The Bear's First Christmas

I appoligize for taking so long in getting this up. I wanted to have some time to really get all the details of Bear's first Christmas on this post.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and that you're now gearing up for a new year. That always strikes me: New Year. It's a chance to start over. A reset button. A do-over. It's like passing go (except maybe without collecting $200). I always look forward to a new beginning. I hope you do too.

Bear's first Christmas was a lot of fun. I had to work Christmas Eve day. We started making the rounds when I got home and the Bear got up from his nap. First we went to my Dad's house. We visited and opened gifts. It was a lot of fun. It's such a rare thing that my siblings and I are all together in one place that it's become quite a treat when it happens. All the noise and craziness going on reminds me of growing up. Someone talking, someone laughing, someone fussing, usually the TV on in the background. It's noisy and sometimes a little overstimulating (even for Bear), but that's just us.

When we finished there, we went to Danny's parents house. We got the biggest kick out of Bear climbing up on some of the bigger boxes. He would get as high as he could and peek over packages to see what was on the other side. He pulled ornaments off of Mimi's rotating Christmas tree. When you looked at him he glimmered and shimmered a little from all the glitter from the ornaments he pulled off and gnawed on. He wasn't so enthused about opening presents. It took him about twenty minutes to open two small gifts. He would pull a little paper off, play with that piece for a while. Wave it around. Eat it. Then tear another piece off when I took the first one away. He finally got all his presents opened with a little (a lot) of help. I think the most fun he had all night was sitting in an empty shipping box and shoving the eggs Nick and Marci got him around the box. That entertained him for longer than two minutes, that's how I know he had a good time. The Bear also had some potatoes and sausage from our low country boil. That boy is just like his Daddy, he inhaled the sausage.

We got home and did our usual bedtime routine. Once the Bear was in bed, Danny and I got busy. We didn't bother wrapping any of Bear's presents. After he took so long opening his other gifts earlier that night we decided it wouldn't be as much fun as it will be next year. This year he doesn't really understand what a present is. Fine with me, less work. We went ahead and took everything out of boxes and set it up so all he had to do was come in and play Christmas morning.

Christmas morning, I was up long before the Bear and it took everything I had not to go in and wake him up. I was so excited! When he got up, we looked at Santa's half-eaten cookies and the nibbled on carrots for his reindeer. Then the toys...oh, the toys. He was a little apprehensive at first. He sat back and took it all in. Crawled over to a few DVD's and scattered them. From there, he just moved down the line to whatever came next. He would wave his hands around so that toys went sailing, grab something and chew on it, then move down to the next grouping of toys. He had a big time.

When we got through with our little family Christmas, Danny's parents and Jon came by to see what goodies Santa had brought the Bear. Then mom came by to spend some time with us. She brought a breakfast casserole and what was probably Bear's favorite toy. It's a ball maze where balls pop out of this tube then roll down to be spit back out of the tube. When you turn it on, he squeals and giggles. Honestly, I do too. It's so much fun!

It was by far the best Christmas I can remember. Christmas is so much more fun when you have kids. We spent the day in our pajamas. Napped. Ate. Played. It was a good day. We did talk about the real meaning of Christmas, but at this age he had no understanding of what I was talking about. But I figured it was better to start talking about it now.

We hope that you had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

You don't think about traditions very much when you're a kid. You think about how something is fun and you look forward to it. But you don't think about any preparations or planning involved. You just do it and have a good time. Looking back at growing up, there are things that I'm glad we did every year, especially at Christmastime. Some of these traditions, I want to pass on to the Bear. This year was the time to get started.

The first thing I wanted to start doing with him is building gingerbread houses. We had a lot of fun with this. Growning up, we used graham crackers instead of actual gingerbread most of the time, but that was so you could decorate your house any way you wanted to. So that's how I did it with Bear.

For some reason, I didn't realize until this moment, the second he stuck his hand in the icing that this was going to be a messy project. What was I thinking?

Believe it or not, I did get all four sides up and a roof on before he took one of the walls and did this...

Yummy!

And a sticky sweet kiss when we're all through. He did this on his own, no prompting. Maybe he's thanking me for letting him eat all that icing.

This is the final house. It looks more like a gingerbread house after a tornado. I bought candy to decorate the house, but Danny and I ate it instead. Trust me, the Bear didn't miss it at all.

The day after we did his gingerbread house, we went to Lenox in Atlanta with Mom, Brandon, and Dylan to ride the Pink Pig. What is the Pink Pig, you ask? It's a pig that rides on a monorail. My mom rode it and we rode it growing up at Riches in downtown. The real Pink Pig has been retired to the Atlanta History Center but her little sister (who is really a train) is now riding kids around in Macy's parking lot.

We waited in line forever. Even Aunt Kathy came to keep us company in line! I don't know that we'll do this every year, but I like being able to say that Bear has done things that I did growing up. I feel like I'm keeping the torch going that way, giving him all the things I so enjoyed growing up.

We finally made it! Here we are on the Pink Pig's little sister. You can see Priscilla the Pink Pig (the real one) in the background. He had a lot to look at as we rode!

And to round out the holiday traditions, a trip to see Santa! Until recently (like two weeks ago), I assumed that everyone went to see Santa every year. It was something we did every year. Sure as there was Christmas, we went to see Santa. I wanted Bear to see a good Santa, not some young guy with a scratchy fake beard. A real Santa. I think this Santa is pretty dang real.

Bear was completely serious the whole time. He looked at me and Mom. Looked at Santa. Looked at me. Looked at Santa. Then wailed. It was pretty cute.

It was a busy weekend for the Bear. He was sick the whole next week. So I'm glad we went on and did it all at one time. I'm glad that we started doing some of the things that I want to pass down to him. Things that he can look back on and remember doing every year or most years. He'll really have a blast when he has cousins or siblings to do them with. This parenting thing can be pretty dang cool.

I haven't just dosed him up on commercial Christmas. We talk about the nativity in the entry at home. I point out Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. We've talked about the meaning of Christmas. Not that he understands any of it now, but I figured this was as good a time as any to start.

Hope y'all are having a good time preparing for Christmas as well. Check back soon...I've got new Bear tricks to share!