The Best Christmas Ever

For the past three days, all I have been saying is that this was the best Christmas I had ever had. Not only am I saying this but so are my husband and my three kids! This got me thinking about why this Christmas was so different than any other Christmas I have celebrated.

I tend to be a little stressed when it comes to the holiday season and decide that everything has to be perfect, or better, than the year before. I have no idea where this thought process came from but I'm sure my husband has a few ideas... This year, for some reason, I didn't have any desire to create a celebration that would top the year before. My only desire was to enjoy the holidays. 

Usually, I am the only one who decorates and prepares for the holidays but, this year I insisted everyone pitch in which meant that I had to release some control on how things were done. Only a few lights went up and half of them didn't work but that didn't seem to matter. My mom helped put up some of my holiday decorations and it went so much faster with an extra set of hands. My gift list was ready to go and my shopping, wrapping and mailing was done by early December. I baked several batches of cookies while my kids helped or entertained themselves without arguing. On Christmas Eve Day, we all worked together to prepare the food for that night and we had a great time together! Christmas Eve was spent together, just the five of us, enjoying Christmas service, laughing and just being together. 

The kids hadn't been this excited about a visit from Santa in years and I think the fact that they helped in the preparations helped create this excitement. Christmas Day was filled with relaxation, more time enjoying each other, and playing with new toys. As the day wore on I had planned to cook a wonderful dinner for my family. Instead, we ended up going out for Chinese food just like the family in "The Christmas Story". After that, we drove around for a couple of hours and looked at the Christmas lights. 

I never imagined that Christmas could be so enjoyable and even a little untraditional. But I think that the help I received from my family throughout the season eased the stress I always feel and everyone was so proud of the little things they did to help. I still didn't get my Christmas cards out on time this year...maybe next year.

Oeir reaction when they opened