Post holiday let down

Once Halloween is over I start really looking forward to Christmas especially now that we have little kids in the house. I count down the days until Black Friday and I spend weeks planning my lists and where to get the best deals. I love Black Friday!

After Thanksgiving and Black Friday are over I really get started on Christmas. Even though it's a lot of work I love the final look of having all of the decorations up and the tree all lit up and pretty. The tree is always my favorite. It has been ever since I was little. I have to decorate it a particular way (thanks to my mom!) but it's something I enjoy.

I have two beautiful children and they make Christmas even better. This was the first year that our 3 year old really understood Santa and the anticipation of Christmas. He had actually asked for certain gifts and we were able to get him those things. I was so excited to see his face Christmas morning. We spent a nice Christmas Eve together. We drove around looking at lights, saw Santa, opened our new jammies and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas." After the kids went to bed we began the mad frenzy of playing Santa.

After a lot of lugging, some last minute wrapping, and rearranging Christmas had arrived under our tree. Once that was all finished Jeremy went to bed and I was able to enjoy one of my favorite moments each year. I turn off everything but the tree lights and just sit there and enjoy the multi-colored glow of the tree and the sound of peace and quiet.

Ben was every bit as excited as I thought he'd be Christmas morning. He eagerly opened his gifts as well as most of his little sister's! She mostly drank her milk and tried to figure out what was going on. His little face lit up with even the simplest of gifts. The most wished for gift this year was Thomas the Train stuff and boy did Santa deliver! Ben was in train heaven!

We spent the day with family and we played with the new toys and all too soon it was over. I was exhausted but in a good way. I didn't feel too sad yet because we still had to have Christmas with Amanda and then my in laws so I was looking forward to that. Amanda came and we enjoyed that. Ben really had a blast playing with her. All too soon she was gone again.

At least I still had New Year's to look forward too. I'm not sure why since we don't even do anything! We have little kids so we just stay home and watch TV and have some snacks. Now it's a new year and the celebrations are over.

Like every year I have some post holiday let down. It's sad that it's all over. The decorations came down today and I felt sad packing them up. I miss my tree and it's pretty glow. In some ways I'm glad Christmas only comes once a year because it does end up being so much work but it makes me a little sad knowing that I have to wait a whole year for it to come again. That means my kids will be a whole year older and I think that's the hardest part for me.

Oh well...it's 2011. Hopefully this year will bring lots of good things to those I love.