our christmas season

We’ve packed a lot of fun seasonal activities into the month of December, that’s for sure. I didn’t get through all of the things on my Christmas list, but I made a pretty good dent in it.

We drove through the Fantasy of Lights with Joe’s family, all piled into one of the preschool buses. Will was underwhelmed, and mostly dozed on his great-grandma’s lap, but Andrew was so incredibly excited. At every display he’d gasp, point, and say, “LOOK AT THAT!” It was pretty awesome. (His favorite was the green-lit brontosaurus whose necked moved; mine was either the gingerbread house made of lights, or the display of Santa high-diving into a pool, complete with sparkly blue lights to resemble the splash.)

We also went to Wildlights at the zoo with our best friends. It was the best zoo trip we’ve had yet. We spent most of the visit in the barn with the goats and in the elephant building. The baby elephant was very playful, and was batting a ball around with his trunk. Will talked about that for days afterwards: “Baby ellewet, play wif ball!”

We visited Santa and had breakfast with him (“Will Santa have cereal?” Andrew asked me skeptically before we arrived.) We went to our town’s Christmas tree-lighting event. We made tons of cookies and delivered them to our neighbors. We made homemade gifts for teachers and friends. We’ve watched every single Christmas special that was on television. We’ve seen so many showings of the cartoon version of The Grinch that whenever we ask Will what The Grinch says, he responds, “Noise, noise, NOISE!” in his best Boris Karloff impression. We’ve read Christmas books (this year’s favorite, without question, is The 12 Bots of Christmas) and sang lots of Christmas songs. Tomorrow, we’ll be making Santa’s favorite cookies.

I remember so well the feeling of being a kid during the Christmas season, the magic of it all, the way time seemed to crawl until Christmas finally arrived. Now, as an adult, it all happens so fast, and it’s over in the blink of an eye. It’s such an absolute joy to see Christmas through my sons’ eyes. It’s made me feel that magic again. Seeing their little faces on Christmas morning is going to be so incredible. The most wonderful time of the year, indeed.

Merry Christmas!