Christmas... A time of gifts and ornaments, of things easily ripped and shredded and broken. A time of meltdowns in the overly crowded mall, and yet a time of joy and a time to cherish those around you. Everyone does Christmas a little differently, and more than anything, those of us with autistic children do it MUCH differently!

How do you all do your tree? Normally we get a normal sized tree, however this year the mice ate last years plastic tree and so I picked up a 4 ft plastic tree. We use all plastic/stuffed ornaments, no glass allowed. Last year we tried doing glass ornaments and using twist ties to hook them to the tree branches, but a lot broke so that was decided against this year. Well, that and the fact that the tree is so tiny, only a few ornaments fit. Personally, my favorite thing about the tree is the rainbow lights, so everything else is optional anyway.

Presents have to be wrapped and stashed immediately. Jaymes can smell a present a mile away. You'll set it down for all of 2 seconds to do something, when suddenly you hear the pitter patter of little feet, then the shredding of paper rivaled only by a rabid wolverine tearing through a paper factory. I have them in the locked bedroom this year, and there have not been too many unwrappings! It's funny, looking back. Jaymes used to have zero interest in opening gifts. Last Xmas was when the fun of it really caught on with him, and Sierra copies everything he does, so it works out well. But it sure would be nice to have presents under the little tree. Or maybe not.. I can't imagine much of anything will fit beneath it's diminutive branches.

Jaymes is a candy cane freak. As he is on that no red dye diet, it makes me crazy when well meaning relatives give candy canes. It's like wrestling with an angry polar bear to get one away and I feel just horrible for it. Family doesn't get that restrictive diet thing. Anyway, every time we go into the bedroom, it's a mad dash to go in or out without Jaymes streaking past and grabbing a handful of the forbidden candy canes. I should just throw them out, but then he'd dig through the trash... Besides, Jason likes them. My house is -supposed- to be a candy free zone. However, the combination of my mother, Jason's mother, and Jason's own sweet tooth are bending that rule to the breaking point. At present all candy is up so high I have to climb a chair to get it down. Seems to be working.

I love wrapping paper and bows. I swear, one day I will win the lottery and the next Christmas, watch out! If funds permitted, I imagine I'd be a LOT like my favorite blogger Kelley with her Xmas crazy. I ended up just getting one giant roll of cute reindeer cartoony paper, it was plenty for what I needed to wrap. I really love the shiny sparkley ones though.

I'm undecided on how I'll be handling gift time on the big day. For Jaymes, opening it all at once is really too much. Too much chaos, too many things to play with. He tends to get overloaded quickly, then we have an angry boy all day long. I'm thinking maybe we'll do a couple gifts a couple hours apart. They don't have that much this year, but more than last year. I feel like they have too much crud they don't play with, so we got things that will be a huge hit. Thomas the Train stuff for Jaymes, Elmo and baby dolls for the little pink devil. DVD's for Jason. Never as much as I wish I could do. I'd love to be one of those people that spends $500 per person... But you know, it's not what Xmas is about.

So here's to surviving the season, and being better prepared for the new season to come!

Need some gift ideas for the holiday season?