Enduring a holiday hangover

Christmas has come and gone, and in spite of a holiday hangover, we had a phenomenal day.

The morning started with the girls and their cousin absolutely jazzed about their stockings, the presents under the tree and the note Santa left behind thanking them for the cookies, milk and carrots they left out the night before. We opened presents in shifts—after all, kids’ attention spans are short enough that they want to play with the toys they just got for Christmas.

But in all, the best part of Christmas didn’t come wrapped. As always, the best present was the presence of our loved ones.

A full, but happy, holiday

We packed in a lot of shenanigans this Christmas. We braved the freezing rain to see The Last Jedi, and as much as I enjoyed the movie, watching my Star Wars-obsessed nephew see it on the big screen was even better. Peeper loved seeing The Nutcracker and declared that she’s going to be a performer on the stage when she grows up—and that we can see her dance in the production when she’s 10.

We ate a lot of food, including tea ring, of course, and a ham from Portland’s Block & Board everyone voted the best-ever.

The kids got a lot of use out of their new gifts: Kiwi rode her new Big Wheel in circles around the kitchen island; Peeper challenged the whole family to a game of Cootie; and the cousins put on an after-dinner puppet show involving plastic animals and Harry Potter wands.

Throughout it all, we soaked up the time with family and dear friends, though we missed some loved ones. Even my grandma came over for a bit, which meant we had four generations of family under one roof. (And for the record, she liked my tea ring!)

Enduring a holiday hangover

Although I did drink a mimosa Christmas morning and a few glasses of wine at dinner, my holiday hangover had nothing to do with alcohol. Rather, our post-Christmas funk was the payback from all the excitement (and sugar) of the previous day.

The girls fought over their new toys, and Kiwi cried at the slightest provocation. I couldn’t drink tea fast enough to take off the sleepy edge, a result of staying up past midnight Christmas Eve to bake and prep the next day’s food. And the patience I cultivated to deal with Peeper asking for more presents evaporated long before lunch.

I ended up taking Kiwi for a drive to “look at the icicles” (aka get her to fall asleep in the car) and let Moana babysit the kids later in the day. We all needed to zone out.

The holidays are worth it—but exhausting

Christmas is kind of exhausting, and it’s hard on the littles to keep their s**t together when there’s so much buildup and expectations. Yes, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but I’m sure grateful it only comes once a year.

I saw a meme yesterday that there were only 364 days until next Christmas—and I thought, thank goodness! That sounds like enough time to recover from my holiday hangover—and get psyched up for next year.

I hope your holiday has been merry, bright, and relatively free of tantrums. Merry Christmas, friends!