Holiday happenings

Whew! This has been a whirlwind month full of lots of fun holiday celebrations. As someone who never really got that into Christmas before, I have to admit it's a lot of fun seeing it all through my children's eyes. And this year has been especially meaningful because it's Violet's first Christmas and the first year that Jack really "gets" it.

We started off the season with a visit to Santa. I dressed Violet up in her adorable Christmas dress and her very first pair of tights and black Mary Janes. I had every expectation that she was going to be fine sitting on Santa's lap, because she is generally a very happy baby. But she did not love Santa. We finally got one picture where she was sort of smiling, but it was a far cry from the delighted grins I was expecting. Combine this with Jack's irritating new habit of either putting his hands to his face or doing a really weird smile that scrunches up his entire face - or both! - while taking pictures, and it wasn't the classic Santa photo I was anticipating. A follow-up visit to try again had marginally better results, but Violet still wasn't a huge Santa fan.

We attended our church's annual family Christmas festival. Jack had a great time singing Christmas carols, decorating cookies, and participating in a "San Diego snowball" (i.e., wadded-up pieces of paper) fight. Violet liked our church Santa a lot better than the mall Santa, probably because she sensed something a little familiar about him!

We once again visited Candy Cane Lane in Point Loma to look at Christmas lights. It was cold! But hot chocolate and cookies definitely helped keep everyone warm and well-sugared.

Candy Cane Lane

We also checked out the lights in Poway. It was raining, but we stayed dry and warm from the inside of our car.

Lights in Poway

Speaking of sugar, we've had more than our fair share of it this month. We've gone to a couple of holiday parties, including a cookie exchange that featured a private concert by Hullabaloo. It was so much fun watching all the kids jumping up and down, dancing around, and singing along. Even Violet got into the act.

My contribution to the cookie exchange

We had a playdate where the kids decorated graham cracker houses (so much easier than gingerbread) with frosting and candy and then proceeded to eat the entire thing.

Graham cracker house

We also attended a bunch of birthday parties, including a couple of Mommy-only ones. Yay!

We got a late start getting our tree this year. We decided to get a dwarf avocado, but the first place we went didn't have them. The one we ended up getting was smaller than expected, and the branches aren't strong enough to hold a lot of heavy decorations. Luckily, Jack has been making a lot of paper ornaments at preschool, and they looked perfect on our little tree.

The angel atop our tree

Jack dressed up as a shepherd for his Sunday school Christmas program, and he was so cute. I was a shepherd in my kindergarten Christmas program, so it was fun to go back and compare pictures. My favorite part of the show was when the kids sang "Away in a Manger," complete with accompanying hand gestures. They also sang "Go Tell It On the Mountain," "The First Noel," "We Three Kings," and "Give Peace a Chance." Jack was one of the littlest kids on the stage. He was really warm under the big robe and headdress, and he kept yawning. At one point in the middle of the program, he actually said, "Mommy, I'm hot!" He was really smitten with a six-year-old girl who is also in his Sunday school class and copied everything she did. But then another little boy decided that he really liked Jack, and he gave Jack periodic hugs throughout the show. It was sweet and hilarious. Thank goodness we caught it all on video!

We capped off the month's celebrations with our annual visit to my parents' house in the Bay Area. The night before our trip, we opened the presents that Tom's family sent to our house. Once up in the Bay Area, we opened presents with Tom's brother and the kids' cousin on Christmas Eve. And then more presents on Christmas morning with my parents and my sister and her husband. I feel so grateful, loved, and grateful that my children are so loved. We are truly blessed.

My mom's Christmas tree

Jack had so much fun at my folks' house. Uncle Adam (my sister's husband) was teaching him how to square numbers, and my little numbers man was in heaven. We also went to the mother of all Christmas parties, put on by the family of a couple of Jack's favorite friends who are sadly moving to Germany. We also celebrated my sister's and my dad's birthdays while we were up there, which meant even more cake for Jack. It was five days of non-stop eating well: from my mom's cooking to yummy dim sum to cookies galore and cake. What's not to love?

We ended the trip with a visit to the San Jose Children's Museum with some much-missed friends. The museum was a bit of a madhouse due to the holiday and the rainy weather, but there was so much cool stuff to do. And it was wonderful seeing Kelly, Kingsley, and Charlie again. It's amazing how much kids can grow in just one year.

The one downer about this whole trip was that Violet hated the car ride, especially when we had to drive over the mountains. I'm guessing the elevation changes really hurt her ears, and the poor baby cried and cried the entire time we went over them. Both ways.

When we finally got home at 11:30 PM, it finally hit Jack that our visit with his grandparents was really over. He started crying and sobbed, "I didn't want to leave!" I had to call my mom in the middle of the night to console him.

My mom's so cute. She said, "That makes me sad for Jack, but it kind of makes me happy too."

Even before kids, my favorite thing about the holidays has always been the Christmas cards. I've always loved sending them, and I always love receiving them. For some of our friends from high school, college, and Baltimore, it's the one time of year that we really catch up on the events of each other's lives. Now that I have kids of my own who are still too little to protest being in picture cards, it's even more fun. I love opening the mailbox every day and seeing who has sent us a little bit of holiday cheer. And I never throw Christmas cards away - ever. I have boxes of them that I have saved over the years. Now that I do yearly photo albums, I've stolen my friends' idea and scan in the picture cards to include in our family albums. It's a fun way to see how our friends and their families have grown.

A-door-able

Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season. We're looking forward to even more fun in the new year!