Last year at Christmastime, we had just relocated from Massachusetts to Virginia, were in a rented house we were in negotiations to buy, everything was in boxes, Josie had not eaten a full meal in two weeks due to a lingering flu/difficulty adjusting to her new house, and we were all freezing because of an icy combination of a much colder than usual December and no insulation in the house. This was the extent of Christmas morning:
Thankfully, the kids were only 19 months and 6 months at the time, so they didn't fully realize what a slacker Christmas it truly was.
What a difference a year makes.
This year, first and foremost, we shopped for a real, live tree and decorated it with what Josie calls "ormants" and "kwiss-mass wights." As expected, the girls thought the decorating was a game: one ornament on and two off. These shots look like the girls are delicately placing ornaments on the tree, but they are actually pulling them off while we shout, "no, leave it!!!" for the 7th time in the background.
At last the tree was done!
The girls further geared up for the holiday by watching their nightly "Christmas Show." This is a little 10 minute On Demand video under the Baby section that they are obsessed with:
It is also responsible for teaching both girls "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Sleigh Ride." Both their versions of the former are below, though one child might be - er - slightly tone deaf. Only time will tell.
3 stars
um, 1.5 stars
Then came Christmas morning, and with a little coaching, the girls quickly turned pro at opening gifts. Between grandparents, aunts, uncles, Mom and Dad, and of course Santa, the girls had WAY more than enough. At their young age, too much can be a bad thing (plus no one likes spoiled shorties), so we are taking some gifts out of rotation. That way they appreciate what they have out, and in 2 or 3 months when they are starting to tire of what they've been playing with since Christmas, we can rotate in the ones we hid away and it'll be like Christmas all over again!
The girls got some lovely gifts, but the coolest part was definitely seeing how excited they were about Santa, the tree, the lights, etc. I don't think they got the whole concept of Santa coming to the houses of good little boys and girls, but they liked him as a "character" in the whole Christmas event. It felt like they just began to understand the spirit of Christmas and all the fun stuff that goes with it. It helped that we got to see all our family over the holidays, that made it extra fun! But we loved seeing the girls begin to develop a sense of some of what "Christmas" was. It made us realize that things will only get more and more fun as they get older! Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did!
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