The delayed Christmas 2014 post. This blog is for me and my future self anyhow and my future self won't care about these delays. Guilt alleviated.

The holiday season is choc full of blogging material. Not because of the nostalgia and perfect beauty of the season--but because kids will still cry and tantrum and make you want to lose your mind even on the Baby Jesus' Birthday!  Our Christmas season was full of some good ol' norman rockwell experiences and some run of the mill toddler tantrums. A good mix of both I'd say.


Christmas Kick Off
Don't be fooled by the pic! Tears were shed, kids were lost and fights
were had, but look at how cute the tree is!
We got the season off to a great start with the annual trip to get the tree. We almost always go out to cut our own tree--a Hurst family tradition that I have dragged Ryan into (initially kicking and screaming but now he goes along with the crazy tree cutting plan with gusto). This year we had been traveling for Thanksgiving and thought maybe the parking lot tree idea was sounding nice--so that was the plan until Ben said "mom, wemember when we cut our twee and we saw santa cwaus and had a candy cane? I wuvved dat!"  So, the tree trip was planned and executed. Our dear friends came along on the adventure with their three young kids so the whole trip was crazy fun with a few melt downs thrown in (Ollie took the tantrum award from the 2013 reigning champ, Ben) and even a good solid marital argument towards the end.  The kids got to see Santa and I was able to capture the classic toddler-screaming-on-Santa's-lap-pic that we all strive for. All was good in the end and we actually had a really fun day kicking off the season by decorating our tree, hanging lights and capping the day off with a family movie night (Elf of course) and a trip to see an amazing neighborhood light show.


Watching the light show in PJs from the (parked) minivan window. 

The backpack boys of 2014 may be the new tantrum champs of 2015!


















Seasonal Festivities
The season was peppered with fun activities. We saw Santa more times than I can count. Don't worry--I didn't make Jack sit with him every time--only once. The kids got to build wooden toys with 'elves' at snowflake castle and even paint them which would send me into a tizzy if I attempted this same task at home but the elves seemed ok with it. We read many a Christmas book including The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to the kids for the first time--one of my favorite books. Once we finished the book we were able to see the the play at Columbus Children's Theatre. I loved sharing this story with the kids and almost dissolved into tears myself at the end when Gladys Herdman is crying and holding the baby Jesus doll like a newborn baby--gets me every time!  If you haven't read it yet, put it on the list of 'to dos' for next Christmas. 
We made Christmas cookies as well which is definitely a labor of with young kids--it is not easy and I have to tell anti-mess Heather to just relax and let it be. It's memory making at it's finest. This year Jack got in on the action--kind of. We handed him a ball of dough and didn't let him in on the secret of its delicious. For the first 15 minutes he thought it was play dough and happily shaped it and then next time I looked over his tray was empty--He tasted of the glory that is cookie cough and then he just plain started screaming for more. My sentiments about cookie dough exactly.  







This year Ben had his first Christmas concert for preschool. I wasn't sure what to expect--although I thought I might get teary eyed with this being a 'first' for my little man. However, it was such a trip that the only tears that were shed were secondary to laughter. He was one of the first on stage and he was squinting into the lights desperately searching for us with a confused squinched up face while slowly waving--until he saw us and then his whole demeanor changed and he was waving wildly with his entire body and smiling from ear to ear. He spent the entirety of 'Jingle Bells' with his bell shoved completely in his mouth and took it out every once and awhile to yell 'hey!' and did some impressive booty shaking during a couple of other numbers. It was very cute and thankfully very short. Props to those preschool teachers for their immeasurable patience!




This him (in center in the green--the taller one) looking around completely confused and concerned, looking for us. 

. . . and he found us! 


On Christmas Eve day the older 3 made a ginger bread house while Jack napped. We then went to our Christmas Eve service where the girls got their chance to be in the children's choir for the first time. I was the proud mother filming front and center.  Our church always does a great job with the music and at one point Grace was sitting on Ryan's lap in her little lace dress with her head on his shoulder and Lydia snuggled on mine and I truly wanted to freeze time. Does it get better than this? 




The Day Arrives

Christmas with littles is a double edged sword--it is so much fun with a tremendous amount of anticipation and joy--but kids will be kids even on Christmas.  We started the day with tears from the girls--Grace our early bird woke up excited of course about the day. She went to wake her sister who --hmm, shall we say --needs some time to warm up in the morning. Lydia instantly burst into tears from her interrupted sleep and Grace proceeded to burst into tears because Lydia cried when she tried to wake her up. Benson was happily investigating his stocking during this craziness

--side story--Ben's stocking had been a source of frustration for him and us too ever since we hung it up this year. Every day he would ask if we had filled it yet and any time there was a Christmas themed 'event' he thought it was the real Christmas, hence his stocking should be stuffed. So each time he was disappointed and went into a snit about his stocking! On Christmas morning he was elated to finally have his stocking filled but his happiness lasted about 5 hours--after his nap he woke up and asked us if we filled his stocking again and was angry that it was not re-stuffed with goodies as had been that morning.  This went on every single day until we finally took the stockings down for the year!!!

--the rest of the morning went on in typical Christmas morning fashion with littles--rip, squeal, play, fight over whose turn it is, rip, squeal, play, eat candy, play, rip, eat more candy, etc, etc. You get the idea. I am not a napper but even I took my annual nap that afternoon to recover from the morning.



Ben in his John Deere get up and Lydia sporting her new leotard


One of my favorite things about Christmas with kids this age is their adorable homemade gifts. The kids were so excited to give make and give gifts for Christmas. They planned secret crafts, pilfered my gift bag collection and squirreled things away for weeks, just waiting for the day they could give it away. They made gifts for us as well as for each other and watching them open gifts from their sibs and reacting so sweetly and graciously was priceless. They decided on their own to stuff our stockings with drawings and sweet notes and even dipped into their piggy banks to unselfishly share their precious coins. 











We ended the evening reading the Christmas story, all cuddled up on our bed, bringing it back home to the true gift of Christmas, the gift of a baby--a baby who was probably just a little like my babies --and a mom who was probably just a little like me--wanting to savor these priceless (and yet sometimes challenging) moments.