Christmas time is exciting in any household that contains any number of kids…but can you imagine the excitement at my house?

As my kids are growing up, at 11 and 7 now (sounds like I have a ‘normal’ number of kids when I put it that way, huh?), the excitement of Christmas is growing too.

In recent years, I’ve always let the kids put the ornaments on the tree. And very honestly (and perhaps shockingly!), I don’t care one tiny bit where the ornaments land. As long as the branch isn’t weighted to the ground, I’m okay with their way of decorating. My job is solely to put the hooks on the ornaments and off they go. It’s getting more fun as they get older and sometimes I feel like a kid again at Christmas.

This past weekend was Christmas decorating weekend in the Gosselin household. The boxes of neatly packaged Christmas decorations have been sitting in my dining room for two weeks. We got our tree on Thanksgiving weekend and that usually starts the momentum but this year with homework, the marathon and custody weekends to dodge, our winter wonderland was a bit delayed.

Typically I decorate while the kids are at school, which is how they prefer it. They love to walk in to a red and green adorned home without warning. Well, that goes for any and every holiday, actually. It’s best when I surprise them. So funny how traditions start…

Another tradition we have in our home is wrapping all stocking gifts. Yes, I fill 8 stockings to the brim with wrapped gifts. I’ve always said that it slows them down enough to allow me to gulp down a cup of coffee before our traditional cinnamon bun and hot chocolate breakfast. My late night wrapping sessions have worked so far. I traditionally wrap all gifts first, saving all the paper scraps to use to wrap the stocking gifts instead of throwing them away. Saves money and paper!

On Christmas Eve, after “Twas the Night before Christmas” has been read, the bedtime instructions are given: Everyone needs to stay in bed and be quiet until the clock says ’7:00′. Mind you, these same instructions are given each Saturday, Sunday and summer morning…but it ONLY works ON CHRISTMAS! Anyone have any clue why??? Lol!

When Christmas morning comes, it’s a jubilant, chaotic scream fest here. But, there is a method to the madness and I try to beat the previous year’s method to be more organized, more fun and more memorable.

For starters, I always make a ‘spot’ for each child under the tree, where they can open their gifts. I used to actually have them sit on a piece of paper with their name on it, but this year, I’ll allow them to pick their own spot. I will then hand out 8 presents and say ‘go!’ and plug my ears to protect my hearing from the predictable shrieks. When the gifts are opened and the wrapping is thrown away, I’ll remind them to go back to their ‘spots.’ And the process starts over again and again and again… Oh, and sometimes some wrapped stuff for mom appears too!

Following our mass gift opening, I know that once again this year I’ll sit on the floor for 4+ hours unpacking toys and installing batteries. I am not exaggerating! My ‘hiney’ is sore by the time the last toy has been freed from its packaging prison. That is the biggest dread of Christmas with 8 kids… and the trash that fills the entire entryway of our house. For this reason, on post-Christmas trash day, I always place containers of baked goods out by the trashcans for our ever kind and helpful trash men.

Each year following the gift opening marathon, and the hours of clean up wage on for me, the kids run off playing happily with all their new stuff and I clean up alone in peace and quiet. This is probably my favorite part of the day. Not because of the peace and quiet, but because I have the most grateful kids in the world! They return often while I’m sweeping the floor to thank me again and truly the ’thank you’s’ don’t end until bedtime. The happy chortling that I hear from rooms all over the house really makes ME happy too! I so love Christmas…and I especially love the happy chaos it creates at the Gosselin home! Get in the holiday spirit with some offers from CouponCabin.com below.

- K8

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