55 Thoughts Parents Have on Christmas Day

Remember when we were children and perfect? Remember when we woke up late Christmas morning, unwrapped presents slowly and enjoyed quality time with our family until it was time for bed? Yeah, me neither, and now is the time we pay for it with our own children, who have somehow learned how Christmas works through osmosis. 

So, without further ado, here are 55 thoughts every parent is bound to have on Christmas Day.

1. Is it really time to wake up?
2. Well, the kids are up, so yes, it is.
3. 5 AM.
4. No, don't open presents without me there!
5. Can I at least get coffee first?  
6. Can we feed your sister before the kraken awakens inside her?
7. Okay, now presents.
8. ONE AT A TIME!
9. Only open the ones strategically placed in front of you, with your name on it!
10. Yes, I know papa is Santa, but don't let your siblings know.
11. No, the elf isn't real. Again, don't let your siblings know.
12. The presents at our house are just as fun as the ones you'll open next. Let's take our time and enjoy them!
13. Okay! Now that the paper is off, play.
14. Yes, all of these presents are amazing, but does every single one need to be out of their packages in the first 5 minutes?
15. You know what, now is the perfect time to start writing that birthday wish list full of all the presents you didn't get for Christmas (aka: please let this occupy your time for more than a few seconds.)
16. Aaaaaand we’re bored.
17. Is it lunch time yet? If it's not, we’re saying it is. Mommy needs a break.
18. (It's just now an appropriate breakfast time)
19. I should probably start on that dish I needed to make today.
20. What was I cooking again?
21. Oh yay! Time to leave our house a mess and carry on the celebration at someone else's house.
22. Why are your socks not on?
23. Where is your coat now? It's 10 degrees outside!
24. Why are we going anywhere again?
25. Oh yeah, food.
26. Speaking of food, did we have to bring some?
27. Did we remember to bring everyone in from the car?
28. (Now is the moment I remember that I got my kids dressed up nicely, my in-laws look fantastic, and I look like I crawled out of a dumpster)
29. More presents that must all be unwrapped and out of their packages immediately!
30. Do we need to play with the noisy ones right this second?
31. Please don't say that's already lost/broken.
32. Are you sure I need to help pick up? I still haven't cleaned at my own house.
33. Yes, a movie sounds fantastic!
34. Aaaaand a kid has already left the room.
35. This is why my mother-in-law cooks. It's quiet in the kitchen.
36. I see half the sugar cookies have disappeared, and we haven't even gotten to frost them yet.
37. I also see your new cardigan is covered in crumbs, but don't worry, I can't be 100% sure who stole the cookies without proper forensic evidence and an eyewitness testimony.
38. More people! Normally, I'd be hiding by now, but this means more people to help with the kids!
39. Is food done? Food is done!
40. Please don't wipe that on your shirt.
41. If you don't like it, don't spit it back in the bowl you took it from.
42. No, you can't eat off my plate when yours is exactly the same.
43. Time for one more movie? I was ready for bed 3 hours ago.
44. You mean we have to pack up presents AND kids before we leave?
45. It was totally an accident that we left the noisy toys at your place.
46. You sure they can't stay here as my Christmas present?
47. See you in a week so we can repeat for New Years (minus presents.)
48. Home at last. Oh yeah, it's still a mess here.
49. I know your toys are amazing.
50. No, "Noisy T. Rex 2000" can't sleep with you.
51. No, the Christmas lights can't stay on in your room all night.
52. Wasn't it bedtime an hour ago?
53. Can wrapping paper and toy boxes be considered Christmas decorations, so I don't have to pack them up before New Years?
54. Time for mommy time! Bring on my presents!
55. Did I say presents? I meant wine. Bring on the wine!

If you have larger family or multiple parties these steps may need to be repeated. And don't worry! If this wasn't fun enough there's always next year! Enjoy and happy holidays!

