In our family, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day (European holiday). To me, it is the start of the Christmas season. We set our shoes out on the night of Dec. 5th and St. Nicholas fills them during the night while we sleep. It's always fun to see what he brings. Adam and Matt quite enjoy this. Matt was telling me on Sunday, before putting out our shoes, that he had asked one of his friends at church if St. Nicholas was coming to his house and if he was putting out his shoes. He told Matt, "no". Matt then said, "we're so lucky that St. Nicholas comes to our house".
This year, Adam and Matt each received a 2011 calendar, socks, shirt, hat, Crunch bars, toothbrush, gummis, book, activity pad, and beef jerky. Gavin got baby food (hawaiian delight), finger puppets and a stuffed lion. Rob and I received a calendar and planner, Lebkuchen, gummis, clementines, beef jerky, Applebees giftcard, and a German ornament and magnet. We must have been extra good this year because our shoes were overflowing.
We put out or tree and decorations this weekend, too. In the past I've been known as a bit of a tree-nazi but am trying to let the boys help decorate. However, last night ended up being a wrestling match, fighting over who got to put the German ornaments on the tree. This made me very anxious and uptight because those ornaments aren't really replaceable. So, my dilemma is--do I let them help decorate and run the risk of irreplaceables getting broken, or do I be a meanie and decorate myself in order to ensure nothing gets broken? Arrgh--if they were no fighting we wouldn't have this issue? Why can't we just all get along?
4 comments:
Just give them a choice. You can help but you can't fight. What's it going to be? Do I sound like Dad? Or you could always threaten a beat down from Holly. How does the moose oranment look?
How about this idea -- choose some ornaments for the boys to put on the tree. When they are done, send them to bed. You then decorate the rest of the tree as a surprise for them in the morning.
You sound more like Rodney King than Adolf Hitler.
I let my kids have a small tree in their room that they can decorate themselves. We replace their lamps in their rooms and it works out great!!! Then I can be the tree nazi and it's ok!
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