December

Well it's been a low-key Christmas season this year. Due to financial constraints, we are not sending out the usual Hahn family Christmas card/letter/photo. I have not done much baking (or cooking frankly). We haven't been able to do our usual outings to the Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights and the Cincinnati Museum Center's Holiday Junction like we have in years past. I have been kinda sad at the change in our routine. But ya know, in spite of all that, the kids are just as excited for Christmas as they usually are. So I certainly learned something about what's really important at Christmas-time.

Oh don't get me wrong. We still did some fun holiday things. We watched Christmas specials, made wish lists for Santa, and spent an evening driving around neighborhoods looking at some spectacular light displays. There is a neighborhood across the river in Kentucky maybe 15 minutes from us that has the same display every year. Their small front yard is filled to overflowing with lights, giant snowglobes, a Santa and sleigh and a shadow box featuring Alvin, Simon and Theodore singing their version of the Christmas song. "Christmas, Christmas time is here. Time for gifts and time for cheer." The kids (and me too!) look forward to seeing that every year!

Fast forward to Christmas Eve. We were tired after a busy week of housecleaning. A friend (actually she's the younger sister of my best friend from high school, but I consider her a friend too) came over to help us clean and pitch things. We worked SO HARD for 2 days. When we were done, there were 4 giant black trash bags filled with stuff we were throwing out! Yahoo! I am so thankful for her help. Can you believe she was willing to spend both of her days off hanging out at our house? The kids loved her and she wanted to help and was full of energy. She is just AMAZING! So now our house is clean and I am snapping at the kids, making sure the house stays clean.

We relaxed most of the day then went to the Christmas Eve service at church. It was less than an hour but not very kid-friendly. My older 3 kids behaved really well and seemed to enjoy the singing. They were bored during the sermon of course but sat still and kept quiet. Matthew however was squirmy and uncooperative. So I took him out and, ummmm, "talked" to him about his misbehavior. Then we just stayed out there the rest of the service, along with probably a dozen other kids and their parents. Next year we are gonna find a church with a more kid-friendly, family service!!!

The kids were bouncing off the walls and had a hard time settling down to sleep. But finally by 10 p.m. they were all not only inbed, but actually asleep. So Phil and I started wrapping everything. We put on our traditional Christmas Eve, present-wrapping movie "It's a Wonderful Life." What a TERRIFIC movie!!!! We had everything wrapped and under the tree by 1:30 a.m. which is about average for us. Now onto Christmas!! Yay!!!