For the month of December, we will be celebrating the holidays with our 12 Days of Christmas. Be sure to check back for a new holiday piece by a new contributor.

Sage Rogers has been described as a b***h, lover, child, and mother but it's not legal to use those words together for fear of copyright infringement, so instead, Sage is a mother of 4, married, and by wine she meant rum.

The Gift of Being Present in the Present

Slowly realizing being present in the present is the best present...

Deep Breath.

That is what I needed after typing and staring at that sentence for the last two minutes. It took me to a place that I don’t like to go; a place of guilt, shame, could haves, missed opportunity, and sadness.

Luckily, I am writing this alone, so the tears that are filling my eyes can be wiped away without anyone knowing.

I mean, seriously?! I don’t have time to be worrying about feelings.  I don't have time to be crying. I need to be thinking about what we are doing for Christmas. I need to think about what gifts I need to buy for everyone. I need to think about how I am going to budget those gifts. I need to think about how I can serve others this holiday season.

On top of that, I need to be reflecting on my past and how I can make changes to benefit my future. I need to think about how I am going to put food on the table. I need to think about what "honey do" I need to complete next. I need to think about how I am going to run the Cub Scout Den meeting. I need to think about our financial future. I need to think about how I can be a better man of God.  I need to think about…

I have so many excuses, so many things to be thinking about and working on.  No matter what stage we are in life, we all have things we need to be thinking about. We all have excuses for why we are not present in the present. And yet, sometimes we need to be reminded that the best present we can give ourselves and others is being present in the present.

How can being present in the present be the best gift to someone else?

Take an incident that happened recently.  My son, Tyler, came to me and said, “Dad! I got on gold AGAIN!” Gold is like the crème de la crème of the behavior chart at his school, and as Ron Burgundy might say, ‘It’s kind of a big deal!’ In that moment, I needed to be present and respond accordingly, because he was proud.  He felt accomplished, and he felt like he had done something that would make me proud.

If I was not present and was consumed with thoughts about everything else that needed to be done at that moment, I could have crashed his excitement. Instead, I needed to be present. I needed to hear what he said. In this case, I was able to allow heartfelt joy to take over. In this moment, I was able to puff his chest by words of affirmation and give him a pat on the back.

That was my present, and it was very well received, because his strut got a little wider, the high five was a little harder, and the smile on his face got a bit bigger.  If I was not present and thinking instead about what I needed to do for the Cub Scout meeting, my words and actions would have in turn had a negative impact and turned into a really sucky gift.

The gift of your presence is just as important during times of trials as it is during times of triumphs. To illustrate this point, check out this scene from Inside Out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5Q2dah75Zc).  Joy's mind was not focused on the present, but rather on catching a train. Sadness, on the other hand, was present and listened which resulted in Bing Bong getting one hell of a nice gift.

So as you enter this holiday season, remember, it’s not always what you are going to give someone, but what you can give them during the here and the now. It’s taking the time to give a little more attention, to be a little more attentive, and to be a little more giving of your time.

How can being present in the present be the best gift to yourself?

Tonight, I sat at my computer to write this article, after thinking about it for the past couple of days. I open up a Microsoft Word document to begin writing, and I hear my 18 month old daughter standing next to me saying, “Da”. I must admit I have gotten so used to hearing that word that the first time she said it, it went in one ear and out the other. Then again, “Da!” This time I glanced over. When I did, I saw two big, beautiful blue eyes staring at me. I looked at my wife and said, with a chuckle in my voice, “if I am going to write an article about being in the present, I better be in the present.”

I asked my daughter if she wanted me to turn on some music so she could dance. Of course she nodded her head in an up and down motion to cue me to play Silento’s – Watch Me. Within moments we all were smiling, laughing, and basking in the moment. I cannot express the feelings in words that consumed me while watching our daughter dance and shake. Towards the end of the song, she motions for me to pick her up. Being drunk on love and present in that moment, I scoped her up and sat her on my lap.

