As I still sit up wrapping presents at 2am, it hit me…this is the first Christmas Eve he’s worked full-time.
I don’t think you ever realize how much you do on a holiday, or side holiday, until they aren’t a part of it.
Now Christmas Eve I understood how much we’ve done together. Thankfully my kids are teens (well youngest will be in 2 months) and nothing needs to be put together until they open it. But it’s still a lot of wrapping tonight.
Obviously I’m up for the challenge as I can’t sleep. Yes, I am excited for the kids to open their presents. But I’m also excited for hubby to be on his 4 day. He worked 96 hours this week and I miss the hell out of him! It’s been a very long week and even when he was home on Thursday, he took a nap and then I fell asleep with him. lmbo That’s how busy the weeks been. I haven’t napped in a long time.
Even though there isn’t as much to put together as normal, I’ve still been stuck with a lot of wrapping tonight/morning. Lot’s of presents to wrap and that is a good thing. It means that we’ve gotten to buy presents for each other and in this economy I really appreciate that. We’ve been on the other end for most of our years and it’s nice to be at a spot this year that we can buy the top things on the kids lists. It’s also awesome to know the kids don’t expect these things. That we’ve taught them some value of money and they understand that they can’t ask for the world and expect it…but still ask 
I am a first responder (police/fire/ems dispatcher) and am married to a fulltime firefighter. It’s our first christmas together…and as usual…we’re both working. We have 5 children between us,so I totally understand the blessing of being able to afford gifts for everyone. It’s a great feeling to be able to pay all our bills AND buy gifts. Now I am a bit of a google nerd. I research ways to save money(bake my own bread,do haircuts on the kids myself,I’m a coupon QUEEN!) These are just some of the ways I am able to make money stretch so our kids get to do all they want,(soccer,football,dancing). Glad to hear you had a great christmas this year. But hey….gift bags!!! Takes care of having to wrap!!!
I agree with gift bags for every holiday except Christmas. It just doesn’t feel right if you don’t hear the rip-n-tear going on. lol Plus the wrapping paper is our lab’s present. She likes to help unwrap and then chase it around the house when you ball it up.
My answer needs to be to wrap earlier! I could have started at least a week before and been mostly done.
Hope you had a great Christmas around your crazy schedules!
Twitter: Trina_Halsey
says:
I am looking forward to the days when there is less to be assembled!! Especially if I am doing more Christmas Eve’s alone. The kids were thrilled to head down to the station to see Daddy and deliver the cookies they made to the guys. Jeff had a CRAZY shift, think the city went NUTS. Made worse by the 911 lines going down – no tones, no phones, only radio communication. People were literally going to firehouses to get help. You’d swear it was a full moon.
Daddy is napping for now – back on tomorrow and then another double on the 29th/30th. I will be SO glad for New Year’s Eve, esp since he has is PO day on the 2nd.
Happy Holidays, Val! Thanks for reminding me, I am not alone in this craziness!!
~Trina
Christmas Eve was crazy here too! They had a quiet full moon. lol No communication issues thankfully, what a nightmare that must have been.
He’s working new year’s eve, so I am figuring out which wives house to go have a sleepover at. I have learned NOT to spend holidays alone and the kids have long time friends party to go to.
Happy you get him on New Years Eve Trina!
Twitter: FireMom
says:
Yes. FireDad worked last Christmas Eve AND this Christmas Eve. This year he had to run home and help me with our big surprise, but it was still a very long, very difficult day!
Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
Cool he could come home. I love living in district just for reasons like this. Although he was way too busy on Christmas Eve to even think about doing anything family related this year. Wow, they were busy.
I can’t wait for next year when we work no holidays. It’s going to be very weird. I’ll try not to get used to it since I know it doesn’t last. lol
Had a great Christmas, I hope your family did as well
Hey ladies I just came across this blog. This was my husband’s first year to work on Christmas. We have been married for 17 years anf he has been a full time ff for 4 years now. It was lonely without him here and the kids were not happy at all but thankfully he works with an Awesome crew and one of the guys on another shift covered him for a couple of hours so he could spend time with our children who are 9,8, and 6. We managed to pull it off and had a great day. Hope yours was well also.
Wow Sheila, that was our last year. Hubby and I have been married 16 and one of the single guys worked 2 extra hours in 2009 because he knew hubby would like to be there when the kids opened presents. Firefamily ROCKS!
Glad you found me so you can be a part of my extended fire family. It takes a village to survive baby.
Yes it does HotWife. Glad I was able to find you also. It helps to be able to talk to other wives. I am the newbie ff wife at our station so some of the other wives have been there for 30 + years so they are sometimes a little forgetful of how it is to be the newbie wife. They are a great bunch of ladies but a little hard to chat with. Hope you have a great day!!