Holidays

On holidays when everyone gets off and relaxes I don't really seem to notice its a holiday. If we decide to go on a trip or plan a fun activity then sometimes I can feel like it's a holiday for a little bit. Most of the time though it's just another day. The girls still have to stick to their schedule, I still have my work around the house I have to get done (it is a little easier to get more done than usual because my hubby keeps the girls entertained for a while for me) but life still goes on like any other day. If we do decide to do something like a cook out or anything like parties or special activities during Christmas and Thanksgiving because I stay at home there are some who get the thought in their head to ask me to do a lot because I guess they seem to think I'm not doing anything so I can handle everything. THIS IS FAR FROM TRUE! Holidays are probably a little more stressful to me because I usually end up helping with a lot of activities, still trying to stick to my regular routine, get all the extra shopping done and if I'm hosting a planned event at my house making sure it is white glove clean. We have a huge family so that adds to the stress a little because you want to make sure you get to see everybody. Family is important to us and so we do try to make the effort to see everybody so every year we rotate who we eat with and see first. So If any of you are having the same issues on balancing inlaws, out of town family, friends and anyone else you need to see here is how we deal going down the calendar:

New Years: We usually just spend the day relaxing at home with just us four watching movies, playing games, and doing craft projects with the girls. We try to call or at least send a text to everyone to tell them Happy New Year. We do not give presents (I know some who do)

Valentines Day: Me and my hubby exchange cards and maybe our favorite candy or something little and the girls get a new dress for church (usually I get all their stuff on sale dirt cheap). We will either have a date night and do dinner or date night at home or just a family night. Valentines is not a big deal to us.

St. Patrick Day: We wear green and thats about it

Easter: The day before our church has an Easter picnic with an egg hunt and a puppet show that tells the story of the resurrection of Jesus. We also dye eggs at the end of the night. The girls each have a basket that they put out every year for the bunny (we do our own baskets) and I will usually get a couple of little toys like bubbles, bracelets, rings, etc. very inexpensive stuff and new pjs with some candy. The Hubby and I each get some chocolate to share (usually the bag I buy for our chocolate stash that we keep). We make "He is Risen" cup cakes and they take those to their Sunday school class. We go to church and then go the the grandparents houses. We take turns by rotating each year who we go to first and who we eat Easter lunch with.

Memorial Day: We usually just stay home or have a bbq at a friends house.

4th of July: We try to go swimming for most of the day and cook out (we usually try to rotate between our parents or we hang out with friends). At sun down we head home and we get some small fire works that the girls can do like poppers and sparklers and then when it gets dark we let them watch daddy and our neighbor pop the "big" fire works. We also have a neighbor down the street that every year on the fourth and new years gets his street blocked off and at midnight he sets off a huge show. It's really pretty so we always watch that too.

Memorial day: We just do a small bbq with family or friends or both

Halloween: We don't really do trick or treating. We get the girls a costume but we take them to our church fall festival where they can play games, have a hay ride, costume contest, cake walks, face painting etc. We might let them do some small trick or treating at but we don't go out for very long.

Thanksgiving: We take turns eating with our parents but we do visit both sets. We usually visit the set of parents we don't eat with after we eat in case we need to help cook or set up or anything. Last year because Doodle Bug was so young and I didn't want to risk her getting out we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. My head was spinning, Doodle bug was only 6 weeks old and Punkin was almost 2.5 and I think I bit off more than I could chew but we did have fun.

Christmas: Our normal routine changed a lot after we had kids because we wanted to make sure that Christmas was what it is suppose to be and not crazy for them. On Christmas Eve we go out to my grandmother and do Christmas with her and then go to our candle light Christmas Eve service at church after. When we come home we bake Jesus a birthday cake and Santa cookies. Christmas morning we get up and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eat cake for breakfast (its only once a year so I see no harm) then we open presents. We want our girls to know the real reason for the season and not that is all about presents like the media make it out to be. After we open gifts we take our time and get dressed and load up to go to our parents (we take turns going to each of their house first) . We are lucky our parents are very understanding and live down the street from each other so its kind of easy. We used to have times to be there and a time to be here and after we had kids we explained to our family that we didn't want our Christmas to be rushed and so we would call when we were headed that way and to not wait for us. They completely understood and have not had a problem since. This lessens the stress a little bit for us but we still have a little stress everyone does and especially when you have kids whether its one kid or twenty kids.

During the holidays I've always found that I was always going crazy because I was trying to please everyone and see everyone. Well I came to realize that every holiday does not need to be spent with all family and friends and some of them it's just much nicer to stay home and enjoy our little family. Some family members might get offended but at the same time we realized we have to do what is right for us, and what we do might not be right to someone else. So we try to base our decisions on what is best for our little family and honestly we are at the point with two small kids that if you don't like our choice we don't care and that is just tough.