I am officially in recovery mode from Christmas. Who knew that having days off in order to celebrate a holiday would result in needing to recover?!
I mentioned in a previous post how excited I’ve been about Christmas with Brittain this year. It was a good thing that we had “Christmas comes early” at my parent’s house a week before Christmas. It got me through to the actual day.
When Christmas Eve day finally arrived, I was beyond myself with excitement. All the Christmas shopping was done and I couldn’t wait to attend the candlelight service at the church, come home and “set up” Christmas, and then wake up the next morning for the much anticipated day.
I think the true magic for me started that afternoon as I was getting ready for church. I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup when Brittain came in and said, “Merry Christmas, Mommy.” It was such a sweet moment during which I also said, “…and Happy Birthday, Jesus.” (We’ve made a real effort to make sure she understands that this holiday is not just about Santa Claus. And, while she may not understand it completely, I think we’ve at least set the foundation for her to eventually understand the true meaning). She answered me by saying, “Yes, and Happy Birthday Jesus…up there” (and pointed upwards).
I was involved in both Christmas Eve church services, and sang “O Holy Night” at the first one. Because most of my family is involved in the choir, which was only participating in the later service, everyone attended the first service and was able to sit in the congregation together. It was such a meaningful site for me to see the whole family sitting together, and my precious child sitting with them (and behaving quite well, I must say). I was amazed that Brittain made it through the entire service. Having her sitting out there when I got up to sing “O Holy Night” made the moment more special than I could have imagined. To be honest, I’m not even sure how I got through the song. I somehow kept down a lump in my throat. I felt like any minute I was going to break down in tears and let out quite a few “boo-hoo’s.” I kept my composure and looked directly over my family’s pew until I sang the last note. It was the next moment that made Christmas for me. As Seth played the last note and there was complete silence in the church, Brittain clapped for me. She didn’t say anything…she just clapped.
A few pictures taken before heading to church:
When I arrived home that night from the second service, Brittain was already tucked in bed, so Dan and I immediately started putting together Santa Claus toys. I can vividly remember Christmases as a child. I don’t remember every gift, but what I do remember is Cecilia and me running into the living room, and everything actually sparkling. I can still see it in my head right now. My parents did an unbelievable job making magical Christmases for us. All I could think is that I wanted for Brittain to experience the same thing. I wanted the room to “sparkle” for her just as it had for me.
The Santa setup:
Although Brittain had been asleep many hours before we finally got in bed, we somehow came to the conclusion that it would be a “good idea” for her to sleep in the bed with us. We justified this to each other for the reason that we were afraid she would wake up on her own and go into the living room without us. My reason, though, was simply that I just wanted to be close to her all night. I questioned this “good idea” when I saw that I wasn’t going to sleep as soundly as I hoped I would. Dan and Brittain, on the other hand, seemed to sleep as soundly as they ever have. Dan was snuggled up on his side of the bed, snoring like it was what he was put on this earth to do. Brittain took full advantage of the king-sized bed as she slept comfortably in the middle of the bed and my side of the bed. As for me, I teeter-tottered on the edge all night, trying to stuff my earplugs as far in my ears as they would go and keep from rolling right off into the floor (which now that I look back on it may not have been such a bad thing). I did get to watch Brittain sleep, which was really, really nice and made my fatigue the next day completely worth it.
When Brittain woke up the next morning, there was no mention of Santa Claus, and I truly believe she had forgotten all the talk of gifts. We went about our normal routine as she drank her milk and watched some cartoons in our bed. During this, Dan and I went into the living room to turn on the movie camera and make sure everything was in place and ready to go. When we walked back in our bedroom to get her, it was evident that we suddenly felt the excitement we used to feel as children on Christmas morning as we said, “Brittain, Santa Claus came to see you last night!” Her eyes got as big and wide as I’ve ever seen them. As she got off the bed and started running down the hall, I ran ahead of her to get a few pictures. These were the best as she first saw the Santa setup. She ran down the hall and then stopped dead in her tracks and just stared in total awe and excitement.
It’s a hard lesson to learn, but I believe Brittain would have had the same reaction and felt the same excitement had she gotten one single gift. I had spent many sleepless nights wondering if she was going to have enough to open on Christmas morning. In the end, I think it was a little overwhelming to her. After the Santa gifts, she was less than interested in opening the wrapped gifts under the tree. “JUST LET ME PLAY ALREADY!!!!”
See what I mean? This is a bag of fruit snacks. Actually, they’re not even real fruit snacks. They’re an off-brand of fruit snacks from Wal-Mart. I think I could have gotten her this and she would have thought she had the greatest Christmas ever:
After we finished opening gifts, Brittain received some visitors who came to see what Santa Claus brought her:
After playing a while and taking a good afternoon nap, we headed over to Gramy and Papa’s house to celebrate. In addition to some wrapped gifts, Gramy and Papa had also added to Brittain’s toy collection in the playroom in their house. Gramy thought it would be a good idea for her to see the new playroom toys while we were waiting on dinner to get ready. Of course the problem was pulling her away once it was time to eat:
It became obvious that Connie could have purchased this one play makeup kit and it would have kept Brittain occupied for the entire evening:
Brittain approved of the appetizer that evening of sherbet:
The gift opening started out with a bang. Just as I had done, Gramy and Papa made sure there were plenty of presents under the tree for Brittain to open.
Of course, less than halfway through, Brittain decided that she was tired of all this and she would much prefer to go play with her new toys in the playroom. When I looked at this next picture later that night, it cracked me up. I’m just imagining her saying, “It’s a pair of shoes mom. A pink pair of shoes. Do you really have to take a picture of every single thing I open?”:
The night was deteriorating quickly, so by the time we got to the last gift, Brittain literally refused to open it. Fortunately I knew that this was the gift she would like the most so I said, “Brittain, I think there’s a baby doll in there.” She then had a mission to get this gift open! It was a shame that there was a lot of assembly required because me, Dan, Connie, and Roger did not make a good team as we rushed to put everything together. Since we didn’t find the instructions until after we had finished, it was a comedy routine making sure we had everything correct:
After our dinner had settled and the gift opening was complete, we sang “Happy Birthday to Jesus” before partaking in some delicious dessert. I set the timer for this picture. I died laughing when I looked at it and saw Dan and me posing like it was our job, while everyone else stayed “in the moment.”:
