Archive for the 'Holidays' Category
New Traditions
It is Easter Weekend - so much to do with the kids.. so little time.
We will, of course, do the wonderfully fun egg hunt and find some time to feast during this weekend. What I am itching for is something that my family and I can call our own each Easter. Something that my kids recognize as our family tradition. I started to look toward my childhood in Germany for some inspiration. For some reason I remember Easter and Christmas being utterly magical - lights and festivities everywhere. Absolutely stunning.
Since I am not German, but have experienced it’s rich culture I figure it’s best to combine a sort of Spanish/Mexican (the richest part of my lineage) with my experiences in Europe. Latinos (especially my mom’s family - where my mexican/spanish heritage comes from) are very family/community oriented. Big feasts with close and extended family is part of every holiday and celebration. Attention to detail and ritual are a large part of German Easter culture - maticulously painted, hollowed-out eggs hanging from trees, a formally set feast with one’s best china on display for the occasion, children dressed in their best suits and shoes. Combining the two could make for a wonderfully warm and well thought out experience.
Of course, it might just turn out that we take advantage of the day off, throw on our coziest jeans and tennis shoes and make for a day at the park (our Easter chocolates packed with us, of course).
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Lazy Days of Summer… I mean Spring.
So, it appears I am already ready for the relaxation of summertime. This morning I just couldn’t bring myself to rush about in our typical “gotta get to school on time” manner. I really just didn’t care. I let both the kids sleep until they felt like it and then let them pick whatever they wanted for breakfast, rather than the typical “eat this peanut butter toast and glass of milk, it’s all we have time for” routine. We even drew pictures and talked about our weekend plans. My son was only fifteen minutes late for school - I am torn between feeling like an utterly irresponsible parent and one that is pleased to have had a nice, enjoyable morning with her kids.
I’m a pretty laid back person. But, I am pretty strict about being on time - it is just a personal issue. I really don’t care if others are late, I just hate to be late myself. I prefer to be early any day than late. We don’t have a stellar record at my son’s school - he has been tardy more than a few times. For some reason, I just don’t like rushing my five year old son around in the morning. I know we are supposed to. I know that it is important to teach them that getting to school on time is a significant goal to achieve. This coupled with my personal issues of punctuality, you would think that I would never let my son be tardy. Some days I will but most days I wouldn’t. Does this make me conflicted? I just don’t think that, at his age, he needs to be as rushed as the rest of the world. Some days I am quite alright with him just going his own speed, even if that speed does not decree his timeliness to school.
Anyway, this is just me reasoning out my inability to get my son to school on time. Today, it was nothing but a sickening case of wanting to be on holiday. I think, in the Donovan household, we are ready for a nice long summer break. A vacation with lots of sleeping in and lots of trips to the nice air conditioned art museums and cavernous aquariums in Chatanooga. Only a few more weeks to go until we can bask in our glorious talent of leisurely relaxation… we are so good at it.
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Stealing the Moments
Spring break has proven to be both exhausting and hilarious for us Donovans. My husband and I are rediscovering our children and realizing that the more love we give them, the more love we feel for one another. Strange how that happens. My son woke up with bad dreams last night and instead of having to rush him back to bed, we stayed up until the late late hours of the night (for us, that means 11pm) and talked about everything under the sun. After my husband tucked him into bed, we looked at each other and felt that intense sensation toward each other that I think you can only feel when you are married with kids. Sure, when I see young couples my age, without kids, sitting for hours drinking wine and soaking each others company up without even a slight distraction I occasionally feel a twinge of jealousy and (if they are particularly beautiful and well put together) occasional loathing. But, when moments like this arrive — moments when the thing you find sexiest about your husband is when he engages in a meaningful conversation with your son after a nightmare about Transformers — you wouldn’t trade it for any seemingly hallow lunch with hours spent gazing into each others eyes. Those gazes are usually about trying to figure out some one’s real deal anyway, right? I know my husband’s deal. I know it front to back — and he knows my deal. I like that I can look at him and enjoy all that we are and all that we have become, together.
