Christmas Excitement

I’m not going to lie – there’s a lot of Christmas excitement in our house this year thanks to my son.  I might look like this on the outside,

But I feel like THIS on the inside –

My son is now at the age where he is starting figure out that Christmas is different from other days.

At this point his brain is processing the following about Christmas:

•  Plant an indoor tree.
  
• Talk about snow.
• Notice that presents randomly appear under the tree.
• Get told that you can’t open the presents.
• Notice that your parents have planted a felt tree with 25 felt ornaments on it to keep you away from the presents under the other tree. Get told it’s time to open presents after the 25th ornament is removed.
• Try to remove all felt ornaments immediately. Get told you can only remove 1 ornament each day.
• Read “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” before bed each night.
• Learn that the Grinch is going to take away your presents, but then bring them back.
• Sing about jingly bells and red-nosed reindeers.
• Say “Maiwy Cissmis!” a lot.

Even though my son has no true grasp of what Christmas is actually about, watching him make connections and get excited is just about the best thing I could ask for.

His wonderment feels like a fog light cutting through my over-cluttered mind – highlighting past memories and good times.

My sister and I kept the following traditions until we moved out of the house in our 20’s:

1)    Get up at 5AM.

2)    Crank Rudolph to 10 on our Fisher Price record player.

3)    Run around the house like banshees.

4)    Wake up our parents.

5)    Have dad yell at us to go back to sleep.

6)    Keep pressuring him to get up.

7)    Organize the presents and stockings.

8)    Run back to our parents room to pressure my dad to get up again.

9)    Have our mom tell us how she is planning something “special” for breakfast – waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.

10)    Notice our dad has gone into the kitchen to get a bowl of Shreddies.

11)    Pressure him to open presents with us first.

12)    Open stockings.

13)    Open presents.

14)    Eat our “special” breakfast consisting of Eggo-waffles, frozen strawberries, and Miracle Whip.

15)    Argue about whether or not we will go to the farm to visit our relatives.

I miss those days of Christmas excitement back home, but I’m looking forward to new traditions, new adventures, and new arguments over where we should spend Christmas.

Happy holidays to all!