Christmas!!

I was so looking forward to Christmas this year.... I thought "Jaydan will have sooo much fun with all of the presents and lights and pretty decorations". YEAH..... let's suffice it to say that the reality was more grim. Jaydan has always been prone to over stimulation, every since he was tiny. So imagine the impact all of the noise, lights, excitement and variance from normal routine on a kid like that...... and that is more like what Christmas was like at our house.
We went to our church's Christmas Eve Candle Light service, which was very nice. We thought it would be nice to keep him with us and have a very family vibe. That lasted about 5 minutes, until the Teddy Grahams ran out, at which point Daddy made a dash with him for the nursery. Before the service we drove around looking at Christmas lights, which once we found some, was great. Jaydan DID seem to enjoy that.....there was lots of oooohing and aaaaahing and he cracked us up by yelling "Bye" (with a VERY southern drawl) at each house as we drove away.
I would go as far as saying that Christmas morning was very nearly a total disaster. He was fussy and ill, and when we could manage to make him interested he would scream "NO" and "MINE" in varying different combinations. At one point, as I was almost in tears I looked at Jeff, who was dripping in sweat and thought, "What went wrong here?" Eventually we all calmed down, had a nice breakfast and coffee (everyone but Jaydan) and got ourselves together. We went over to Nana and Pop's for Christmas dinner and presents with them that afternoon and that went better. The food and company were wonderful as always! The weather was perfect and we spend most of the day on the dock on the lake and I even sunburned my nose!
Next year we will do some things differently. I think we will do Santa gifts ONLY before breakfast..... this will keep us closer to our normal morning routine AND let us sort of "wade into" the excitement. If we have to do part of the gifts in the morning and part later (or another day) then so be it. I guess the lesson is to just go with the flow. You can't force a square peg (i.e. Jaydan) into..... well, anything really. This is one of the MAJOR lessons I've learned as a parent..... you can have an idea in your head of how something is going to go BUT your kiddo may have other ideas completely and all you're really going to do is make everyone miserable if you don't learn to adapt!!
Despite all of this (it probably wasn't as bad as it seemed) it WAS Christmas and it was spent with loved ones and was therefore wonderful. I am grateful that our families have blended so well that we are able to share a holiday with both sides!!! Maybe things will go more smoothly next year!!