So we got a late start this morning on things that needed to be done today. With the boys out of the house, we got the much needed Christmas wrapping completed. Around 5:3o p.m., with only 30 minutes to W*lmart close (and believe me, they weren't going to let you forget that you only had 30 minutes....they started counting down and announced pretty much every 3 minutes the exact time and how long you had left to shop before they closed. No pressure or anything...not like you didn't know that you'd procrastinated till the last possible moments), we made a stop in for a last minute gift for one of the boys after deciding that the pile looked a little lopsided toward the other. Christmas morning crisis averted.
We went to hubby's parents, dined with the family that was in town, and picked up the boys to bring them home for a party at the neighbors, and so they could be home for Christmas morning. The boys were really ready for bed before we even left from the in-laws, but we managed to get over to the neighbor's house with promises that we wouldn't stay long (we had gifts to exchange and knew that they also had gifts for our two). Liam, who is typically Mr. Social and loves going to the neighbors, suddenly got very reserved when we got next door. I barely had a chance to get my coat off, and he turned to me, clinging to my leg and said with big eyes welling with tears, "I'm nervous....Can we go home?" Now, the house was a bit full with the neighbors' relatives and our neighbors from two doors down, but Liam knows all of them fairly well, since we've partied there before on many occasions. So I ask why the nerves. "Because I don't know these people." Which, of course, he knew every one in the room.
Jonah was already off upstairs playing with L., the neighbors' daughter, and the other kids who were there, so I told Liam he could go home once hubby arrived. This was only supposed to take a few minutes, as he'd gone home to wrap a couple of gifts. So we sat on the couch and waited while Liam buried his head in my hip and whined about how he really wanted to go home. So I told him to go play upstairs with his brother and the other children and as soon as hubby came, which would only be a few minutes, he could go home. I figured the minute he got upstairs, he would get into playing and forget all about whatever this sudden shyness was all about. "But I'm feeling apprehensive," he says. Oh, really? Only my 6-year-old would use that as an excuse for why he doesn't want to go play with the other kids. After another 20 minutes of continuous looping on the "I want to go home" recording, I stood Liam up and pretty much dragged him upstairs to play. Once I got him up there and threw him in the mix, he finally started to settle in. It's amazing what a little fatigue will do to a little guy's brain. Another 10 minutes later he came down and politely asked for a snack and a drink, another sign that all was well.
Not long after, we opened gifts, and as soon as the boys had opened theirs and had a chance to see L. open hers, we got the boys gathered, and hubby took them home to bed. Nary a struggle to be had about going to bed tonight either. Sometimes I wish Santa could come every night, just so it would be this easy....but who the heck can afford that?
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