Our Christmas traditions…

Breakfast with Santa at Clyde’s at Willow Creek…The Nutcracker…The Elf on the Shelf…

Dear Santa with the tattoos at Breakfast at Clyde’s, we know you’re not the real Santa and you make us a little nervous.

“Ummm….”

“I want a pink princess dress”

Oliver: Ummm….

Penny: I want a pink princess dress

Lucas: I want a dinosaur kit

Dear Santa at Breakfast at Rockefeller, your joyful laughter made us giggle, your velvet red sack of toys made us smile and your kind words warmed our toes.

Oliver: I want Thomas train

Penny: I want a baby doll

Lucas: I want a fish

Dear Santa, the real Santa, we journeyed to the North Pole to see you. You listened to our lists and tucked our letters into your right boot, the Nice boot.

“I want a truck”

“I want Pokemon”

“I want a baby doll with long hair”

Oliver: I want a truck and Thomas train

Penny: I want a baby doll with long hair I can braid, headbands, bracelets and Calico Critters

Lucas: I want two Poke-balls, Pokemon X, Ash gloves and a fish

Believe for as long as possible

There are a few children’s stories that make me cry, make me choke up and tear up each time I read it, make me pause to where my children look up and ask why I stopped reading. “The Little Stone Lion” with the beautiful cover implies heart tugging emotion. The artwork, simplicity and truth of the story touch me every time.

I first read “Mars Needs Moms!” while at the bookstore with my entire family. The cover with the Mom and Milo is sweet but the premise of Mars and the recent movie prepared me for a humorous story. 

It read humorous with an interesting premise, one of course that I could appreciate being a Mom.  And then it hit me, I turned the page and Milo realizes, sees his Mom in a new light. The words, his realization, the illustration just hit me and I was a ball of mush.

During the holiday season I like to read one holiday-themed story a night. On this night the selection was “A Bad Kitty Christmas”. For those of you that have read any of the Bad Kitty books you are familiar with the surly cat, the humor, ample use of alliteration and clever story telling. Bad Kitty books make me laugh but never have they ever made me cry.

I’m making quick progress through the book as its quite long and the night is getting late. Told in the voice of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” Bad Kitty creates a disaster of Christmas only to make things worse by running away. Taken in by a lady she shows Kitty her Christmas tree simply adorned with photos of all the folk in her life and the people she knew and teaches Kitty the true meaning of Christmas: Family. Kitty flees and returns home leaving the lady to say:

“So I sat in my chair and put my tree in my lap and settled myself for a long winter nap. I was happy to know she had a home of her own. Too bad I’d be spending my Christmas…

alone.”

Of course the story has a happy ending but it impressed upon me the importance of our history, our stories, loved ones gone and the true meaning of Christmas. In years to come when I reflect on Christmases past I won’t remember what was under the tree. I  will remember all eleven cousins singing karaoke, all six Go grandchildren climbing over Lola for a photo, Papa and Nana taking us out for dinner to a Japanese steak house because they think our kids love it but the fire always makes Penny and Oliver cry, my Mom feeding my kids kim-bop with no egg, my Dad spilling hot sauce on Jodi’s white tablecloth, Oliver playing trucks with my Dad and my Mom smiling as she listens to her four chatty daughters gab away.   This is what I will remember, the blissfully ordinary moments shared by family.

I love this time of year. And each year I have the desire to do something more, more than just buying each of my kids their heart’s content but I forget, each year. Thankfully to Oracle and an organization called KINDH (Kids In Need During Holidays) this year I did not forget. Each volunteer adopts a family in need for the holidays, buying the children toys and providing a gift card for a holiday meal. My family had a five year old that wanted Barbies and likes to read, a four year old that likes to build and a two year old that likes to cook.

I wanted my children to be involved so in addition to what I bought, I asked Lucas and Penny to each donate an unopened toy of their own.

Shopping for these three children was the most rewarding shopping I have done all season. 

The gifts are all wrapped and will be delivered to the family this Friday. I’ll never know the looks on their faces and I’ll never know if I got everything exactly right. It is entirely true, by giving do we gain.

Everyone knows and loves the book “Goodnight Moon”. But no one knows and loves the book as much as Oliver, making it the perfect theme for his third birthday. Cozy and sweet, just like my youngest child.

Birthdays are something to celebrate, to cherish and to share with friends and family.

And making big wishes…

Thank you to everyone for making the day so special!

And because one party is never enough, we celebrated again with his school friends. Keeping it cozy and sweet all his friends came in their pjs and enjoyed snacks and cake. Thanks to Aunt Darby Oliver had Goodnight Moon pjs, perfect for the occasion!

I love this time of year. I love my house fully decorated: our traditional green tree brimming with ornaments, our new white tree simply decorated, the wreaths, the towels, the garland and the knick-knacks on every shelf and open surface. What I don’t love so much is the time it takes to get my house to that state. To help with that, I have three willing little helpers. A blessing? For Oliver my instruction was simply get the ornament on the tree. With this he struggled but never gave up, hanging the same ornament over and over while it slipped off the branch. For Penny and Lucas my instructions were more elaborate: if its a heavy ornament hang it deep in the tree on a branch that can sustain its weight, don’t clump all the ornaments together and if its a tall/long ornament make sure it has enough room to hang properly. Lucas made small attempts to adhere to my guidelines but did as he preferred leaving me to find clumps of ornaments, hanging every which way. But for Penny she put much thought into where each ornament went. So much thought that at a point I noticed she was struggling to hang one ornament for over five minutes. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore and asked me to hang it for her. So I told her, don’t worry, ignore my previous instructions and hang it wherever you want. But she couldn’t, she couldn’t find a branch deep enough or strong enough to support the weight of the ornament and she was paralyzed. Often times holiday anxiety and stress is caused by crowded malls and never ending Christmas lists but apparently in my house a joyful activity of tree trimming tops the list. Lesson learned.

And there it is, he’s three. Just like that. In the blink of an eye. How and when did this happen? Did it happen when his first tooth came in? When he started walking and talking? When he could wrap his arms around my neck, when he could leap and jump and hug and kiss? When he could say “I love you Mommy”?

With each day he grows more independent and proportionally more affectionate. He’s literally taking two steps forward and one step back, making sure he’s still within arms reach of me. He’s speaking in complete sentences, knows most of his letters, draws and colors and loves puzzles. He has focus and determination but is never too proud to break down into tears and run into my arms.

My darling, my sweet, my happiness, my laughter, my warmth, my love, my youngest, my forever.

Love you every day of every month of every year for the rest of your life,

Mama

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Jodi’s house. When we got home I asked Penny if she enjoyed the Thanksgiving Feast and she said it wasn’t a feast because we didn’t sit at the same table. Sorry Penny, you will be at the kiddie table for quite some time.