'Twere the nights before Christmas

When I put up the Christmas tree this year, I wondered just how much of the whole Christmas concept Tater would understand. Between the Jesus part and the Santa part, would he really get it?

Well, he did. He got it and then some. I think there were times the kid had more Christmas spirit than I did. We worked our way through the Christmas story using our advent calendar and talked a lot about why we celebrate Jesus’ birthday at Christmas. They had a little birthday party for Jesus at Church the week before Christmas, which was too cute. We sang Silent Night and O Holy Night before bed at night. We discussed how the three kings brought Jesus presents, and that’s why we gave each other presents at Christmastime.

And then there was the whole Santa thing. I was worried that, like most kids, he’d be a little leery of that big ole’ hairy guy in the bright red suit. But he was fascinated instead. He learned all the words to Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (which I never got on video, try as I may). He asked every day if Santa was coming tonight. “I want to see him, Mom!” He even started taking my lines, telling ME that if I didn’t stop getting on to him then Santa wouldn’t bring me any presents. And when he was at the mall with Nana and had the chance to go talk to him, he didn’t freak out. He sat in his lap and talked to him; and two days later, when he was at the mall with Mommy, he made a bee line for the Jolly Old Elf. He asked Santa for a sword and some mistletoe. Yeah, I know. Luckily he forgot about the mistletoe when he told me later what he’d asked Santa for, because even though we have plenty of the stuff around, I was not looking forward to having it disintegrate in my house in the days to come.

And then there were the movies. We had to watch every Christmas special ABC Family had to offer. The three Christmas DVDs we own were worn out (although he love to watch The Grinch all year round – go figure). For 3 weeks, it seemed like if the TV was on, it was playing something Christmas.

And the lights! Oh the lights!! Tater was in awe of all the lights, especially the light tour on the river sponsored by the city. Grandma and D-Pop took him for the first time, and he couldn’t stop talking about it for days. We went again with Samm, Dana and Levi, and I think he kind of got annoyed with our constant chatter the whole way through. He was just so entranced by those beautiful colors and designs.

All in all, it was just a fun season. Christmastime is my absolute favorite time of the year, and it seems Tater may join me in really getting into the spirit, even if my other two grinches don’t. J It just touched my heart to see how truly magical Christmas was in his eyes. I pray it stays that way for years to come.