Five Sure-Fire Ways to Douse the Christmas Spirit

Here are some suggestions for those of you who are feeling a little too intoxicated with the Christmas spirit. If you need to tone things down a bit, unplug the twinkly lights, turn off the Christmas music, lay off the egg nog, and read on.

Five Sure-Fire Ways to Douse the Christmas Spirit

1. Take your kids Christmas shopping for each other. We tried this yesterday and it was a perfect show stopper. We took a twenty dollar taxi ride to the other side of the city where many of the other foreigners live. We were attending a morning worship service in the home of a friend. After the service we grabbed burgers at a Korean fast food chain that could almost be mistaken for McDonald's except that in place of Big Macs they sell Lotteria Burgers with Bulgogi sauce. Three doors down from the burger place was a toy store. Since I wasn't planning another twenty dollar taxi trip in the near future, I decided to postpone naps a little longer in order to find a gift for Nathan.

Red flags should be flying. Postpone naps to take a tired baby and an ornery preschooler toy shopping... I know, I know, sometimes we get what we ask for. We were in the shop all of fifteen minutes. By the time we left, Nathan was screaming because he had pinched his fingers in a display and Caleb was demanding loudly, "Caleb have Nathan's tractor! No presents for Nathan. I want them all!!!" It was a beautiful moment--one I will cherish always.

2. Try relaxing to Christmas music during karaoke night at the cafe next door. "O Holy Night" and "Big Big Girl" make a spectacular medley.

3. Sip hot cocoa with sweat dripping down the back of your neck. (On the other hand, it's very nice iced with a big dollop of whipped cream on top. Who needs marshmallows anyway.)

4. Decide you've had enough fiddle-faddling around and start potty training in earnest during the holiday season. Spend every spare minute keeping puddles away from the Christmas lights.

And the top spirit douser for the season...

5. Try to get a family Christmas photo for the newsletter. We attempted the press-the-button-and-run method. After thirty or forty shots Daniel was sweaty and ready to call it quits, Caleb was crying and refusing to cooperate, Nathan was staring wide-eyed at all the chaos, and I felt like I'd just finished my arms and abs workout trying to keep both boys in order. We still don't have a Christmas picture.