ScrumpyDaddy

Well…I am finally getting to blogging about Christmas Day. Christmas Day was wonderful. We just lounged around all day and didn’t have to go anywhere. This year we stayed home for the day and had another Christmas the next day at my in-laws house.

We stayed in our PJs all day long and just got to enjoy being together and trying out our new toys. If you have seen the movie A Christmas Story you will get this reference, but when Abby came down and saw all the gifts under the tree she went over and started to pull all of them. She was saying everyone was hers. It reminded me of Randy from Christmas Story as he pulled all his gifts and said, “Oooh, that’s mine.”

We then divvied out all the gifts to each person. We made sure our 2 kids had more gifts than us to open. Abby immediately started opening her gifts. She was so excited she had no patience. “Santa” of course got her exactly what she wanted. It isn’t hard when all your 3 year old asked for was a Grover (character from Sesame Street). Santa was very good to Abby since she had been such a good girl this year.

For me the best part was watching Abby open her new doll house that Dave and I had made. She loved it and has played with it everyday since opening it. She is at the perfect age to use her imagination and really enjoy the doll house.

It will be a sad day when we have to take the decorations down for the year. I can’t wait until next year when Zach can really get into Christmas as well. This year he did a great job ripping the paper, but had some trouble keeping it out of his mouth. He wanted to eat the paper instead of just rip it off. Mmmm…paper.

Grandma and Pap came over for a little while on Christmas Day, which was nice too. Abby and Zach got to have them all to themselves that day and open their gifts without the other cousins or aunts and uncles. Again, peaceful and relaxing. That was the theme to this Christmas.

Zach trying to eat the paper instead of just ripping it off.

Even our cat, Draco, enjoyed the wrapping paper on Christmas Day.

I loved the long weekend with the kids. It was great! We had so much fun and got to spend lots of time with family. Now apparently at 2:15am Monday, December 28th we are back to normal life. Zach won’t sleep in his crib and wants held. He felt quite warm so we decided to take his temperature. That’s right folks, you got it. He is running a fever of 102.5. I guess we will be calling my mother-in-law in a couple of hours and hope she can watch him for the day. I don’t have anymore time off at work and it would be another unexcused for me and Dave’s work requires a doctors note if you are sick after a holiday weekend. Oh why can’t we just win the Powerball so both Dave and I can stay home with the kids whenever we want. Come on Powerball!

It really shouldn’t be this hard to take care of your children in that you have juggle around with your work places to try and figure out who can stay home with the kids when they get sick. I am not sure how our work places could change and make it better, but we need to figure out a way.

My company has progressed since last year. This year they gave us a 1/2 day for Christmas Eve. I would love to see them give a whole day Christmas Eve next year, but we will see. Personally, I don’t understand why companies just don’t give the entire week before Christmas off (with the exception of retailers and emergency crews). I work for an asset management company and this time of year is very slow. We don’t really accomplish much during this time.

Anyways…enough of my rambling. Let’s get to the heart of this post. We went over to my in-laws for Christmas Eve dinner and then to their church. I have to say, even though I am not catholic, the service at St. Valentines is wonderful to go to. This is our second year spending Christmas Eve with the in-laws and going to their church. The service is a beautiful, traditional service. The canter was much better this year than last year. I love singing to traditional hymns.

After the service we came back to our house for dessert. Dave had made a cheesecake. Dave’s sister Edie and her husband Pat met us over at the house for dessert. We had a good time of being together.

After talking prior to Christmas Eve about traditions we had growing up, we decided on a couple that I hope to continue each year even once the kids have grown. I grew up with my Grandfather reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to me each year before bed and I loved it. Now…we don’t have a grandparent reading it, but either Dave and I will be reading it to our kids each Christmas Eve from now on. Also, we started a tradition of letting the kids open 1 gift before bed on Christmas Eve. Each year they will now be receiving new jammies Christmas Eve.

Abby did great going to bed even though I know she was very excited about Santa Claus coming. She even left him cookies and milk. She picked 2 cookies, a tree and a star sugar cookies.

After the kids were in bed it was time for Daddy and I to get started on our work. I swore I would never become my mother when it came to her tradition of staying up late Christmas Eve wrapping gifts. Apparently I lied. Yes, I failed this year to get anything ready prior to Christmas Eve. It has been a crazy couple of months. Daddy and I stayed up until 3am wrapping all the gifts and putting the finishing touches on the doll house we made Abby. Next year will be different. I will be going to bed at a more reasonable hour.

Zach had been breathing hard with a cough for about 3 weeks. He has been to the pediatrician twice for it. The first time he went they said they heard the wheezing and the cough. They didn’t really diagnosed him with anything, but wanted us to give him nebulizer treatments every 4 to 6 hours as the cough persists. The 2nd time he went for the follow up they found he has his first ear infection. He has been on antibiotics since a week ago Tuesday. He of course hates the antibiotics. I wish they made a stronger concentration for infants. He has to take 1 and a 1/2 teaspoons twice a day. That is just so much liquid for him to swallow, especially when he hates the taste of it. The nebulizer treatments started to go better, but he was not a big fan of them either. Poor baby sick already at 5 months.