I have to admit, that moment, that now, was a gift for me! Without being present in the present, I would have not been gifted with that seemingly simple and absolutely amazing moment.  Being present is the best present you can receive, because it leads to moments you can learn from, grow from, and reflect on.

I am slowly realizing that being present in the present is the best present. As we enter this holiday season, I ask you to keep my words in mind. You never know what unwrapped presents are awaiting to be opened if you just take the time.

For the month of December, we will be celebrating the holidays with our 12 Days of Christmas. Be sure to check back for a new holiday piece by a new contributor. 





Colby Ross is a super-duper, awesome father of three even more super-duper, awesome kiddos.  He and his wife reside in the Metro-East area.




Writer's Note: Finally, thank you to Ali Schmeder-Cummins for giving me the opportunity to write.  I hope you all enjoy and will continue to follow her, as she is one fantastic blogger.

Celebrating the Holidays -- The New American Tradition

Growing up in a small German town with a Native American name, I always knew my family was a little different.  

For starters, we weren’t very German, and we weren’t one of the town’s old German families.  My grandparents settled here because it was the halfway point between both of their families, Harrisburg and Alton, Illinois.  My mother, the military brat, met my father, the farm boy, in high school and decided to stay and raise their children in the same small town where they graduated.  They were married in the Baptist church on the west end of town, but my brother and I were christened in another one of the town’s six religious establishments, the United Church of Christ.  I would classify my religious upbringing as, well, diverse.  You’ve heard of “bar hoppers” and “pool hoppers?”  We were church hoppers, always sampling the latest variety of religious fanaticism.  

  

The holidays were a mixture of all of the traditions we picked up over the years.  We celebrated Christmas with the traditional Christmas tree and Easter with the usual egg hunt, but we also incorporated more regional traditions, such as Saint Nick’s Day, where we would set out our shoes every December 5th in the hopes that Saint Nick would bring us something sweet the following morning.  

My mother, ever the religious zealot, told my brother and I that Santa Clause wasn’t real when I was five years old.  She didn’t want us to believe in Santa because she felt that Christmas should be about Christ.  I remember this event clearly, like one of those game-changing moments in life where you can recall where you were and what you were wearing the moment it happened.  She sat my brother and I down on our stone fireplace in our jammies right before bedtime, and explained to us that Santa was wasn’t real, but that other children still believed in him, so even though we knew it was all fictitious, we couldn’t tell any of our friends our “insider information.”  I remember feeling robbed; like no longer believing in Santa was something only adults did.  But now I understand why my mother did this for us, and I have grown to appreciate her frank honesty.     

Now that I have my own child, I struggle with reconciling my own beliefs with the wishes of his father, and the traditions he grew up believing in.  On the one hand, I want my son to have the idyllic childhood that all parents wish for their children; but on the other hand, I don’t want him to get lost in the fantasy.  I want him to remember the reason for this magical season, and I want him to grow up with the knowledge and morals of Jesus Christ.  

His father sees no harm in allowing this childhood fantasy to continue, and part of me agrees with him, but I can’t help feeling like I’m lying to my child.  The guilt I feel over this situation is almost incapacitating.  It has forced me into a stalemate where I simply choose not to make a choice, so the fantasy goes on…for now.  

Meanwhile, my mother has finally found her place in religious society.  She has converted to a sect of Judaism that practices the tenants of the Old Testament, but also chooses to believe in Jesus Christ as our savior.  What this means for the rest of the family is a very full social calendar, for we now celebrate both Christian and Jewish holidays.  Christmas and Hanukkah.  Easter and Passover.  New Year’s and Rosh Hashanah.

As the family has grown, we have welcomed new members with new beliefs and traditions.  My aunt, for example, is traditional Catholic and refuses to eat brisket at Passover if it falls on a Friday, while my new sister-in-law is Mexican and has never Celebrated Thanksgiving, let alone Hanukkah.  Needless to say, our holiday meals are anything but traditional.  We have tamales on Easter, and tilapia on Passover.    

