A Tale of Two Christmases

Oh, Christmas. You’re such a tease.

Since holiday commercials start around Labor Day, it makes sense that the hype for December 25 comes as a let down. All of the planning and work for what should be the greatest 24 hours of the year (48 if you include my birfday!) hits you in the face with a feeling that you weren’t expecting.

Sheer exhaustion. And I didn’t even host Christmas this year.

Christmas with an infant is just utterly stressful. Courtny and I loaded pretty much everything we own (and by “we,” I mean Dorothy), unloaded at my parent’s house, loaded the kid back into the car for Christmas at the Kochert’s, passed her around to 20 family members during Christmas dinner, and just when Dot finally got adjusted to staying at Grandma and Papaw’s… we load her and her mountain of crap back into the car and take her home.

Is it normal for someone to be sore after Christmas? Like, I need a massage (or, apparently, a gym).

In all seriousness, spending Christmas with the family was a good thing. Almost an enjoyable thing. 🙂

Like I mentioned, we had Christmas with Courtny’s mom’s side of the family on Christmas Eve. We had a smorgasbord of food, Mrs. Doubtfire, and a visit from that stupid Elf on a Shelf. There was also a sibling Nerf gun war. So, you know, typical.

We spent the night at my parent’s house, and woke up to Santa on Christmas morning. Actually Santa came before we all went to bed, but he was so fast Grace didn’t even see him – and she was sleeping on the couch. Now that’s impressive, Mom Santa.

Dorothy woke us up at 6:30 a.m. to open gifts, but she fell back asleep before we could even get to our stockings. The life of a two month old.

My family from New York City surprised everyone right before Christmas by showing up on our doorsteps. So, what was going to be a small Christmas dinner ended up being a house full of people. 21 people, to be exact.

We did what we do at any Shelton/Stewart/Rodriguez reunion. We ate (off of IU paper plates, of course), and we watched basketball (#BeatTheHeat). It’s not often that we have so many of the cousins together, so of course there was an epic photo session. Dorothy served as the built-in timer.

So what did I get for Christmas? My sisters and I got complete makeovers at MAC Cosmetics, and all the makeup and brushes we needed. To put it simply, I am in love with all of my new stuff. It only took me an hour to recreate what my makeup artist did, but I’m confident I’ll get faster at it. In the meantime, my sisters and I will just text back and forth to try and figure out what all the brushes are for…

In all, a very awesome Christmas. Now I plan to nap until the new year…