Christmas Traditions

Merry Belated Christmas! Are you exhausted? Is Christmas over for you and now you can focus on your New Year's celebrations?

I have two Christmas celebrations done and two to go. This is not a complaint. We have it pretty easy. No divorced parents to deal with. No traveling to do except the 15 minutes across town. And for the most part - little effort is required by myself which is fantastic. So far I haven't even had to make any food. Well, I did make some sugar cookies for Santa, but the dough was pre-made so I'm not sure that even counts. The frosting was homemade though. And I did mash the dough together so I could cut out Christmas shapes instead of just spoonfuls of dough plopped onto a cookie sheet. I'm not dogging that because that is what I normally would do, but tis the season to be a little crafty I suppose.

We don't have too many out of the ordinary Christmas traditions. Leave cookies out for Santa. We don't care about the reindeer. They can eat the dead grass outside. We'll keep our carrots for some beef stew. I forced Cody to let me read a couple of Christmas books before bed on Christmas Eve. He wanted something else, but I eventually won since I can read and he can't. Dumb ass. We have the Elf on the Shelf,  our elf is a little lazy and forgets to fly to the North Pole each night. He got there about once a week though. We also have the threatening car ride on the way to Grandma's house reminding the kids they have to say thank you after they open each gift even if it is something awful like socks and underwear. This never really works since they are kids and to give a little boy socks, underwear or clothes of any kind is equal to running over a puppy out of spite.

We may have started a new tradition this year. Christmas Eve we were at the in-laws place having a casual dinner and exchanging presents before we had the more traditional dinner the next day with additional guests. It was a BBQ themed dinner - ribs, brisket, pulled pork, BBQ baked beans, cheesy corn, etc. Both of my kids don't really eat. It's not that they fill up on candy or that kind of thing. They just don't eat. The oldest is very small. He eats about 400 calories a day. He's going to be a jockey if I would ever start him on riding lessons. And of course all he cared about was opening presents and the sugar cookies he knew were available for dessert. He's not a fan of BBQ, but this is what was for dinner so you eat it or you starve. No PB&J - at least not in front of the grandparents and other relatives so I can be looked at with judgement that my kid is a terrible eater. So in typical 5-year old fashion he is acting like he's gagging over a tiny spoonful of cheesy corn that we are forcing him to eat. Then he actually gets the spoon into his mouth and I can see it all over his face. This isn't staying down. With the aid of his beloved grandmother he vomits into his plate at the dinner table. Dinner is done, dessert anyone?

With two Christmas parties to go, maybe I can force him to eat something else he doesn't like and we get a full family puke-a-rama going. Now that would be a Merry Christmas.