Just about the only belief we don’t tolerate in my family is intolerance.

For the month of December, we will be celebrating the holidays with our 12 Days of Christmas. Be sure to check back for a new holiday piece by a new contributor. 

Nicole Bailey lives in Shiloh, Illinois with her 6-year-old son, Jack, and fiancé Anthony Moore.  She is a certified teacher of Elementary education, and spends her time substituting for local school districts.  

7 Ways to Feel Healthy, Merry and Bright This Holiday Season

Wouldn’t it be great to feel healthy and fit this holiday? Have a bit more energy, lose or maintain your weight and keep stress levels down? It is all completely possible and it truly is the compound effect of doing little healthy steps each day that will ensure that you look and feel your best! Consider this a little holiday survival guide - implement the steps each day and use this as a roadmap to navigate your way through holiday parties and events. 

Here are 7 healthy steps that you can use not just during the holidays, but every day:

1. START OF RIGHT- Have a morning ritual that is centered around you. Set your alarm earlier so you can have a dedicated morning routine focused around yourself. With all the demands we already have, we owe it to ourselves to take a step back and give ourselves the attention we deserve. Be kind to yourself and don’t let your health during this time of year sit on the backburner! YOU are important!

Tip: Wake up and have 5 minutes to meditate and think of all that you are grateful for, a 30 minute workout (better to do in the morning and ensure it gets done for the day!) and 10-15 minutes to read your favorite book or blog and quietly sip your fave warm beverage. Be sure to have a nice nutritious breakfast. Don’t let excuses get in the way.

2. HYDRATE! You should be drinking at least half your body weight in ounces per day! Want to really feel energized and help with the holiday bloat?  Drink a gallon of water per day! Many times we are not hungry, but actually a bit dehydrated. If you notice you feel hungry after recently eating, start chugging the H2O! 

Tip: Bring a bottle of water everywhere you go to stay on track!

3. IMMUNITY BOOST- Drink a healthy immunity boosting shot every day! With cold and flu bugs lurking around - nobody has time for that - protect yourself. Try this healthy little immunity boosting shot and have it every morning after breakfast. 

Tip: Here’s the recipe: 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (needs to be Organic Bragg’s brand) , 2-3 tablespoons water, a squeeze of lemon juice and dash of cayenne powder. Down the hatch my friend!

4. WEIGHT MAINTENANCE- How in the world do you maintain your weight during this very tempting time of year!? This can be so frustrating, but weight maintenance is extremely important.

Tip:  If you have a high calorie day that you know is coming, back down your calorie intake to around 1200 calories the day before the event and the day following to maintain throughout this busy social time! 

5. MEDITATE- at least 5-10 minutes a day. This may be easiest for you to include in your morning routine, but you can also divide it up throughout the day. Just be sure to give your mind a break and completely unplug for these 5-10 minutes. 

Tip: Also, as part of unplugging in general, try not using any electronics one hour before going to bed! 

This will help keep your mind clear and make it much easier to sleep and wake feeling refreshed.

Think about it this way... If you love TV and let’s say watch two hours of it every night. Scale it back to one hour. With that extra hour-go to bed an hour earlier and wake up an hour earlier - HELLO productivity, rest and morning routine time!

6. FUEL UP- Nourish your body with whole, healthy foods! So very important to keep this in mind to not only keep your energy levels up,, but also keep stress levels down.  You should aim to eat 5-6 times per day and the trick is to having these meals ever 2-3 hours so that your blood sugar levels don’t spike and you don’t overeat at each meal throughout the day. 

Tip:  Check back tomorrow for a sample day of how you can nourish your body.

7. SIP WITH STYLE- Meet the MOCKTAIL! You can sip this in between drinks or if you have already indulged once or twice for the week, have this be your drink of choice for the event that you are going to!

