The older two spent Christmas with their father for the entire day for the first time in about 10 years!! Usually we would share Christmas day. Either we would get Christmas Eve and Christmas morning or the rest of Christmas day and then Boxing day. It has worked for us for a long time. It was a way for us to both enjoy Christmas time with the children without either of us feeling like we were missing out.
Their dad had asked me about a month before Christmas if it was okay to do alternate Christmases with the children. I hadn't thought of it until he asked, but I thought it was a good idea. We both have little children and the travelling on Christmas day was getting trickier for both of us. This is the first year that the older children don't believe in Santa anymore. A very sad state of affairs!!
So I decided that we'd have a Christmas Eve brunch. I emailed Santa so that he would bring Sammy and Josh's presents on the morning of Christmas Eve. It was so nice to have them open presents in front of us. Santa even brought a present for Dave and us and even for Isabella and Hamish. Isabella was most impressed!!
We had about 20 adults and about 18 children from 10am until about 6pm when the last of our guests left. I used a website called 'Perfect Potluck' to organise what everyone brought. It was easy to use and you could even send it through Facebook. Easy!!
It was a wonderful day, but it meant that we were all very tired on Christmas day. I'm looking forward to next Christmas when the kids will be with us for the entire day.
I've finally put together my calendar for 2012. I have used the same calendar for the last four years and absolutely love it! You can get it here at the Flylady website. The Flylady is a women that helps organise your life. I felt very lost after I had Isabella, stopped work and moved to the country and I needed some help to get me out of my funk. I liked the way that the Flylady sent emails to me giving me a routine to my day and week. I knew no-one and other than looking after a baby felt like I had no purpose. She was helpful in getting me to establish routines that helped with everything from cleaning to cooking and even teaching, coping with holidays and looking after yourself through exercise. Although I don't feel like I need the site so much anymore, I've really taken on board many ways to simplify my life with routines.
I've got all birthdays and anniversaries put into the calendar, I've made a family fun day alternating Saturdays and Sundays each month, date nights for Dave and I fortnightly throughout the year, all the weeks and terms for the year, public holidays and school holidays and a cleaning roster. I've also given each person in the family a colour on the calendar and also a colour for general stuff and then family stuff.
Dave - dark blue
Me - orange
Josh - light blue
Sammy - red
Isabella - pink
Hamish - green
All of our family - purple
General - grey
I'm hoping that this year I'll be even more organised than last year. I'm going to stick labels on everything!!
I had forgotten about Flylady!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good Christmas (Eve).
xxx