.: Christmas Eve and Christmas

I cant believe its over! Christmas has come and gone and let me tell you- sooo many pictures to share and remember this year by. It was great to split the families over the entire 3 days as there were lots of visitors and plenty of activities.

This is a picture of me with a bag that my mom made- but not just any bag- one that she made for all the Booth/Devenney girls. I just love it.

Christmas Eve at my Mom and Laynes is always a nice affair...we open gifts, have a traditional poem by Layne, and enjoy great food. This year was no exception, everyone that could make it was there, the mood was festive and the kids did fairly well...( more to come)

Gift giving is my favorite part of Chrismas....

Cory and Whitney unfortunately opened all of their gifts Christmas Eve so that was kinda a bummer. But I think they got a bit spoiled with all the additional gifts later on that they received.

We finished up the night at Moms with way too much dessert for my liking and feeling completely full....ready to head home for baths, new PJ's and all the nights activities to start( ie SANTA!!)
****

Christmas Day! Well the morning started out well, they boys slept in, we opened stockings and presents, but soon thereafter the melt downs, and tantrums begun. See Jonathan and I have been on extremely shaky ground with the boys.....

So much so that for the last few weeks we have been hanging on by a thread. Im not kidding. There has been much tears, by both parents and children. The reading and implementing of "parenting with love and logic" has been marginally successful....

However after time at our house in the morning-- off we went to Jonathans family's- and much to our surprise( not) we ruined Christmas for them. We should have known better and just stayed home, but we felt perhaps the change of scenery and new people might prove a potential positive outcome. However intuition was correct.

a true disaster, and we came home very shortly after without exchanging any gifts. After a long nap we decided to venture out to see TANGLED( which by the way was AMAZING) the boys seemed to pull out of their funk and we invited Jonathans parents over for round two.

Things once again quickly escalated between the boys and additional screaming, hitting, and tantrums were thrown with in-laws in attendance. However this time, the calm, loving Grandparents were with us during the hours long tantrums and helped us battle our children.

Without their help that night Im not sure what we would have done. We felt immediately better having someone there to help, and witness what we are going through almost on a daily basis. With coaching from Carl, we got through one of the more terrible Tristan moments to become victorious, and finally WIN one.

We ended the night on a good note. Boys having lost a battle to us, and some hard lessons learned, but most of all, felt that we had crossed a bridge. So much so that while therapy is likely in our future, we feel hopeful that we can continue on this journey of parenthood, and possibly remain sane. We hope.

Day 3- Sunday( another post with pictures had My Dad and Nancy and that side of the clan over to our house...) was quite enjoyable.

I have to say a few days post trauma, life is getting back to normal. Its actually been great to have a few days off with the boys. Last week Jonathan was seriously considering having to take the time off as well, for fear I would hurt the boys or myself if I was left with them for any length of time( not really, but it was getting pretty bad for a while)...

But thankfully, its been the opposite. The time hasnt gone by without hiccups, but with minimal stress, me not running around before and afterwork like normal, the boys and I have had lots of time together, fun outings, and remained busy.

I am overjoyed at where things stand this week with the boys....On another note- We all have been incredibly spoiled. Christmas was a success at the house with lots of new( well really used) video games, a tool set for Tristan which has been an absolute hit,