Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas!  When you were younger I used to feel a little sad that your Christmas experience was so different from mine as a child.  When I was young we would open gifts, then everyone scrambled to get ready and rush off to one family gathering for lunch, then on to another for dinner.  The day was busy and full of aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents.

But your Christmas traditions are nearly the polar opposite.  We lounge around in our pajamas.  Sometimes we stop in the middle of opening gifts so you can play with one thing or another.  I do not cook.  That's my rule.  And it's just the 3 of us.

I realize now though that the things you associate with Christmas may be different, but they are great in their own way.  We always make cinnamon rolls and if anyone asks you about our family's Christmas traditions, that is what you always say first.  A few years ago I started making lasagna for Christmas Eve so we could have leftovers the next day.  I didn't realize that had become a tradition until I pondered making a ham this year and you demanded that it had to be lasagna.  And I'm okay with that.  If those are the things that are important to you, I am more than happy to keep those traditions in tact.

Barbie Christmas ready to go.  Earlier in the week we spent a lot of time getting them all dressed in fancy dresses and fixing all their hair.  You told me that the only thing the Barbies wanted this year was a baby.  Luckily we already had one under the tree.

Last year you had an extravagant Doll Christmas with Jessie & Tolay.  When I asked you about that this year you informed me that they rotate holidays and this year they are celebrating Kwanzaa.  Next year will be Hanukkah.

Annual family Christmas Eve photo.  This is one of my favorite traditions.

You wanted to do a few of your own as well.

In a surprising twist, you were not the first one up on Christmas morning.  In fact, I was up for a good 30 minutes or so before you woke.  I took that opportunity to sit in the quiet and enjoy the lights and the tree one more time before all the gifts were all gone.

I used to hide all the gifts until Christmas Eve, but the past couple of years I asked your preference and you said you like having them out in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Just to keep things interesting, I made up a code and labeled all the gifts with letters or numbers instead of names.  You were dying to know which ones were yours but I told you I wouldn't share the code until Christmas morning.

Sure enough, as soon as you woke up you came running to the living room and demanded the code first thing.  All of your presents were marked with odd numbers, Dad's were even, and mine were letters.  I enjoyed making you use some math skills to hand out the gifts.

We have been reading a series of books about a hamster named Humphrey.  A few days before Christmas you wanted to make your own Humphrey and a cage.  You made his sleeping hut (on the right) and I put a wheel in his cage for Christmas morning.

Handing out stockings.

Clip on earrings.

Puppy from Charlotte and Jack.

Karaoke microphone.

Mermaid lap blanket.

Breakfast!

Doll horse.

New robes!

Medical kit for the dolls.

Electronic Life.

Modeling your new butterfly earrings and robe.