Christmas Eve fears, tears and laughs

Ever year on Christmas Eve, we have my husband's family over for dinner and presents.  We occasionally have my parents too, but they were spending the holiday with my sister's family.  We had our traditional ham, mashed potatoes, etc.  Every one brings a side dish or beverage, so it is not as stressful as you may think it could be.

My stress is always how SJ is going to react when he opens his presents.  He had his mind set on Legos, but the Legos he wanted were out of my in-laws budgets.  I worried he was going to be disappointed and react poorly. 

We opened presents after dinner.  We always start with the youngest (who happens to be SJ) and go up to the oldest (my brother-in-law or my mom if she is attending).  SJ started opening his presents.  He opened his Christmas pajamas first (traditional present from my husband and myself).  His reaction was not great, but he wasn't crying.

Then he moved on to the aunts and uncle presents.  My brother-in-law gave him a gift card (always a good idea).  My one sister-in-law gave SJ Super Mario Yahtzee and my other sister-in-law gave him IPod speakers.  Immediately, the tears started.  My worst fears were coming true.  (And to make it worse, I was the one who told them what to get him.  Way to go Mom!)  Fortunately, my in-laws are well aware of his behaviors, so they ignored his poor behavior.

Bob went next, then the nephews and my niece, etc.  My niece was especially concerned with SJ being upset, but I told her he had Legos on the brain.  I reminded her that he would be fine and he has to learn to not react so poorly.  My husband talked to him and so did I.  After we explained to him that the Legos he wanted were a lot of money, he seemed to calm down.  I told him that Santa was probably going to be bringing them. 

We showed him how the speakers worked and opened the Yahtzee game.  He then seemed to be back to his normal happy self.  My sister-in-law brought a Christmas trivia game.  SJ read the questions and had us in teams of boys vs. girls.  The team that got to 10 first one.  Some of the questions were hard, but it was funny hearing SJ be an emcee.  Every one enjoyed the game and there was a lot of laughing during the game.

Our guests stayed for a few more hours.  They were at our house fairly late.  Around 11:00 p.m., SJ told me that the remaining guests (our nephew and his wife) should leave.  He was concerned Santa would not come if we still had guests.  I told him to go to bed and our guests left shortly after. 

Even though SJ had some bad moments, overall it was a lovely Christmas Eve.  I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas Eve as well.