Tip:  It’s very simple- just grab a flavored or non-flavored seltzer water and some fresh or frozen fruit or lemon and limes along with a couple ice cubes and viola! All the bubbles and pops of color a girl can ask for in a fancy wine or champagne glass! My favorite recipe is La Croix Passionfruit Seltzer, a few frozen blueberries and a few lemon wedges-so good!

Everyone deserves to look and feel their best during the holidays.  These 7 simple steps will most certainly have you feeling healthy, merry and bright.

For the month of December, we will be celebrating the holidays with our 12 Days of Christmas. Be sure to check back for a new holiday piece by a new contributor.

Katie Cheever is a proud wife, fur-baby mama to a French Bulldog and a Health and Fitness Lifestyle Coach. She enjoys helping others reach their health and fitness goals and become better versions of themselves. Once a yo-yo dieter and also emotional eater, she has learned valuable tools and resources on how to overcome these issues and takes pride in paying it forward in the work that she does with helping others. She offers free online accountability groups and one on one support.  She can be contacted at: 
katcheeverfitness@gmail.com or http://facebook.com/katie.cheever.37

3 Easy Homemade Gifts for the Holidays

My favorite gift to give is one that is homemade and made with love.   My second favorite is one that didn't cost me much financially.

This year my family decided to skip the store bought "stuff" and give homemade gifts.   I was on board immediately and knew exactly what I wanted to make.  You should also know, I am lazy, and I have two little ones who only let me do things in 10 minute bursts.

The following crafts are for the cheap, lazy and busy:

1.  Wooden Picture

For my parents, what greater gift to give then a photo of ALL their grandbabies together (sans the furbabies, although they are family too.)

 I bought some 8x10 pieces of wood at the craft store (don't forget your coupons!) and decided on making a photo to wood transfer.  Did I mention I am lazy?  Here's the How-to video I used: DIY wooden picture

Tip: You must use regular copy paper and a LASER printer. Don't forget to mirror image your picture before printing.  

2. Personalized Burlap Wreath

This gift is one that will surely make the front door and not the back. Recently, several family members moved into new homes this year so I decided to make some fun burlap wreaths for their front doors.  The burlap is the most expensive part, but I urge you to buy during sales and use coupons. I even got lucky and found some super cute patterned burlap at the Dollar Tree -- which is also where you can find door hooks for $1!  You can make the wreath as personalized as you would like. Wood monograms are inexpensive and can be painted in fun colors/patterns and if you are feeling really crafty, add a small photo-to-wood piece. 

Tip: Use beige pipe cleaners and tie one on the wire frame for easy and affordable hanging.  

3. Silhouettes 

This last project is one of my all time favorites. Silhouettes are timeless, adorable, and easy. The hardest part of this one is getting a profile shot of your little one, but the older kids are easier!  I suggest having someone distract them with candy and music while you snap a photo.  You can find the rest of the instructions on Tori Spelling's blog (don't judge me.)

Tip: For this project, make sure you remember to mirror your image before printing depending on what angle you would like your silhouette to be.

Happy holidays and happy crafting!

Be sure to check back for more of our 12 Days of Christmas.

Nicole Pederson is the mom of two sweet boys, an avid crafter and a closet Pinterest fanatic.

4 Simple Ways to Include Children With Special Needs in Holiday Traditions

My favorite time of year is fall.  Not because of the beautifully colored leaves, the pumpkin flavored everything or even the opportunity to buy brand new school supplies.  It’s because every fall, I make applesauce with my grandmother.

I’ve done it for as long as I can remember.

It began as something special I did alone with my grandmother.  Then, my brother’s wife had their first baby, and Grandma invited them to join.

There wasn’t much a 10 month baby could do, so her first year, we let her play in the sink and hand us apples to rinse.  After that, she left the kitchen to play while Grandma, my sister-in-law and I finished the hours long process of cutting, cooking, straining and seasoning.  Having my niece there made the tradition more meaningful even if she was only able to participate by splashing in the water for a few minutes.

