This year is especially nice because our youngest child is just over a year old and will be experiencing Christmas for the first time really (last year he was just a snuggly bug who didn't notice much of anything outside a three-foot radius.) This brings the holidays into my preferred perspective, through the eyes of a child. The sights and sounds and aromas of the holidays are magic to a child, and that, to me, is pretty much the point.
We kicked off the holiday season with Halloween. Aidan dressed as a bug in a homemade costume that I must say turned out pretty darned cute! I dressed as a peacock. The irony of these choices was pointed out to me: a peacock is actually a male bird and they typically eat bugs. Okay then! I must say, this should surprise no one. As the parent of any highly motivated, supremely mobile toddler will tell you, there is a reason many species eat their young. In fact, it is a widely held belief that babies of all species are cute so that they are NOT eaten by their elders!Halloween was soon followed by Thanksgiving, which usually means cross-state travel and utter exhaustion. I approached the holiday not with cheer but with gloom as both my older children would not be sharing the holiday with us. The three previous years I had ventured north during this time of year to North Dakota and Michigan. My daughter was stationed at Minot, ND for reasons only the United States Air Force can fathom and I didn't want her to be alone the first holiday away from home, so off to the frozen tundra I went and had a delightful Thanksgiving with my daughter and her Air Force family, headed valiantly by her Lt. Colonel (whose name I don't remember, but whose southern cooking was to die for!). The following year she and her fiance decided to marry near Thanksgiving and had a sweet civil service at the local courthouse. Last year they celebrated with a church ceremony (big, fancy, fun and beautiful wedding of her dreams). Needless to say, this year promised to be something of a letdown. It turned out, though, to be low stress and rather nice, spent with my Spousal Equivalent's family and without a single dramatic episode a la family.
A couple of days after Turkey Day, the SE and I went off to spend a night away from the baby (only our second time away) as we celebrated our own anniversary of sorts. Three years ago today, as I descended the escalator at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for a weekend visit with one of my high school sweeties, little did I know it would be the beginning of a new and exhilarating new life. Three years later we have a beautiful baby boy. The miracle of that is a story in itself. (Month after month of disappointing pregnancy tests, a traumatic break-up and the surprise of pregnancy at last when we both had given up on each other as well as pregnancy.)Such is the beginning of our 2011 holiday season. I've begun pulling out the boxes of decorations as well as the determination to enjoy this first "real" Christmas for Aidan with all the excitement and wonder of a child.
