Christmas is not about wrapping paper and bows...

We were heading home from church last night, just the two of us in the car. Daddy was home sick - bronchitis, the poor thing. I hope you don't inherit his propensity to catch upper respirator type infections...he gets twice as many as I do, I think. You were 'oohing' and 'aaahhhing' over all the Christmas lights we passed. I'm enjoying the fact that this Christmas season you are really able to take in and enjoy some of those little things for the first time. We took you to see Christmas lights before, but you seemed only briefly fascinated. I think we'll have to plan a special Christmas-light-viewing-outing this year.

There are a lot of traditions for you to enjoy during the holidays. Before our big family get-togethers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we have some traditions we follow throughout the month of December. We have a felt count-down-to-Christmas calendar that we use to build excitement through the weeks leading up to Christmas. There are Christmas plays and musicals at church to plan for, practice for, and enjoy. When we are home, we always try to watch a lot of Christmas movies during December. Daddy is all about finding that radio station that plays 24-hour Christmas carols to listen to in the car. We love to shop for our family members and really take the time to buy them things that reflect their individual personalities, not just what the 'hot' item might be that year. I am hoping you and I can start some new traditions of our own as well. I want you and I to make some Christmas cookies together, and make some homemade Christmas cards for the granparents. I'm even optimistically thinking you might be able to help me wrap some of the gifts. Granted they won't be as "perfect" as I used to make my gifts look when I first got married, but I don't think that matters.

Boy, did I obsess over the package trimming those first couple of years though. Clothing had to be placed in tissue paper before it went in the box....wrapping paper had to be unique and elegant....every package had to have ribbon wrapped fancifully around it. I made my own bows or embellished store bought ones. Once I started teaching full-time life got a lot busier and ministry responsibilities around the holidays became more intense. Soon I had stopped worrying so much about the look of the package on the outside and became more concerned on what was on the inside. By the time I had you, well....let's just say last year the packages just did have cheap little stick on bows and more than half of the gifts ended up in gift bags. I have to chuckle when I think about it. All that fanciful wrapping usually got crushed or messed up when we had to pack all those gifts into the trunk of our little car for the 3+ hour drive back to Sanford. And even the ones that did survive the trip were destroyed in 0.5 seconds of excitement.

So that's my life lesson for today, I suppose; don't obsess so much on the outer trappings, whether in Christmas or just in life in general. It's what is inside that counts.

Christmas 2007

We just celebrated your third Christmas with us and your little two-year-old personality really shone through this year. Despite some health problems threatening to keep your Mommy out of commission, the Lord came through and we were able to enjoy all the festivities with our family.

On Christmas Eve we went to your Great-grandma's (MeMa's) house to open presents with all your cousins. Your favorite presents that evening were a stuffed Daisy Duck (from Mommy and Daddy), a toy guitar and Thomas Train from Aunt Joy Joy, and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse activity pad from MeMa. You had a great time playing with your cousin Cameron and your Daddy got some great footage of you two playing and dancing with your guitars. I think the most special moment for me had to be when you sat in my lap and listened to MeMa sing "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" like she has done for all the children every year as long as I can remember. That is a tradition I hope you can enjoy for many more years yet...

After we left MeMa's house we went to your Grammy's house and opened more presents. Your Uncle Joe and his girlfriend Emily gave you a book that was very special to her when she was a child: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She and Uncle Joe also gave you a stuffed caterpillar toy that matched the book (thus far you've liked the toy better than the book, but I think you'll like the book more when you get older.) Your Daddy and I gave you your stuffed Goofy which you really loved. Now your collection is complete, well almost. We got all the 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' characters except Pluto. We'll have to get him later.... funny you, you asked about Pluto as soon as you realized it was the only one you didn't have. Grammy gave me, Daddy, and Uncle Joe all of our presents next....lots of new clothes for Mommy! Yay! Video games and other neat things for Daddy! Finally we all went to sleep....you didn't want to, of course, but you were really tired so it didn't take too long.

The next morning, we celebrated Christmas Day first at Grammy's house where Santa brought you TONS more toys - way too many to list. I'm not sure who was more overwhelmed you or us! After getting ready as fast as we could, we headed over to Grandma and Grandaddy's house where we opened even more presents! I got a Christmas Cookie Yankee Candle from your Grandma and Grandaddy, and an ornament, and some more clothes. Daddy got lots of clothes from them, and Mommy and Daddy gave each other mostly toys! GI Joes...Video Games and such... :-) We're still kids at heart!

Uncle Jesse came over and we all ate lunch together. Your Grandma is one amazing cook. I always say she would put Betty Crocker to shame! She fixes everything from scratch - and I do mean everything! Your Grandaddy fixed his famous chocolate eclair - oh it was SOOO yummy. Even though I still wasn't feeling great and didn't have much of an appetite, I managed to eat a small bowl of eclair - some things are too good to pass up!

Christmas is full of so many wonderful traditions. I can't wait to see all the new ones that develop as you grow older.