if only the king’s men had glue guns things might have worked out differently
December 6, 2006
I love decorating for Christmas. We have numerous wreaths, garland, trees (real and fake), and all sorts of other decorative crap things that only come out at this time of the year. None of the things are terribly expensive since I do have children who feel it is perfectly acceptable to scale the fireplace mantle or climb the Christmas tree. The house always feels so festive when the decorations are up and then so naked when I take them all back down.
[As an aside I am sitting here at the kitchen table with my computer. My 3 and 6yr olds are having a contest to see who can catch the most goldfish crackers in their mouth. So far they have each thrown about 30 in the air OVER THEIR HEADS. And each time they seem genuinely surprised that they missed their mouth. I know I shouldn't laugh and encourage this behavior, but I can't help it. This is why I don't walk around the house without shoes or slippers on.]
Yesterday was the first day I had time to get the boxes out of the attic. It is always fun opening them up with the children. The younger children really don’t remember the decorations from one year to the next and so there is an excited energy from them, the realization that Christmas really is going to come sometime soon. Remember how slowly time moved as a child?
I took the Christmas stockings out of the box and laid them on the dining room table. My 3 yr old daughter came over and examined them.
3 yr old: Oh Mommy, What are these big socks?
Me: They are our Christmas stockings.
3 yr old (lip begining to quiver): But I don’t want to wear those big socks on Christmas!
******
Growing up I had no traditions to look forward to during the holidays, which would come as no surprise to ayone who has been reading this blog for very long. I swore that when I had children I would do it differently and I have. We read stories every night by the candle light of our Advent wreath. We sing christmas carols. We drink eggnog and hot chocolate with little candy cane stirrers in the mug. We bake and eat more christmas cookies than should be allowed for one family. By the time mid January rolls around we look forward to a tad less “fun” as well as adding roughage back into our diets.
But mostly during this time of year I try to remember to be generous in spirit, even when they are singing me Jingle Bells, Batman Smells for the 5000th time that day. I try to give my children my full attention, even when they are revising their Christmas list for the umpteenth time and it no longer contains anything that I have purchased. And to laugh when the inevitable happens, which today was the baby jesus being pushed out of his manger in Nativity set and being decapitated. Oh humanity… we are doomed and “baby jesus sat on a wall” jokes quickly followed.
Luckily I am semi-skilled with a glue gun and the baby jesus no longer resembles the headless horseman.
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Amen! That is Christmas, have a wonderful one. Sounds like you’re on the right track.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:45 pmYou are the coolest mom ever. Your children are blessed.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:54 pmGlad to see you posting Chris. I was worried.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:08 pmLove that your daughter’s fashion sense extends to NOT wearing big socks. Cracked me up, I tell you.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:10 pmi am just so glad to know that baby jesus is not the headless horseman! it sounds like you are all having lots of fun, and that is what it is all about!
December 6th, 2006 at 7:31 pmCan I come live at your house? Maybe just for a month or so . . .
December 6th, 2006 at 8:06 pmI’d love to see how all of your stockings look when they’re hung by the chimney with care. Post a picture, please!
December 6th, 2006 at 8:38 pmDo you have room for a family of 4?? Your house is so much more fun than mine.. I cant bake cookies. well from scratch anyways. and if I buy the dough, then I usually eat more of it than baking it..
December 6th, 2006 at 9:09 pmI love Christmas and I love the traditions my family has. I cant wait to have traditions someday with my kids. Your kids will be so happy for all the traditions you have!
December 6th, 2006 at 9:25 pmpraise the inventor of the glue gun! Ours is kept at an arms length as well and used often.
Your Holiday anticipation sounds wonderful ~ much like you i to swore to have the holidays with my children that I never had.
I wanted share with you what we do with our baby Jesus, i stole the idea from an old boyfriends family, I thought Wow here is this 24 year old guy and he is still playing this with his family…someday…well my someday is here..
Their manger sat empty but for animals and the shepard boy for days….then suddenly mary and Joseph showed up out of the blue…meanwhile little baby jesus was being hid in the room…if you found him you were to hide him again and again until christmas eve when he actually showed up in the manger..meanwhile they had their three wisemen in the dinning room and they would slowly move a few inches a dayin the trip to see baby jesus…they arrive on jan 6th ( Little christmas) and join the celebration…every one found a small “extra” gift at the place at dinner to celebrate the day…the wisemen brought their gifts to baby Jesus…
of course now when looking at the holiday lights and someon has a manger displayed my children think it would be great fun to “kidnap” the baby jesus and return him on christmas eve…because ” HE DID NOT GET THERE UNTIL THEN…and should not be hanging around in the manger and the kids think that if the people are going to have a manger in their yards they should at least know that much… I have explained going to jail for theivery but they insist they would leave a note for the owner…
December 7th, 2006 at 12:09 amEnjoy the holidays!
Baby Jesus sat on a wall! HA! No one at my house seemed too interested in decorating this year. Just getting the tree up was a chore. Partially because I was freaking out at how my husband put up the decorations last year. Fortunately nothing was broken!
December 7th, 2006 at 1:53 amThanks for the reminder. I feel like such an ogre sometimes from all the stress life brings. It’s nice to hear something like that to remind me what the season should bring from the depths of me. Something other than grrrr.
December 7th, 2006 at 2:15 amI grew up in a great family, but we had no real “traditions”. My husband’s family had all kind of traditions and we’ve incorporated them for our son. He’s 16 now and won’t let us change a thing. His favorite is our snack night–the day the decorations go up, we have snacks for dinner and feast on baby pigs in a blanket, hot wings, chips, all kinds of great tasting things! Have a great holiday season!
December 7th, 2006 at 11:22 amGood for you giving your kids traditions they can look back and remember fondly for the rest of their lives.
Growing up for me was lackluster in just about every way, but I have those Christmas memories and they’re what give me the strength to occasionally dial my family members’ numbers.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:37 pmWe don’t have a ton of traditions but it seems each year we add on some new little thing and it means the world to me. I’m not sure if you read my woe-filled Thanksgiving post but the hoidays are not the easiest time for me. I try really hard to make it special for the kids and it’s nice to have that reinforced upon reading your post. I really adnire you
December 7th, 2006 at 9:56 pmAnd I really ought to proofread my posts better before hitting the submit button…gah!
December 7th, 2006 at 9:57 pmWe have an outdoor nativity and sometimes the wind blows our baby jesus away….I have memories of my mom yelling to my sister and I to go pick up baby jesus from the neighbors yard…this year they put weights in his blanket. LOL
December 8th, 2006 at 11:38 am