Christmas: A Day to Conquer

And like that, the holidays are over. Does anyone else tend to find Christmas and New Year pretty anti-climactic? Is that even the word? That sort of looks like I'm talking about the climate? I'm not. I'm talking about how there is literally two full months of build up to Christmas. And then it's all over quicker than you can say "Cian, stop cuddling the Christmas Tree!"  I'm not making it up. We did have to say that more than once during the holidays. But maybe that was a slightly Grinchy start to a post-holiday post? But what else do you expect? I'm writing this on the eve of my return to work. But please, stick with me reader, it'll get better, I promise!

I had a fantastic Christmas, honestly it has definitely made it into my top 3 Christmases. Not that I have a ranking system. But hypothetically if I did, it was up there. There are a few reasons for this, and of course I will tell you each one. I'll probably go off topic slightly during each reason, but that's my style, so bear with me.

Firstly, Cian actually understood it was Christmas this year! He understood that Santa was coming, and that he would be arriving with a harem of flying reindeer. He bought into the concept of leaving goodies out for Santa and his crew. It was quite cute. He was quite specific about what was to be left out. Don't get me wrong, we left out the usual mince pie and carrot, but a Paw Patrol yogurt had to be gifted too. It worked though, Santa gobbled it all up. The yogurt must have complimented his Peroni quite nicely.

Cian genuinely made everything ten times more exciting. The build up was great. In hindsight, it lulled us into a false sense of security, because we had so many high hopes for Christmas Day. And everyone knows the first rule of parenting - Don't have high hopes! And Christmas is no different. We thought Christmas morning was going to be so magical. We had visions of Cian racing through to the living room to discover Santa had been. Oh the joy we would see on his face. His face was going to light up when he realised Santa and his reindeer had munched all his treats. He would be in awe when he found the handwritten letter Santa had left him. It was going to be epic. Epically magical. Well, I'm here to give you a little reality check. Similar to the one Cian gave us on Christmas morning. In reality, Christmas morning was an epic fail.

Christmas morning started as a normal day in our household. Cian woke up about 6am, sauntered through to our bed, and watched Paw Patrol on the IPad until we were ready to feed and water him. When we had woken up, at approximately 07:30, selfishly Jack and I wanted the Christmas magic to begin! We wanted the big unveiling to happen. We wanted our home oozing Christmas spirit and joy. But, Cian was not so ready.  He didn't really like the idea of changing our usual morning routine. I get it, why fix what ain't broken? We actually ended up having to bribe Cian to get out of bed. He actually refused to leave. Who can blame him though, it was pretty cold. 

When we eventually got Cian through to the living room, he understandably wasn't in the best of moods. Being forcibly removed from your bed can do that to a person. I have first hand experience. I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed having the roles reverse that morning. Anyway, he had started the morning grumpy, and we both knew it was going to be a struggle to re-engage him. When we did eventually get him through to the living room, he announced he needed the toilet. Potty training strikes again! As i've alluded to in my earlier potty training related posts, potty training does ruin your life. Why should Christmas morning be any different? Anyway, once he had taken his magical morning leak, we then re-started the 'magical' living room entry process for the second time.

The first thing Cian struggled with, was the fact Santa was not there. We kept saying "we need to check if Santa has been", so he just assumed Santa would still be there. I get it, I really do. Why would someone gift you presents and then not stick around for the unveiling? It is quite a weird concept really. The other struggle he had, was opening presents at a good pace. It's wasn't ever something I had really considered. The speed at which gifts would or should be unwrapped? I think it took Cian 3 hours to open 5 presents. Each present had to be completely unwrapped and un-packaged (there's so much bloody packaging), and played with, before moving on to the next present. By 11am we were all exhausted. Like most peoples' houses, we had packaging and wrapping paper coming out of our ears.

I do realise that turned into a slight negative of Christmas, but really it was just a blip on an otherwise perfect day! At about 12pm we drove over to my parent's house. Cian had a well needed nap on the way, and you know what they say - 'A nap a day, keeps the terrible twos slightly at bay'. I'm kidding, no one actually says that. Because there is NOTHING that will keep the terrible twos at bay. Anyway, when we arrived at my parent's house, we were like a new family. We had all recharged on the drive over. We got into the house, had some Prosecco, opened some more presents, and the fun began!

My parents do Christmas dinner at about 4pm, courtesy of my very talented mother. Thank goodness, because I could not cook the dinner to save myself. I've already started preparing Jack for the eventuality of hosting Christmas dinner. I don't feel responsible enough yet to be in charge of such an important meal. But I know that time will come. And we have two options, either I buy everything pre-made from M&S, or Jack cooks. I'm sure i'll let you know when that time comes, what our decision is.

Yes, I got side-tracked again. But I think it's important to talk you through our day. Anyway, the main reason Christmas 2018 made it into the top 3 Christmases of all time, was because I actually managed to stay awake ALL day. I successfully conquered the after dinner slump. You know the one. Where you eat too much, and basically fall into a food coma. Where all you can manage is the occasional blink when staring at some awful Christmas movie on the TV. I know, they're not all awful movies, just the ones we seem to watch are. But, not this year. Not me. I successfully pushed through and continued on energetically into the evening. We played games, and chatted. My brother even explained Brexit to me! He's good at dumbing stuff down. Which is exactly what I needed. The Backstop? Yep, I know what that is. Deal vs. No Deal, yep, I know what that's all about. Why everyone hates Theresa May? Yep, all over that!

So all in all, it was a fantastic Christmas. You know what though, I think I may have been converted into a Christmas lover! You know, the ones I talked about in my previous Christmas blog post! Bring on Easter!