Bits of Christmas

A few things I'd like to remember about this Christmas:

From Speed, who has been particularly crabby lately, on the Sunday before Christmas: "I not like Santa Claus."
--Ok, I'll ask him not to come.
Silence.

The next day, also a crabby one.
"I like Santa. Not him horsies though."
--Ok, I'll ask the horsies to stay outside.
"Ok."

*******

From Sunshine, after we rushrushrushed to get ready for church. She was wearing a smocked red dress and tights ("These like PANTS! Funny PANTS!"). Chickadee was dressed in Little Sister's old Christmas dress and Speed was wearing a tie. I ran upstairs and threw on the same thing I wear everysingletime I dress for Christmas. Black pants. Red sweater.

"Oooooh Mommy! You look so COOT!" (cute)

*******

"Chickadee, what does Santa say?"
"Ho ho ho. Mehmeh TihTih!"

*******

What Sunshine says every single time we see Christmas lights:
"Look Mommy! Halloween lights!"

*******

What Santa was fed as a snack that night:
1 cookie
1 cereal bar
a few chips
1 cup of milk
1 cup of juice

What the "horsies" were fed:
1 bowl of water (outside)
1 stalk of brocolli
1 large carrot

*******

What Christmas morning looked like:
8:30 am: Me going in the room to wake up two bigs
8:45 (since we get dressed EVERY morning before coming downstairs, we have no pictures in Christmas jammies): Kids played with the toys Santa left unwrapped.
9:30: finally opened some presents
10:30: After opening about four presents each, kids were disinterested in more, so we stopped for the day and played.

The rest of the presents just got opened last night.

*******

I struggled a bit with this Christmas. I don't think any of the kids I've had have had a Christmas like the one they have here. Thanks to friends, agencies and me, Christmas is excessive and full of events, gifts, routines. But these guys? These guys had NO idea anything about Christmas. My struggle was with how much they got and how much they did. Will they ever have an experience like this again? And if the answer to that is "no," then is it fair to have given it to them this once?

*******

Sunshine's retelling of the Christmas story includes something like this:
"Angel come say 'Jesus come! Jesus teach us be good and kind and...what else, Mommy?"
--to love....
"Yeh, to love EVERYBODY!"

Truth.