This week has been chock full of Christmas traditions, last-minute shopping trips, baking, and a couple runny noses.
We broke out the big gingerbread house and put it together. Riley loves decorating the gingerbread house and gives careful consideration to every piece of candy before squishing it into the icing. James tries to reason with me between pieces that one piece of candy on the house = one piece of candy he can eat.
While the kids decorated and "It's a Wonderful Life" played on the tv, I baked peppermint bark cookies (thank you pinterest!), made sugar cookie dough, fudge, oreo balls, and made Jason's favorite dinner (fried chicken--he still says it's the reason he married me).
If only a little redneck, the house 'shore looked purty all lit up' last night.
While I finished cooking supper, Jason gave the kids their bath and got everybody into jammies and as soon as we were done eating, we all loaded up into the car with a baggie of freshly baked cookies and cup of milk.
In the paper last week, there was a listing of local addresses that had light displays up, so we picked a few of the best-looking ones and plugged them into the gps.
The first was the most extravagant--Ludy's (it's pretty popular around here). There were lights stretched out into their neighbors' yards, the show coordinated to Christmas music on a radio station, and they had Santa (and traffic guards)!!
The boys were fascinated. Riley squealed "Lights!" at any house with so much as a light-up plastic Santa on the lawn and when we arrived to this one he was just in awe.
When the song, "I want a hippopatomus for Christmas" came one, my ever-clever James announced, "I just want a toy for Christmas, not a animal." Jason and I were cracking up!
We asked if they wanted to get out to go see Santa (even though it was chilly and we hadn't brought jackets and we were all in our pajamas--it was a special opportunity) and James said he'd rather just stay in the car. Riley said "yes" and squealed "Ho ho! Ho ho!", so Jason took him up there. Only a few minutes later, Jason was carrying him back. He'd made it as far as the driveway, then the excitement turned to terror and "Ho ho!" became "No ho ho! Mommy! Mommy!"
We stuck around for another song or two then headed to a couple other houses. Though their displays were a little smaller, there was definitely a lot of work put into them and there was even another music-show.
It was after 10 o'clock by the time we made it home and tucked everyone into bed, but so worth it to see the looks of wonder on their rosy little faces.
Today is our last day with Fred. James has already begged that Fred stay with us and I have to admit, I'm a little sad that he's going. Every morning, both boys rush around the house looking for him. This morning he was ziplining to the tree from the ceiling fan.
Tonight we'll leave him a little elf-sized treat along with Santa's cookies so they'll both have something to snack on, on their way back to the North Pole.
It's hard to believe that Christmas will be here tomorrow. That soon it'll be over and we'll have to take down the tree. And the lights. And all the decorations--some that we just put up yesterday.
Three years ago, we were living in Fort Drum and experiencing our first winter up there. James was a year old and it was the first year I wouldn't be spending at my parents' house. We'd planned to fly down to Texas to spend Christmas with Jason's family and New Years in Tennessee, but our flight got cancelled because of the snow. We drove through the blizzard back to our house from the airport, thinking we were going to be stuck up there. I remember crying and listening to Judy Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in the car and how much the words resonated with me. When she got to, "Someday soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow" I felt at peace. It was exactly what I needed to hear right at that moment! I thought about all the Christmasses I'd ever had: getting the "my size Barbie" and ripping the scab off my knee on the tulle ballerina skirt (this, friends, is why I HATE TULLE SKIRTS). My American Girl doll, Kirsten and the Saint Lucia wreath I wore on my head (we even celebrated the Saint Lucia day one year), my mom's spinning German candle-propeller thing that always melted wax on the tablecloth. The year we found the bikes in the basement and mom gave us a huge speech about something special we were going to get for Christmas that actually turned out to be our dollhouses (we were sooo smug that we just knew she was talking about those bikes). My 11-year old "polar express experience" where my sister and I heard the dogs barking at something in the sky that we still swear-to-this-day was a flying sleigh. The December I met Jason and we walked along riverside to look at the lights while we got to know each other on one of our very first dates. Our first married Christmas together where we walked our not-even-two-month old James along riverside and he slept through all the lights.
We ended up finding a flight to Texas later that week and flew out on Christmas day, shortening our trip, but still getting to see everyone. We also found out two days after Christmas that we were going to have Riley.
I started making a point to adopt our own special traditions and ways to enjoy Christmas as our own little family, so that when the unexpected happens, it's not devastating. Now as our kids get older, we want them to wake up to their very own tree, in their own beds. We've been lucky to have family come to us to visit, or to be able to visit with everyone after C-day. So all of that still plays a big role for us, but we've grown into making the holidays personal, too.
Every Christmas since, I listen to that song--still one of my very favorites--and reflect on all the great Christmasses past (we've spent each one in a different place!) and I like to think ahead to the next year and where we'll be. Next year, we'll have a 10 month old little girl, our boys will be 3 and 5. Who knows what kinds of things they'll be into by then, or where we'll be, or even where Jason will be. Here? Another state? Out of the country? But I do know that we'll try to have a real tree, a gingerbread house, a thousand cookies, a ton of food, an elf on the shelf, lights on the house, hot cocoa on the stove, a light-searching-drive-in-our-pjs. And at the very least, we'll have each other. And there won't have to be any muddling.
I adore this whole last little section. So sweet! You're such a trooper. Can't wait to see you tomorrow!! xoxo
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