An index of our smartitude

OH WHERE DO I BEGIN?

This past week? Wow, did it kick my butt up and down the snowy roads of Western Washington. I was all, "We can do it! We can do it!" And we did it. All five Christmases. And while each Christmas celebration was as awesome as advertised, the in between parts ran me ragged. As I have noted in this space before, I am the Planner, the Date-Keeper, the Obligation-Tracker, the Scheduler, the MEMORY of the Cheung Family and by Christmas #3 I was crying Uncle. The day after Christmas Phillip's mom had to go to work and his dad was at a funeral and we were trying to get out of the house. The plan was to get to my sister's apartment in time for lunch and nap, but we eventually realized it was Not Humanly Possible. Phillip gave Jack lunch while I stomped around the empty house with Molly, fuming at the entire world. I was mad at Molly for not staying asleep EVER. Mad at Jack for having the nerve to be hungry. Mad at Phillip for never remembering what the plan is. Mad at myself for being mad. MAD MAD MAD.

I felt like I'd spent the last week and a half doing nothing but Figuring Out How To Do Everything and NOTHING was working out the way it was supposed to and I WAS TIRED. Stupid snow. Stupid nap schedule. Stupid umpteen family celebrations.

I was cold shouldering everyone until my son, who had been confined to his crib for naptime for an HOUR, started talking.

"WOOOAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Woo woo blawwwww! Fwap fwap ooooh! Mamama ahhhhh WHEEEEEE!!!"

It was hilarious. I laughed out loud, even though I really didn't want to, because I was still mad and I didn't want Phillip to think that I wasn't still mad but you guys, Jack makes the FUNNIEST WORDS.

We eventually made it to my parents' house that night for Christmas #4 where I immediately poured myself a glass of wine and sat down to kvetch about children with my sister-in-law. My brother held Molly all night. We watched our kids open four frillion presents. We played a game my parents made up called Family History Trivia. My team would have TROUNCED my brother's team were it not for the fact that 1) the teams were not fair due to my sister-in-law having gone to high school with my brother and two sisters therefore giving them an Unfair Advantage in the Significant Others Who Did Not Grow Up With Us department 2) the TOTALLY SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS ie: who had the worst high school sports experience and state your reasons why, and 3) my dad, who was the judge, kept trying to even out the score even though my team was CLEARLY WINNING EVERYTHING. (Aaaand here you see why I do not like to play board games with friends. Competition brings out my nasty.)

We opted to drive home after Christmas #4 even though we had to go back the next day for Christmas #5, but that was an excellent decision on Phillip's part. It was nice to sleep in our own beds and not worry about Putting The Kids To Sleep. My nephews went straight to bed even after FLYING and being in a whole different TIME ZONE, but Jack? Oh no. Jack prefers to wail piteously until we realize we should have just kept him up.

So... yeah. It IS possible to have too much of a good thing.

Then I was sitting in church yesterday morning and reading the letter from the priest in the bulletin talking about Advent and how the snow forced everyone to slow down and reconsider and appreciate and (gasp!) WALK PLACES and all I could think was: once again I have totally missed the Advent boat. This year I may have been headed in the total opposite direction. I mean, Advent is not about spending your every waking moment strategizing how to get your kids out of the house for your Christmas party when there has been a Rather Momentous Snowfall, or how to manage five Christmas celebrations in a row with two children under two. I start baking Christmas cookies the day after Thanksgiving and things do not let up until well after New Year's. So much for Advent, huh? Next year, next year.

I have so many awesome pictures to post, but I haven't had time to do that annoying uploading thing so you're stuck with this load of whine until I get around to that. Kisses!

Oh, and I weighed in today. I lost weight over Christmas. HUH?

Comments

[Jess]

You are amazing and I am so impressed with how well you deal with so! many! logistics! Seriously, go you.

[Carrie]

I'm impressed- that's a lot of activities. Hope you get some time to decompress this week!

[Jessica]

Board games bring out my nasty, too.

I feel exactly the same way sometimes. when things get overwhelming and you are just mad at everything.... and then something makes you laugh out loud.

Charlie would NOT NAP. A whole hour and a half, and nothing but whining and wailing intermittently. I finally went in there, and he had his pants in one hand and his diaper in the other hand, dangling over the side. I burst out laughing.