The magic of Christmas

Last year, Christmas was fun.  This year, though, I'd have to say it was magical.  Two-year-olds enjoy it, but three-year-olds really get into it and understand it.  Joshua understood that Santa was going to come and bring gifts and fill his stocking.  He understood that reindeer, led by Rudolph, pull Santa's sleigh through the sky. He had so much fun picking out the Christmas tree and decorating it and the house. He loved driving around and looking at the lights on the houses around town.

Christmas through the eyes of a child is really Christmas.

Being as pregnant as I was, we didn't do as much as I wanted, but we did enjoy building a gingerbread house, making ornaments, baking and decorating cookies, and decorating the house inside and out.

We went up to Crest Ranch Christmas Tree Farm in Bonny Doon on December 7th to find our tree. I noticed one and Joshua liked it.  We thought we'd look around a little more, but Joshua had made up his mind that that was the tree we'd be getting and wouldn't walk away from it.  So, that was it.  And it was beautiful.  We put a whole bunch of lights on it, and Joshua decorated the bottom half with his ornaments and shatterproof balls, while Brian and I got the top half. We put garland and candy canes and tinsel on it and went way over the top and it was the best tree ever.

Brian and Joshua also put up lights and a snowman and penguins and candy canes on the exterior of the house.  Joshua had a great time taking the noses and scarves off the snowman and penguins. Over and over again.

We found a house around the block that had a pretty awesome light display that included a radio broadcast of music to which the lights were timed.  We had to go by and sit in front of that house every day for 10 minutes or so.

Christmas Eve, we had some friends over for dinner and then Joshua opened a gift of Scooby-Doo Christmas jammies, put out some cookies and milk for Santa and went to bed, no problem.

Christmas morning Joshua woke up around 8 (!!) and went into the living room to see what Santa had brought for him.  First thing he said was, "I told you!" when he saw his kitchen in the living room. He played with the kitchen for quite awhile, then moved onto some of the other things Santa brought which included a couple coloring books, Hungry Hungry Hippos, a Scooby-Doo DVD, some markers, some scissors, and some candy. I made breakfast while this was going on, which included Grandma's cinnamon rolls - the most delicious cinnamon rolls I've ever eaten.

After breakfast, we took our time opening presents.  At the beginning, we had to open and play with each toy for about 10 or 15 minutes before moving on. By the end, Joshua was moving quickly through the gifts, looking for more that were for him. This worked out fine though as we were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of presents, and so he had new things to play with for days.

After presents, we enjoyed naptime and then I made some dinner, which was rather semi-homemade and included a ham, stove top stuffing, costco mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, jarred gravy, and brown and serve rolls.  While not homemade, it was delicious.

And that was our Christmas.  So fun and so sad that it was over.

We took down the Christmas tree and the decorations on the 2nd. And now when we see lights or decorations on a house, Joshua notes that, "it's not Christmastime anymore." He's already planning on what to ask Santa for next year.