I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever have time to write the Christmas story as it exists in my memory – but there are some things I really want to write down before they blur into the happy haze of Christmas Past.
Well first of all, there was the Christmas sing-along at school:
And I’ll be honest, things went downhill after this – someone got a major case of the sillies and Mommy had to work hard to walk the line between keeping the event fun, and making sure he knew that was not the right way to act during a performance. So we’ll just leave this memory intact and move on.
We had three Christmases this year. Each of them felt like a legitimate Christmas morning, even though only one of them happened on December 25th. I love how that happens. I’m going to start with our Novato Christmas – the one where Santa came to our house. Things were pretty magical all season – Brendan was a full participant, discussing the specifics of Santa’s visit, helping to make (and test) cookies, choosing and paying for some of his very own Christmas presents – and even knowing which outside lights in town were Mommy’s very favorite. Even with all this hype and expectation, Christmas Eve and morning did not fall short. Of course, we wrote a letter to Santa, left some carrots for the reindeer, and he decided to leave five of the chocolate chip cookies that Brendan specifically told Santa we’d leave for him. Note: we sort of stayed in our PJ’s most of the day – so this was what he was wearing BEFORE we went up to take a bath and get on our Christmas PJ’s.
The next morning, Rob and I were prepared for overload and meltdowns, but they never happened. In fact, the “Christmas Spirit” which we had discussed with Brendan many times, was alive and well in our favorite little man. He crawled into our bed sometime during the night, and woke us up by saying, “Merry Christmas guys!” and following that up with big hugs (which he has told us ARE the Christmas spirit – such a smart boy). We went downstairs and although there were many gifts both wrapped and unwrapped right in front of him, the thing he went for first was a little plastic trumpet that Santa had left in his stocking. It still remains a go-to item. We let him pick which gift he wanted to open next, and he knew exactly which one he wanted to open – and seemed certain that it would hold his one requested gift from Santa – the “Big Garage”. Luckily, he was right – and I’ll be honest, I think the morning could have almost stopped right there.
All he wanted to do was play with his garage, but Daddy thought we should open a few more gifts first. So again, we let Brendan pick – and the gifts he wanted to open, were the ones that he had picked out and wrapped for Daddy. I wanted Brendan to get to experience gift giving all on his own this year – he has such a giving heart. And I knew that if I took him to a department store, I might inadvertently try and influence his choice. So I took him to the dollar tree. I gave him some money to put in his new wallet from Auntie Jess and Uncle Frank, and we talked about who we might select a gift for. He wandered the aisles, and picked out things very specifically for Daddy. He picked out a lot of things, but we agreed to narrow them down to three. He knew just the ones he wanted – and for the rest of the season, he could not wait to give Daddy his gifts. We kept them in a backpack at the back of his closet, and as we neared Christmas, he got to pick out the wrapping paper he wanted, he got to cut the paper himself, and he helped put the tape where it belonged. So the second gift that Brendan wanted opened on Christmas morning was not one of the many for him – but the gifts he picked for Daddy. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.
The next present Brendan picked was from Santa, and I happened to know that it was clothes…. a sleeper with stars on it to be exact. I was worried that this would be a letdown, but my little man opened his gift and instead of being disappointed, hugged it close to him and said, “Santa got me a sleeper and it looks very comfy!”. At this point he couldn’t wait a second longer to play with his big garage, so daddy put it together and Mommy made her coffee. It took us all day to open gifts, because from then on, after every gift, we had to stop and play. Best Christmas Ever.
So after all the presents were opened, Brendan wanted to do only one thing: Go skating. We have a temporary outdoor rink nearby, and the first time we took him there was a look of bliss on his face that lasted until we had to drag him off the ice. And from that point on, all he could think of was going skating again. It was a highlight of his season for sure. After our visit to Boston, Uncle Steve set him up with his very own hockey skates – so this is where it begins…
Next Christmas: Cupertino! We crammed Rob’s car full of gifts, luggage, pooch and people until there was not an inch left to spare. Grandma had Christmased up the house, even though she hasn’t been feeling so hot. And we had all of our traditional fun, including late night waffles on Christmas Eve. This year, we were asked if we would do the advent reading and light the candle for the Christmas Eve service – and we were especially asked if our son would say a special line. After the sing-along at school, I had my concerns… but we agreed. We practiced his line, “Glory to God in the highest!” and he had it down pretty well. When it came to our part, he was good as gold. He stood patiently with all of us as we read our parts, and when it was time for his line, I suddenly realized that he had never practiced with the microphone. After a little prompting – he got pretty darn close to his line – and most importantly, the sentiment was there. He did GREAT. Of course after the service, all he wanted to do was say his line over and over using the microphone. Last year I got a gentle scolding from Grandma for not letting Brendan hold his own candle at the Christmas Eve service,(however I felt a silent nod of gratitude from the rest of the congregation), so this year we decided to let him give it a try. He was a champ! He took it so seriously, and I could just see all over his face that it felt very special to him. It’s a night we’ll always remember.
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Then it was second Christmas! There were lots of nice presents, and lots of nice hugs. And Grandpa got TWO boxes of peanut brittle, so he had to share.
We played with toys and of course bubbles, had our delicious prime rib dinner. Brendan had a special job for dinner too – he was in charge of putting ice in all the glasses – a job he took very seriously. And then headed out on the red eye to Boston.
The flight went great – Brendan slept the whole way. I didn’t get as much sleep as usual, because I had half a little person in my lap, but we got a little extra sleep when we arrived at Snow Grandma and Grandpa’s before the cousins arrived. There was actually no snow at Snow Grandma and Grandpa’s house – and it wasn’t even all that cold. Except in the hockey rink. This made it hard for Brendan to research what he has decided will be our family business: Gianino Plowing. He has a whole new snow plow design that is ingenious, but I can’t talk about it here (patent pending). So the cousins arrived, and that was all the present Brendan needed – but there were even more gifts under the tree!
There were baths and whoopie pies and a whole bunch of cousin fun before it was time for dinner and the ANTIPASTO that I fell in love with on my very first trip to meet Rob’s family! During dinner, Brendan also made his rounds of “break the pickle”
The rest of the trip was cousins, cousins, cousins. Brendan LOVED having three big guys to pal around with and do boy stuff. We also got to meet up with even more cousins, and friends who are almost like cousins.
And then suddenly it was time to come home. None of us stayed awake to welcome the new year, but we did make it to our favorite brunch spot the next day to welcome 1/1/2015 with donuts. And the worlds cutest photo bomber:
The holidays are so FULL. Of every emotion and every activity. But this year I felt like we enjoyed some of the smaller moments too – we played our ‘ornament game’ as a family, we shared hot chocolate, we took many opportunities to look at pretty lights. I never get to do all the things I think I should do, or that I’d like to do. We never get to spend as much time as we’d like to with our family and friends. We never have the time to sink in and relax that I always imagine we will – but it was indeed a season of merry and bright moments like this:
A wonderful season, and I’m very thankful. Grandma – there are lots more pictures here.