Christmas spirit...

Every year, my sister takes the five girls in our family to buy them a Christmas dress, which they choose and dress alike.

This year, as two of the girls are getting older, it was harder to find a dress that they all agree to wear and it’s not too “baby” for the older ones. Finally, they all agreed on wearing a pair of black slacks with fine lines of baby blue and a baby blue (shimmering) sweater.

We are all going to meet at my mom’s house as she is making tamales. Mmmmm!

After that, we are walking over to my brother’s house, which is only three houses down and celebrate Christmas Eve with them. They are having not only tamales, but “pozole” (which is a soup made with either chicken or pork and hominy), and menudo.

As I have been on vacation, my mom, two sisters and I went out shopping for shoes and we agreed that the adults should also wear something with baby blue to look the same as the kids. I also bought us each a reindeer head band and jingle bells bracelets.

We all got in a grab bag (as the family keeps growing). But it seems like everyone is still giving each other something from Christmas. My sister calls me up and says, “I bought you a little gift. I hope you like it.” I’m giving her a speech as to the “Why did you buy me a gift if I’m not the person you got for the grab bag”! (Even though it’s supposed to be a surprise, everyone finds out whom they got for their grab bag) “What’s the point in being in a grab bag if you are still buying gifts for everyone?” And as she’s about to explain, I say… “O.k., so what did you get me?” She starts to laugh…

We were finally getting into the Christmas spirit. I went to the basement and pulled out my boxes with the Christmas decorations. The kids decorated the tree and I decorated our living room and dining room. It looks so pretty…!

But as the day gets closer, it seems that our nerves are running high and we are stressing over little petty stuff. Everyone is starting to argue with each other. And my kids have really disappointed me this year. They have been misbehaving and fighting with each other. They don’t listen when asked to do something… basically they are driving me crazy!

I remember when we were kids, we tried like crazy to be “little angels” so that Santa would come and give us presents. Now, it seems like they really don’t appreciate it anything. I hate to say this but they are too spoiled. I am considering not giving them any presents this year just to teach them a lesson. Is that wrong? Am I being a “bad” mother for saying/thinking this? It’s the day before Christmas and I can hear them arguing over nothing…

Let’s see how things turn out this evening….