Another Christmas season survived

A little less insanity this year. That was the plan, and we actually managed to follow it this time.

Usually Christmas means 7 or 8 family shindigs, at least two Christmas concerts, running ragged from event to event and overeating at every one.

Ok, so we still did the last thing. Aside from 2 elaborate dinners and 1 sumptuous brunch, our diet was basically gingerbread and Lindt chocolate. However, I decided it didn't count when you're wearing your pajama pants and ratty old Bon Jovi T-shirt two days running. We watched syrupy-sweet classic Christmas movies, played Battleship and Connect4 for hours, and I even was roped into an hour or two of Webkinz World (and that's saying a lot).

Rascal was in charge of Christmas spirit. He decided when the candles would be lit, the tree lights put on, the proper removal of gift wrap, the distribution of cookies and eggnog, and enforced the in-house caroling. We all had to sing all the "Jingle Bell" parts, and he belted out the "one-horse open sleigh, hey!" for hours. Any deviation from his plan was strenuously opposed, with most of us sent to corners for Time Out or having privileges revoked at some point.

Laughing at his attempts to enforce the meted punishments was answered with an extension of said punishment. Looks like someone was paying attention after all.

For the most part, though, the children were wonderfully behaved. Who knew that plying them with gifts, unlimited Sprite and gingerbread, and allowing them to crash in our bed each night would produce such agreeable results? The challenge, I'm already seeing, is weaning them back off.

Now all we have to do is survive New Year's Eve. Husband promised Tweenie a few years ago that on this one night each year, she may stay up as late as she wants without restriction. She's been enjoying the special privilege and this time is looking forward to including Rascal in the tradition.

Needless to say, I'm not really looking forward to that.