Ideas?

Wow! I can’t believe it has been almost a month since my last post. A recent chat message from the Mrs on WhatsApp (you iPhone owners will know) goes like this:

Mrs: Hey. You have not updated your blog for a month liao.

Me: I know. I’ve been so busy with the CES. I’ll see what I can squeeze out before the end of the year.

To say I have been busy in December is really an understatement. There are also times when I wanted to post about the kids’ development but by the time I gotten down to writing things have changed again and what I had in mind originally suddenly seem so yesterday.

So this time I am blogging about things that are more general. Just yesterday the Mrs commented that this year’s Christmas seems boring and asked me if I have any ideas on how to make it more interesting. Frankly speaking my feel towards Christmas has always been the same. I like the hype leading up to Christmas so this means that about a month before the actual day I will get all excited by the buying of presents and nice decorations around me. Unfortunately Christmas Day is always an anti-climax for me. All the hype will eventually lead to nothing. It will usually turn out to be another public holiday where we do nothing special.

The only exception was probably last year when (some of you might remember) we were busy with Isaac’s first birthday bash. We were so occupied with the celebration and making sure that everything is just perfect for our little man.

Last year I was also busy trying to explain to Isaac that when he sees Christmas trees and decorations up, it means his birthday is near and everyone is planning to celebrate it together with him. I don’t think he understands the concept yet at the tender age of one but this year I can definitely see progress. He definitely can recognize Christmas trees and will get all excited whenever he sees one. By the way his favourite is currently the one just outside Ion Orchard but I have not brought him to Ngee Ann City yet. He will always go ‘Wow!’ which incidentally is one of his favourite words now.

All that is left for me to do is to connect Christmas tree to his birthday and most importantly make him understand the concept of birthdays. Soon he will have to prepare a present for the Mrs. Some of you might remember a new family tradition for this Tan family and that is to have the kids prepare (too young to buy) a gift for their mum on their birthday.

This year on the other hand things have gone back to how they usually were since we have no plans to celebrate Isaac’s birthday other than a small gathering that is limited to the family and his Godma of course.

My question to you fellow parents is where and what do you do on Christmas eve and day? Besides going to church of course. While we are at it what are your usual plans for New Year’s eve and day as well?

For the young and single, they can always go to the countdown parties happening all over the island and get drunk and be merry. For the older couples who do not have to worry about their kids’ bedtime can always host their own parties at home where good friends and family can all come together for the big countdown and celebrate. That leaves the rest of us (the in-betweens). We can’t go out and get drunk for we have responsibilities at home. We can’t host a party at night for the countdown as well since most of us have our kids’ bedtime to worry about. I am really curious to know how do you, the more experience parents spend these 4 days.

Traveling is not an option now for I have 3 babies in case you forget. We won’t be traveling with them in tow at least now for another year or two. Then again traveling during this time of the year will burn a really big hole in my pocket, something I have to get used to eventually I guess.

Does parenthood mean the end of such celebrations? Is this just one of the many sacrifices that we parents are expected to make? Even if we can’t party and do the countdown then surely there must be nice family activities for the young (us parents) and the babies right?