It started with putting up the Christmas lights. I insisted they go up the weekend before Thanksgiving so they would be up and ready not only for our Thanksgiving guests but also for our son's second birthday party as well. And the quicker you get them up, the longer you can enjoy the hard work before taking them down again. My son's response: "Pretty lights." I knew then that his third Christmas was going to be a fun one. The first one at 1 month old was passed in a blur of feeding and last year at 13 months, he just didn't have an interest. This year was going to be fun.
"Flingos, Santa Claus" is what I hear as we are driving in the car. For some reason, our neighbors have an inflatable Santa Claus and sleigh being pulled by two flamingos. My son is now on the lookout everywhere we go for "flingos" but we usually only see reindeer. And how can reindeer compete with glowing pink flamingos wearing sunglasses with leis around their neck.
This past weekend, we put up the decorations inside the house. We decided rather than putting up the tree while he napped, we would make this a family event. We got out the lights, the Christamas tree, the ornaments, and the snow globe. Each item brought eyes full of wonder and hands that wanted to touch, grab, and drop each item to see what might happen. In the end, he was given a few ornaments and a Christmas mailbox to play with while Mom and Dad finished the tree. Sadly, the lamb on the sleigh with a wreath around his neck had to go to the toy hospital to be put back together.
One of the more tender moments of this Christmas season thus far has been watching him play with his Navtivity set he got for his birthday. He said, "Baby Jesus sleeping" and put him in his manger. Just when we look at him and tenderly smile, he proceeds to rip some hair off the Angel of the Lord. He then takes Mary and Baby Jesus and puts them driving the tractor with the animals in the hay wagon.
After last year's episode with Santa Claus, I was sure that I was going to skip the whole sitting on Santa's lap picture taking episode this year. But I couldn't resist! I just had to have the experience for his memory book. He didn't crawl up my body like a spider monkey fleeing from a jaguar but he sure wasn't going to sit in Santa's lap either. We compromised by giving Santa a high five and getting the picture with Mommy between him and Santa Claus. Later, he and Daddy did peek at Santa around the end of the aisle observing other children interacting with Santa.
With a two year old son, we see Christmas through another set of eyes. The Christmas lights are brighter, decorating the Christmas tree was more fun (and took a lot longer), and standing in line to take a picture with Santa Claus no longer seemed ridiculous.
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