It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

I like the holidays. I do.

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas has been a great time to enter into a food induced coma, and then toss up a New Year’s resolution to climb your way out. It’s also a great time to slow down, and enjoy time with family and friends. 

For most of my adult life, my wife and I lived in relatively small apartments with very little room to put things. I never liked the “stuff on top of stuff” decorating motif, so I became pegged as the Scrooge, and labeled anti-Christmas.

I am also pro-Thanksgiving and never cared much for all that Black Friday entails. No thank you. I am not too big of fan of the fact every retail outlet becomes infinitely more crowded for an entire month. I am also going to enjoy this window before we’re shopping for the latest and greatest toy. But I think the traditional, giving themes of the holiday are well worth the effort, and I hope to instill some of that onto Jamie.

Which brings me to the Friday after Thanksgiving. It’s a day I’ve typically dreaded. While I’m not out shopping, it’s the day when the family pressure is the strongest to bring out those Christmas decorations. We have a little bit more room in our house for miscellaneous red stuff, but decorating is still a tough row to hoe, between the kid and the dog. Things are a bit different now.

Jamie’s had some sort of toddler sixth sense, possessing the ability to detect the nearing approach of Christmas since the end of Halloween. The pine tree air freshener in my car became “Daddy’s Christmas tree.” Hearing about Christmas every day following Halloween always makes me cringe a bit.

And then I saw what this holiday means to him. My son is nearly 3, so it’s the first Christmas he’ll start to make sense of. We unpacked the Christmas tree, and the kid jumped for joy at the idea of decorating it. He barely slept a wink for his nap.

We opened a box of ornaments we’ve been giving him over the last couple years, and he all but memorized who gave him which ornament, stopping to thank the person, even if they weren’t in the room.

On Saturday morning following Thanksgiving he began opening and closing the doors on an advent calendar. I tried to explain it didn’t start for a few more days, but all he could say is “I want to do it now!!”

As an infant we were able to buy his Christmas presents in front of him, but that window is most definitely gone. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. It’s going to be an interesting month.