Need a new holiday plan

I wrapped the hooks on our Christmas tree ornaments around the branches so well that not a single one ever fell off, no matter how many times Ghost and Croaker chased each other around the tree while inside the tree. Score one for Teresa! The downside to this will hit when taking the tree down. It's a pain to remove them all! Usually Mike and the kids take the tree down but I have a feeling it's going to be me this year. Not looking forward to that.

I'm not sure what to make of our Christmas yet. Last night, when thinking about it, I was close to tears just from looking at all the work that went into it and putting that against how everyone enjoyed it. I worked so hard getting decorations out to make the place look festive ... but no one seemed to care. Or really notice. Oh, well, Wonderboy noticed. He did our before meal 'prayer' one night and made me the laughing stock for having so many Santas. He questioned whether Christmas was about Jesus or the jolly fat man. I see his point but it was hurtful at the same time. I wish he'd just talked to me about it rather than putting me down so badly during his 'prayer'. It's the first time I've ever interrupted the kids while they were praying to tell them to stop. Every meal after that we had together, when it was time to do the prayer, no one wanted him to do it. A fact that he had to point out as though we were offending him. Figures.

Then there's the actual holiday meals.

I told Mike last night that I need to radically redo my holiday dinner as no one seemed to give a damn. That's not quite right, though. It was like it was completely expected and not appreciated. Does that sound right? The corn and wild rice casserole I made, this year I did a triple batch as a single one last year wasn't enough. Everyone loved it so much there were no leftovers and we all wanted more. This year a couple got on to me for fixing something no one but me would like. I had to ask Bear several times to try it and when he did, he enjoyed it. Couldn't really get anyone else, too. Weird given how well it went over last year. Wonderboy is forever bringing up inappropriate conversation topics while we're eating. This year he outdid himself. I wonder if that's part of the reason no one ate much. Why he thinks we want to talk about his bum while we're eating I don't know. It felt like everyone wanted to hurry up and leave the table rather than enjoy the meal and each other's company. Course, the actual Christmas dinner went without Blade and Wonderboy as Wonderboy pulled that 'eye for an eye' crap.

Then there was Mike's birthday dinner. Bear, for some strange reason, decided to use that time to tell Blade that if he's really a vegetarian he shouldn't eat banana pudding. When Blade asked why Bear decided to go all cloak and shadows on him as though he couldn't bring himself to tell him what's in the pudding. Blade has always loved banana pudding but, sure enough, he wouldn't touch the stuff. I don't know why Bear did that and I don't know why he found it so funny. I found it to be mean. Especially when I work my damn ass off so freaking hard to take each of my family's diet notions into consideration when planning a meal for us. One stupid little joke and Blade was left questioning everything. Thanks so much, Bear.

The gifts we received ok by most but Wonderboy was just down right ugly about his stocking stuffers and gifts. I get that he didn't get what he'd wanted. But, damn. What a smack in the face. I feel like I'm whining. No, I know I'm whining and I should just get over myself. But. I worked so hard to try and make this a nice Christmas and it just fell so flat. And off. I want a redo but I'm afraid the same stuff would happen all over again. Once was enough.

And damn if the kids didn't spend most of their time yelling at Moxxie. She turned 4 months old on Christmas day. She's in her terrible 2s but all she wanted was attention. They tried to ignore her and kept pushing her off for the most part. I will say this. When she wants to be rubbed she'll gnaw on your hand. That's annoying. I get that. But if they'd just taken a few to rub her she would have settled down. Pear was quick to realize that rubbing her belly stops her from doing ANYTHING but laying on her back, totally relaxed. The boys, even though I'd told them this repeatedly, don't get it. They'd rather bark orders and demand that she do exactly what they say. And another thing. When more than one person gets on to a dog at the same time, it flat freaking confuses them. She listens to me most of the time. I'd say about 90% of the time if I call her name with a certain tone in my voice, she immediately sits and waits for a minute for me to rub her head. (I don't do it immediately) The rest of the time if I say 'wanna go crate?' it stops her. I know you shouldn't crate for punishment, I really do. I did it one day when her and Nugget were fighting. She'd started it and I put her in a 10 minute time out in her crate. I felt so horrible but at the time she wouldn't listen to me at all. So now if I ask 'wanna go crate?' with that tone in my voice, she lays down where she is and waits until I've turned my back to get back up. Almost every time. Mean, yes. But holy cow it works.

When all else fails, if it's during the day time, I get Babygirl to take her for a walk when she won't stop with the hyper 'bark/bite' thing.

Anyway, I feel like Christmas was a big bust and I need to rethink how we do things. Clueless at the moment but hoping with a year to plan, I can work something out.