Too many details for one mama to keep up there. And I was so sad that our fun night didn't go as planned. For one thing, the kids ran around for close to two hours repeatedly asking me if they could put the "ordnamets" on the tree yet. You see, I was making batch after batch of lollipops, and various other stuff that I must have blocked from my memory. They were so patient. We finally got to the decorating part, and promised that we would all have a sleep over party in the living room that night by the tree. We were supposed to drink hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie, sing Christmas songs, and read a Christmas book. Together. Well, the kids did all of it, minus mom and dad, who were running around in the mess of it until 12:30 that night when Bailey came into our room and asked for probably the 20th time if we were going to come in for the sleepover party now that the movie was over. Yes, Bailey, we will be there in a minute. We are liars. They fell asleep, and so did we in exhaustion - in our own bed. Bailey was so, so disappointed in the morning when she woke up and saw we never came in. I feel so bad! I ruined her tree night memories, and what's worse, she will remember for reals this year!!!

Our little devil

Our little angel

My personal super hero. Isn't he handsome? even lying there under that tree, rugged and taking charge. He should have his own calendar. Sorry ladies, this ones all mine.

I really did it to myself this time. I literally have walked around in a daze until this past week, that is one reason I haven't posted in so long! I know that I cannot be everything to everyone and still have fuel left over to put in my own tank. I definitely paid the price this time for trying to "do it all." I am learning through my own life lessons, that it is okay to set limits on what you can do with your time. I just had a real reality check this time around, and in the future, I plan to do things differently.