A Holiday Update

Just a quick little update to let you know what's been going on in our little world. The holidays are in full swing, or at least the planning and prep work is underway. I'm trying to enjoy the moment and take in every minute of Christmastime through Colin's eyes - the joy, the excitement, the innocence. I only wish I could catch it all on film to recount the fun 20 years from now. Since I can't manage to catch everything on film, I'll recount some of it here so I'll at least be able to go back and read about it.

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Colin's first Christmas carol was Jingle Bells and he sings it proudly. He has no idea what the last verse is (one horse open sleigh) so he just mumbles something in order to get to the "Hey!" He has a little ornament that he calls his jingle bell that he must shake while singing the song.

He doesn't know any other songs yet but he likes for Wes and I to sing the "Santa" song to him and that basically means any Christmas song.

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The Christmas tree has been a source of joy and pain. It was precious to hear Colin speak of the "Kissmas tee" but not so precious when he repeatedly removes ornaments and ended up breaking one. Several trips to the "uh-oh" box, including a prolonged visit, seems to have squelched that desire. I must also note that in a fury of rage Wes threatened to take the tree down if he took the ornaments off again but realized that was a bit unrealistic.

The moment we walk in the door we are ordered to turn the tree on but with our foot (it's a pre-lit tree that has a little clicker thing to turn the lights on). We are then instructed to turn the other 2 small trees on in the dining room. He leads us in there as if we've forgotten where they are. We must plug them up in the order he requests or I suppose there will be a price to pay. We choose to pick our battles!

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Back in November we began the Santa talk. We didn't prompt it, it just seemed to be the time when that part of the brain's programming kicks in. Seriously, how do they know if you never tell them? Nonetheless, the best question was when he asked if Santa would ring the doorbell. Somehow I had to try to convince the child that Santa would rather come through a tight and dirty chimney than come in the front door like a normal human being. Leave it to a kid to point out the ludicrousness of the whole Santa story.

After the discussion, I thought perhaps he'd be ready to go meet Santa. I didn't expect him to sit on his lap but I thought we might get close. Well apparently within 25 feet is close enough for Colin. He eagerly walked that far on his own and then quickly turned around to me and said he didn't want to go any farther. I picked him up and together we walked within about 10 feet. Santa wasn't busy so he had a chance to wave to us. Colin waved back and then blew him a kiss. That was it for round one. He left saying, "Maybe next time."

The next time was with Wes at a local bookstore. Santa had just gone on break and was walking through the hallway. He gave Colin a high-5 and shook his hand. Colin told me he was scared at first but then thought Santa was pretty cool. Another step closer but we're still hearing, "Maybe tomorrow."

I think those are pretty big strides considering the fear of the cow costume at Chik-fil-a!

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He's not sure what he wants for Christmas. He knows Santa brings gifts to good boys and girls but when you ask what he wants you either get, "um..." or some random item that he just happened to see at that time. We must have done a good job emphasizing that Santa brought little boys and girls gifts because when asked what Mommy and Daddy wanted, Colin said neither of us wanted anything, just him.

It should be fun the next couple of weeks. I look forward to sharing more tales with you. He's a hoot, there's no doubt about that! And we love him dearly - what better gift could anyone ask for?!