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Rainy Day Darlins’
Today is the first day of my son’s spring break. Wouldn’t you know it, it had to rain. All my big plans of starting his holiday off with a bang (trips to the zoo, picnics at the park) have been thwarted by the grey and wet day. What to do, what to do! My urge to just tuck a movie in the DVD player and call it a day was strong — the force was powerful.
Thankfully, I snapped out of it. I realized that the days that my son and I get to cozy up on the couch and hang out are, between school and work and his sweet little sister, few and far between. We just don’t get that time the way we used to. Some of my fondest memories are of the two of us sitting, sometimes for hours, just reading books and drawing pictures. With all the busy day-to-day stuff, I can’t remember the last time we had a chance like this.
So, I put the littlest Donovan down for her nap, picked out some of our favorite books and snacks and cozied up for an hour or two of sweet rainy day lovin’. It was heaven.
My husband and I have always made a point of making down time, sans children, with each other — we recognized early in our marriage that this is essential to having a deep and lasting relationship. Just being able to have a cup of hot tea and listen to a good album together has saved us from many grumpy moods induced by lack of sleep or too much rushing about. I think it’s easy for us to forget that we need to do that with our kids too. At least it was for me. I often get so bogged down with making sure that he is on time for school or that he is on time for bed or that he is washing his hair instead of just playing pirate ship in the bathtub, that I forget that he is such a neat person and that spending just a wee bit of time together doing nothing at all makes all the difference in the world.
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Evite Saves the Day
It is my son’s 6th birthday this Thursday.
I have always dropped the ball when it comes to planning these things in a timely manner. I just can’t quite get my timeline right. I start thinking about it way too early and then, before I know it, I have put the plans away until we are a week away from the party date. Having watched all the mothers in my son’s kindergarten class mail out invitations and set rsvp dates well ahead of time - I promised myself I would not do it again this year. I had big plans to be uber-organized and finally give my son a successfully executed birthday - no timing problems and no rushing around at the last minute.
Alas, it must not be my destiny to be the mom who’s on the ball. I’m starting to except it as part of my inherent self. This year, I started making all the plans in my head and even made some lists and budget guidelines (which I have since lost). We knew where and when we wanted to have it and we had our guest list written down (also lost). Then I got comfortable. I didn’t think about it again until this past weekend. I was talking with my mom and she said “Well, we’ll see you next weekend!” and I said “No no no, not next weekend mom - you guys are coming the weekend of Joseph’s birthday party and that’s still a couple of weeks away.” Silence on the other end of the phone - then she said the words that put me into an immediate tailspin. “Honey, we are coming the weekend of his birthday party - next weekend.”
Typical, I thought. I had not put together, much less mailed, any invitations and had not called to make the reservations at the rock climbing place that we had decided would be the location of his party. I had to hustle. Typical, typical, typical.
I called the climbing place and, thank god, they still had an open party time slot. Phew. Now, invitations…. What to do. Should I just call everyone? Should I bring them to school? I decided that a phone call would be ok, but bringing the invitations to school would not work. We capped the party at nine kids and since we were not inviting the whole class sending them to school would, I’m sure, make some kids feel left out and leave my son with some explaining to do to those who were not invited. Then I remembered an Evite that I recieved for the baby shower of a friend. It was quick, sent directly to my email (which I use more than my regular mail these days - as does everyone else I think). Disco!
So, I went to the Evite site and, for free, set up a lifesavingly expeditious invitation to email out to everyone invited to the birthday party. Thanks to the school directory and a few phone calls to those not at Joseph’s school, plugging in the email addresses was simple and less harried that making ten phone calls last night.
Aside from the ease of getting it out to the invites on time, I was also able to attach directions and the waiver to sign (you have to sign a waiver for things such as rock climbing) - saving even more time for everyone involved. I’m in LOVE!
In just a short 12 hours, we have already recieved seven online RSVPs with comments about how great, informative and nice the Evite was. I think I have finally found a means to my end of complete disorganization. Amazing.
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