Christmas Measures

Another way to mark the passing of the year and measure growth is our family tradition of Christmas PJ's. I "make" the PJ's. Before working, I would actually sew the pajama pants, buy the shirt and decorate it. For some reason, my sewing skills have never improved to finishing shirt collars and sleeves. Pants I can handle. However time constraints with being employed means I've bought them recently. I do something unique with the shirts each year: initials, names, nicknames, funny titles. This year I went with a superhero/nickname theme. I have Mr. T, Super Why and M&M pictured above. My husband has the Batman Logo changed to be his initial M.

The major change each year is the sizes needed for the 3 sleepers. My oldest two, only 14 months apart, are easy to shop for and match. While you might think boy/girl matching would be hard, you just go the boys section and pick neutral colors. I actually had the biggest issue finding matching pajama pants and shirt for my littlest one. Finding matching items in size 4 and also in size 7/8 was a big deal. I searched all clothing stores near me and ended up buying my littlest one the same PJ pants as his older siblings and my mom helped me adjust the fit.

So, what exact changes did I notice this year?

This is the first year there was no T for toddler on any label of clothing.

My daughter shot up in height in December. So the pants I bought a little big, hoping they'd last the year, are now barely reaching her feet. If she keeps up this pace, her PJ's each year won't last until her birthday in June. It has now occurred to me that my daughter may pass me in height in the not so distant future. I may end up the shortest one in my family.

Nothing beats the feeling of wearing the same soft, cozy jammies as we burrow under blankets spread out over the whole family room and have movie theater at home.

While opening jammies on Christmas Eve has stayed the same, the presents opened Christmas morning are less and less toys as my children grow and want electronics and books and need socks and clothes.

This is only the second year my children have woken us up for Christmas present orgy. This year, that call came it's earliest ever from littlest one being prompted by older two to yell, "It's Christmas Mom and Dad!" at 2:30 in the morning.

So, as I look forward to the coming year and all the amazing things my kids will do, I can't help but think of this:

And this:

And this:

And these:

And this:

BLINK.