[Mozi Esmé] The Christmas She Didn't Want Presents

[MoziEsmé]

Mommy did not get up at 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning to wrap the last gifts.

She did not have visions of the three of us drinking hot chocolate and eating cinnamon rolls while reading the last Jesse tree devotional, then gathering around to watch Esmé gratefully open her presents.

Esmé had not stayed up til almost midnight the night before, and she did not get up at 7:45 a.m. while Mommy was still trying to make the cinnamon rolls. After all, she is a morning person and does not like getting up early. (Translation: She always gets up at the crack of dawn for fear of missing something, but she is definitely NOT a morning person.)

Mommy did not holler at Pappa to wake up, over and over.

Esmé did not insist on watching a DVD upon waking. She of course was delighted to color her Jesse tree coloring page while Mommy read and did not throw it all to the ground and trample on it.

When Mommy gave up on the devotional idea and tried to point Esmé toward the wrapped presents under the minuscule tree, saying she was sure there was a DVD under there somewhere, Esmé did not kick around a pile of presents, saying "I don't want presents! I don't like presents!"

When Esmé finally picked out and unwrapped a Care Bears DVD with a little foam Care Bear included, Pappa did not complain that he had been awoken to sit around and watch Care Bears.

Esmé did not bring the little Care Bear into the kitchen (where Mommy was finishing the cinnamon rolls) three minutes into the DVD with its head torn off. And of course, Mommy had super glue readily available to glue that cute little head right back on.

The cinnamon roll dough did not turn out flat due to dead yeast. Esmé loves cinnamon rolls and happily ate hers. And Mommy did not abandon the hot chocolate idea and drink a Monster instead.

And with all the happiness going on, Mommy snapped lots of Christmas photos, so we are showing you all the happy photos here today!

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Things did start to improve. While the cinnamon rolls were baking, Esmé happily helped Mommy make the Happy Birthday Jesus cake. And she was ultimately grateful for her presents. She just opened them up very slowly - she didn't get through them all until the afternoon. We lounged around and watched DVDs in the morning, then spent sometime outside on (or near) the schoolhouse in afternoon. And the Jesse tree devotional was read, and Esmé enjoyed putting the last ornament up.

Mommy's notes: I initially wasn't going to post anything about this, especially after reading about how wonderful everyone else's Christmases seemed to turn out. But it does seem a little funny after the fact, and I figured I should memorialize the time Esmé didn't want presents - who knows when that will happen again?!

I did learn a few things...

• That "unwrap and read a book each night of December idea" that apparently works so well for other families? Didn't work so well for us, since Esmé was jaded with the idea of gifts by Christmas.
• When you work so hard on toning down the materialistic aspect of Christmas throughout the season, you shouldn't expect your little one to be all excited by it...
  
• Cheap flimsy wrapping paper is best. The expensive metallic kind is hard for little ones to open.
• If she's not a morning person, don't expect her to be one on Christmas day, either.
• Don't hold on to traditions because YOU'VE always done things that way, or because everyone else does things that way. Do whatever works for YOUR family.
  
• Happy birthday Jesus cake? That's a definite on next year's to-do list.
  

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Posted By MoziEsmé to Mozi Esmé at 12/28/2009 06:32:00 AM