Christmas in a blended family (step, bio and adopt) means being flexible, with a capital “F”. Now that my stepchildren are young adults, scheduling the holiday seems even more challenging. This year, for a change, we didn’t complicate things by traveling to or hosting my family from Missouri, but we wanted to have the full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.

My stepdaughter had obligations at her boyfriend’s house, so after juggling everyone’s schedule we decided that 8:00 am was the best gift opening time for the whole crowd. While at first I was concerned that this was going to be too early, since our church’s Christmas Eve service was late at night this year, I had nothing to worry about. LuLu was up at the crack of dawn (actually before the crack of dawn, but Super Dad convinced her to go back to bed).

So after the carnage of ripping into everything under the tree, the older kids took off for other celebrations and we had a late breakfast. Then, once the turkey was in the oven and our early evening dinner was underway, it was NAP time. In fact, among Super Dad, LuLu and me, someone was pretty much taking a nap all day!

It was a huge blessing to go from a totally out-of-control child for the past week to one who slept long enough for me to get nearly the entire Christmas dinner prepared and on the table. It was amazing to realize how much the anxiety and anticipation of the day had fueled her behaviors in the proceeding day, and how much she just needed to let down.

The same is true for all of us, as LuLu, Kay and I all have the sniffles today (mine started yesterday). But overall, it was a wonderful, relaxing break from what has been our reality these last several months.

The most humorous part of the day happened at 3:30 am, when I was sound asleep. LuLu apparently awoke and rushed downstairs. And she was convinced that Santa had not left her a single thing. (Never mind all the wrapped presents that her family had waiting for her.) Kay, in utter frustration at the church service last night, had pitched out the you’d-better-be-good-if-you-expect-anything-from-Santa threat, and LuLu knew that she really hadn’t behaved appropriately.

What was funny about this is that Santa slipped gift cards and zoo tickets into her stocking this year, so nothing was bulky enough to detect without taking the stocking down and looking in it. And she was convinced that she’d been passed over. Kay and Super Dad convinced her to go back to sleep, since maybe Santa hadn’t finished yet…all while Mom got to snore on!

Here’s hoping that somewhere in your day there was a much-deserved nap!

Photo Credit: Super Dad taking a nap in his favorite chair!