Christmastime in the City

Elise is the type of child who likes things to be in a certain order. She thrives on her routine and hates when things do not go as planned or expected. She likes everything in her life to be predictable. She does not enjoy surprises. However, we learned a long time ago that Elise can handle just about anything that veers from the norm as long as she has ample warning. She is not so much simply a creature of habit - she really just likes to know what's next. So a long time ago we added a "what's happening tomorrow" discussion to her bedtime routine. Every night we methodically go through everything that is going to happen from wake up time to bedtime the next day. When there is something really out of the ordinary coming up in the future - like us getting a baby sitter for her or expecting a weekend visitor or the family going on a trip - we start planting that seed far in advance - not just the night before - so that she has a lot of time to get used to the idea. Then when the time comes, it is expected and even exciting.

Two days before the holidays began I realized that things had been so hectic I'd neglected to go through all the things coming up that were out of the ordinary. This was particularly bad because I sensed that she'd been feeling a little off her game since they'd been doing so many special holiday activities at school and were completely off the predictable daily routine there. So that night, I went through all that was happening over the next few days: Christmas Eve we were hosting Gram, Grandpa, cousin Abby, Uncle Tom, Aunt Jen, and Uncle Kevin for dinner, we'd be putting the angel on top of the Christmas tree and opening and giving some presents. Christmas morning we'd be opening/giving presents, that afternoon we were going to my Aunt and Uncles house in Baltimore to see her second cousins Kam and Kala among tons of other family members, then that night we'd be heading to Ocean City where we'd be spending a few days of vacation with Oma, Opa, Uncle Wolfe, Aunt Kate and cousin Eamon.

Hearing the plan to see all the people that she loves in a matter of days, thinking about all the presents, the traveling, etc... pretty much blew her mind. She was perhaps more excited than I'd ever seen her - literally bouncing around her bed in excitement, beaming with joy. It may have been information overload - it took her over an hour to calm down and finally get to sleep!
Ellie and Abby preparing "Reindeer Food"
So it was shocking on Christmas Eve morning when she awoke - at 5:00am - in the worst mood imaginable. And she couldn't snap out of it. She wore her emotions on her sleeve all day - crying over literally everything, moping around acting like the complete opposite of her normal high energy, happy self. Nothing seemed to shake her sour mood. She took two naps, waking up just as grumpy as before she went to sleep. We went on a special shopping trip, gave her fun treats, her favorite foods...still grumpy and weepy. Even the arrival of the family didn't shake it. Finally, during dinner, Elise began to slowly come out of her funk and by 6:30pm she was acting mostly like her normal self. We chalked it up to being overwhelmed by all the excitement of the holidays and were just relieved that she was feeling better. Christmas Eve evening was so much fun. Ellie and Luke had a blast playing with their cousin Abby, and we all loved opening/giving presents in utter (awesome) chaos, and spending some quality time with the family.

Christmas morning, Elise woke up at 5:30am crying and grumpy. She couldn't tell me what was wrong and my heart sank - her spending Christmas day the same way we spent the majority of Christmas Eve (sad and grumpy) would be miserable for everyone (especially her)! But she fell back asleep and when she woke up again at 7:30 she was actually in a fairly decent mood. Lucas was a little overwhelmed by the gifts (we probably could have gotten him just one thing) but by the end of the morning he had the unwrapping thing down! We all had tons of fun opening and giving gifts, eating pumpkin muffins and playing all morning. We then packed up the car (hurray for our mini-van! so much easier this year!) and headed to Baltimore for my family's gathering. There are tons of toys, several Christmas trees and generally lots of eye candy at my aunt's house so the kids ran around and played - too excited to eat or sit still for more than a minute.
My grandparents with 5 (of their 7) great grand kids
Around Luke's bedtime we loaded back into the car and drove to our vacation spot in Ocean City. Having skipped her nap, Elise passed out within minutes of getting in the car, but woke up after a half hour (about the time that Lucas fell asleep) but we had a relatively drama free drive nonetheless. When we arrived we got everyone settled into the hotel and went to sleep. Everything seemed fine, but Elise woke up around midnight - and then again every hour or so all night long, crying and writhing around in what appeared to be lots of pain. She would not tell us what was wrong - only tears and more tears. Thus began Christmastime vacation at the Beach...