Too much Christmas?

Well,  I thought we started out ok when my son immediately responded on Christmas Eve whose birthday we would be celebrating, "Jesus".  He did very well at Mass for 2 hours.  While the adorable grade-schoolers were acting out the nativity scene, the angels were raising their hands in an Alleluia.  My son stood on my lap with his hands raised in the air as well with a smile on his face.  He seemed to know what we were celebrating!

Everything was going pretty smooth.  He was excited to put out cookies and pickles (for Santa's reindeer, he's convinced they eat pickles).  He even wrote a nice note to Santa.  We hoped that we would dodge a bullet as he had decided 2 days before Christmas he wanted a fife and drum for Christmas (when for over a month prior to Christmas he had been declaring he wanted a little golf putter, with a hole and a little flag and a little white ball).

Christmas morning came and even though we re-allocated some Christmas gifts to his birthday, he was still overwhelmed by all of the stuff.  I think my husband and I were too.  We have a very generous family and I think everyone got pretty much everything they wanted and then some.

We still tried to re-enforce that it was Jesus' birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  My son at this point didn't really want much of Christmas dinner.  I think the whole day was rather overwhelming for him.

By dinner that night, I think he was pretty spent.  The next morning, the day after Christmas, the most amazing thing happened.  He woke up at 7 AM but sat quietly in bed until 7:45.  Forty-five minutes of being quiet and still in bed.  Although my husband and I should have gone back and enjoyed this opportunity to sleep a little longer, we didn't know when this "spell" would be broken.  My husband later remarked that he may have just sat there processing what all had happened the day before...

He's had fun playing with all his toys, but I think next year especially I will try to rein in the amount of gifts that he gets.  First of all, our townhouse just doesn't have the room for more.  Second of all, I think there's a point where you can have too much stuff you just don't enjoy it.  Third, I am determined that I raise a son who has an awareness that stuff is not everything and there are many people who we need to bless with our presence, rather than expect presents from them.  We'll see how my objective goes.  For now, I think my family will just try to relax and take a small break before the New Year comes in at full speed.