I hope not!  Here are a few from our day!  Enjoy!

First sight of "the goods"

Digging into the stocking!

Santa brought me a bike?!?

Hubby's new watch, courtesy of wifey!

New clothes for Baby Doll! (baby's name is Baby Doll)

Reading with Oma.

My brother and I in an intense game of Super Mario Brothers Wii.

Wow, we had a great Christmas, did you?  We are lucky (and I do mean that) in that both my husband’s family and my family both live here…about 10 minutes away from each other!  So it does make it nice to not travel during the holidays.  Of course it can make for busy days…going from one family to the other.  Now that our kids are out of infancy and toddler-hood, it’s a lot easier to move about with them, too.  Fortunately, this year, we were able to all spend Christmas day together…all 20 of us…at my in-law’s house.  It was a nice day.

The one issue that we have time and time again is Emma’s over-stimulation.  I don’t know if we think it will just go away, or that she’ll start getting used to crowds, but our daughter gets over-stimulated so easily.  She doesn’t act out or have temper tantrums, fortunately.  She becomes very clingy to Brett or me, not wanting to talk to anyone, meet anyone, or interact.  It takes her awhile to warm up.  Her cousins (ages 13, 10, and can almost always help the situation.  But if it’s too much, usually a quiet room with a book or video will help her decompress.

She’s been like this since birth…always sensitive to “busy situations”.  And we’ve all dealt.  But still…I keep thinking she’ll get used to it and it will disappear.  On the positive side, she recognizes when she gets over-stimulated and will go into a back room by herself with a book.  And she’s cool with us not being there with her.  In fact, she prefers it.

I know that there are many kids without special needs that get over-stimulated quickly.  Do you have a child like this?  What do you do to help the situation?

*I will post Christmas pictures…I just haven’t even uploaded them to the computer!  Sunday is all about putting away the Christmas decorations until next year!

Emma on the Polar Express...a little over-stimulated!

music runs in the family…hopefully not that fashion sense, though!

Is it too early for Christmas music?  You tell me.  I typically try to refrain from all the festive merriment until Thanksgiving Day.  Then it’s a free for all (unless Brett’s in the car and then I really have to fight for it). And just for the record, Emma and I love the Holly station on XM! When do you start listening to Christmas music?

And now I need help. (can you tell I want feedback now that it works??) I need a description for Jumping Waves. A few words to go under the title…something that captures the essence of my blog.  Any ideas? I wish I had a giveaway for the best idea, but I’m not that popular or rich yet!