My brother and I now have four kids between us, ranging in age from four to seven, one of whom has Autism.   In their own way, each of the kids explore and participate in the kitchen - splashing in the water, cutting apples, cranking the food mill, stirring in the spices or just tasting the finished product.


We’ve certainly had to adjust our tradition to include young children and accommodate their different abilities.   Elena, my niece with Autism, does the best alone in the kitchen with me and her mother and has one-on-one, often hand over hand help.  Traditionally, everyone was in the kitchen all day bumping into each other, talking and laughing.  Now we take a few minutes to send the other kids to play so Elena can have the less chaotic environment she needs to be able to enjoy the tradition without getting overwhelmed and having a meltdown.  Granted, it’s not always such a small tweak to a tradition that makes it feasible to partake in with kids with special needs.

Here are some fool proof strategies to maintaining family traditions with kids of all abilities:

1. Understand small moments can make for meaningful traditions. Making applesauce is a particularly epic family tradition but not all traditions have to be.  A short moment like reading the same book every Christmas Eve or opening an advent calendar each night leading up to Christmas can be just as meaningful as a day long tradition.  Even planning your route home from therapy so you can see Christmas lights can be a simple and fun tradition.

Remember, it isn’t all or nothing. My niece isn’t able to participate in the whole day of applesauce making or get through a family party without retreating into her own physical and head space for a little while. That doesn’t mean the short time she was fully present and participating weren’t meaningful to her or us.

Perhaps you love to make Christmas cookies but your child isn’t able to physically help with all the steps.  You both may enjoy sprinkling colored sugar on top using hand over hand assistance.  Maybe you want everyone in your family to sign the Holiday card.  Your son with special needs could make his thumbprint instead or even just a dot of paint in his favorite color.

2. Your therapy team is there to help your family find ways to include your child in your traditions. You likely have a team of people helping you teach your child everything from how to eat with a spoon to how to answer questions about their day.  These folks are experts at preparing kids for tasks and adapting environments.

Do you love going Christmas caroling but have a child who hates singing? Maybe your ABA team can work on helping your child tolerate singing long so you can get through one song.  Perhaps your speech therapist can help you turn Frosty the Snowman into an adapted book.  Maybe your OT has noise canceling headphones.  Does everyone help decorate the tree but your child’s wheelchair inhibits their ability to reach it?  Put a smaller tree on your kitchen table and pull your child right up so they can reach the branches.

3. Adjust your expectations. There are some things a child with special needs may be able to do or could do but would be miserable doing.

Perhaps everyone sitting for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is particularly important to you but your child hates to sit still and hates turkey.  Let her eat plain noodles and either excuse her from the table before she gets miserable or keep a fun activity she can do at the table while everyone finishes eating (Legos, coloring materials, play dough and a small sensory box are all easy, non-screen ideas).  Perhaps let her stand up while she eats. With an older child, you can set a timer and after spending the required amount of time at the table with everyone, she can retreat to a quiet spot with a book or Ipad.

4. Create new traditions based on what your child can do or is interested in.  Maybe you have a Lego obsessed kiddo who can build you a Lego menorah or star for the top of the tree.  Perhaps your child loves Mickey Mouse more than anything else in the world.  You can make a Mickey Mouse advent calendar or Christmas ornament or even just sit together and watch a Mickey Christmas special on TV.

What began as a quiet, exclusive tradition for my grandmother and me has taken on a whole new life, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Each of our four children looks forward to it every year.

For the month of December, we will be celebrating the holidays with our 12 Days of Christmas. Be sure to check back for a new holiday piece by a new contributor.

Megan Murphy is a developmental therapist for the Illinois Early Intervention program and an adjunct professor at DePaul University.  She lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.  In addition to applesauce making, Megan's favorite family tradition is getting Christmas ornaments as souvenirs  and then reminiscing each year as the ornaments are hung on the tree.