'Twas the Night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Except Mom, who was busting butt to make everything perfect for everybody.
I laughed. This has been my life for almost as long as I can remember, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but yes, Christmas prep for us moms is tiring.
This year was typical in that regard: endless and relentless shopping for days and weeks, trying to get every kid the exact right thing while still working within a budget (sort of); attempting to bake copious amounts of special holiday treats, when let's face it...I'm just terrible at baking; drafting the perfect Christmas letter and mailing it out with a collage of carefully selected photos; scurrying from store to store on the afternoon of the 24th because the final count revealed two kids with one fewer gift than the others; grocery shopping late Christmas Eve because, well, there just wasn't any other time to do it; "Santa" prep even later Christmas Eve, filling each stocking to capacity and arranging special unwrapped Santa gifts just so.
By the time I fell into bed at near midnight, I was drop-dead exhausted.
But could I sleep? Of course not! Just thinking about the upcoming excitement made sleep impossible. So I lay awake, anticipating the surprises to come, and wondering if my dream of a white Christmas would really come true.
It did! And yes, I managed to sleep a little, not good, solid, restorative sleep, mind you, but some sleep here and there through the night. I awoke to a dusting of white, with more snow falling. I can't remember the last time we had fresh snow on Christmas Day, and it was every bit as magical as you can imagine, so go ahead and be jealous.
One thing that is very different from the days when we had tiny children is that Christmas morning begins later than it used to. Instead of being awakened at dawn by children climbing all over me shouting "Wake up, Mommy! It's Christmas and Santa Claus came!" I awoke to a quiet, quiet house. I quickly put the makings of hot cocoa into the crock pot, and sat for a bit alone in my living room. I watched the snow fall outside my window. I listened to Christmas music for the last time this year. I gazed at my lovely Christmas tree with its twinkling lights and so many ornaments to remind me of years past. It was a "moment."
About 9:30, Shulamith texted that her little Swen was wanting to come upstairs, so maybe I should consider waking up my boys. I found Eli already awake (!) just chillin' on his computer, and I gently woke up Seth and Isaiah. They all took quick showers, and by 10:00 we were ready to begin the day. We open gifts s-l-o-w-l-y. You see, I am the mom. I have done all the prep work (see above), so I get to decide how things go down on Christmas morning, and I like it to last. A long time. Just ask Matt. Haha, okay maybe don't ask him? Still fairly new to our traditions, he is baffled by how one family can take so incredibly long to open gifts. He has yet to make it through an entire Christmas morning with us; he always manages to break free and slip away at some point. And that is absolutely fine.
It was a wonderful time. Wonderful and quirky. Just like all of us. Just like everyone. The longer I live and the more I experience, the more convinced I am of the utter quirkiness of human beings. God must laugh a lot. But I digress.
The first quirk came early. I decided to give Seth his best present first. In the past, I've done all sorts of things to make sure his main gift is a total surprise, and this year I couldn't think of anything but this. So he unwrapped his laptop first, and in utter disbelief exclaimed, "Is this a computer? Really? Why did you give me this first?" His gifts to follow would go quickly downhill, which didn't bother him at all, but then this happened: Within seconds, it seemed, he managed to install a virus on his new computer. Yep, he sure did. From that point, it was "game on." My two computer gurus, Gerald and Isaiah, were fully distracted, obsessed by their goal to rid the computer of the nasty bug, passing the laptop back and forth, discussing their effort and progress. No longer did they see a single thing anyone opened; it almost felt like an imposition to ask them to open their own gifts when their respective turns came around. But this didn't matter at all because honestly, it's only Shulamith and I (and maybe Eli, a little) who even care what people get, and we saw everything, while Gerald and Isaiah successfully wiped out the virus. It was all good.
But just as this minor glitch ended, there was this. Gerald likes to freeze plastic cups containing ice cubes and all sorts of different varieties of diluted pop. I often can't find a single cup to drink from because so many are in the freezer! So we are all sitting there opening gifts, one by one, when suddenly Gerald starts yelling, "Oh, no, ack, ack, help, help HELP!" But none of us knew what was wrong. No idea. So we just sat there. For seconds. Finally, we saw that his ice cube cup had cracked, and Diet Coke was dripping wildly all over everywhere, but still we just sat there. It was so weird. Like no one moved, as Gerald continued to scream for help. Finally, after way too long, someone grabbed some wrapping paper, and I ran upstairs for a towel. Weird.
Problem solved, and the gift-opening continued. Including Isaiah's gifts. I should point out that for the past five years, Isaiah has lived in the typical poverty of most college students, so he's never had money to buy anything. This year was much different. His sweet job provided him the means to buy gifts, and when he walked in on Christmas Eve with gifts nearly falling out of his arms, it was one of the most adorable things I'd ever seen. Many of his gifts were truly heartfelt. He gave me a mother's necklace with charms engraved with the initials of each of my five kids (love!), and he gave Shulamith's baby Kennedy a $10 bill, her very first cash. But some others? Have you ever heard of men who give their wives tools for Christmas? Yeah, think along those lines. He gave Seth a WiiU controller, so he (Isaiah) could play Smash, and he gave Eli a Dominion card set. Eli sort of plays Dominion? Sometimes? But Isaiah is the Dominion king. So this made us all laugh, and you probably need to actually be an Erichsen-Webster to understand the humor in all this, so I'll leave it at that.
About halfway through the morning, Shulamith texted me that on Matt's next turn she wanted us to go up and bring down his new flat screen HDTV. Up to this point, they had a tiny, dark TV, and Shulamith had saved and saved to get this new one, and I helped her as well. She was so excited, and she so wanted Matt to be excited, and on some level, she actually thought he would be. Now she knows Matt. She knows him well. As well as anyone does. And she loves him so much. But she also knows that he does not care for Christmas at all, and he certainly does not get excited about presents. No way that's gonna happen, and I could have told her that, and I probably should have told her that, because I think she was a little disappointed by his utter lack of emotion when we carried this TV down the stairs. It was dead silent. No one said a word for several minutes. However, I think he liked it because his annual "escape the Erichsen-Webster Christmas marathon" strategy involved him taking the TV downstairs and setting it up. And then he spent the greater part of today mounting it. So yeah. He likes it, even if it was a Christmas gift.
And just like that, it was over. It happens every year. Regardless of how slowly I make them go, the end comes eventually, leaving an empty tree. It's always sad for me; I won't lie. So much preparation, so much shopping and wrapping and shopping and wrapping (I even wrap my own gifts, once Shulamith puts them in boxes so I can't see what they are), and it's all over so fast. I need to remember, as we all do, that the first gift, the real gift, the most important gift, the only gift that matters ultimately, never ends. Indeed, the reason for all the other gifts is the gift from Heaven sent to all.
Quirks and all, He loves us. Quirks and all, He provided the path by which we may find our way back to Him. May we be blessed to remember that as we embark on yet another year of this crazy good life.
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