Happy Holidays!

Green and red paper chains are making their way up onto our walls. Lights will soon be outside and next weekend we'll have a tree standing in our living room. We have an advent calendar, Christmas books, and a gingerbread house waiting to be built. Stockings will be hung on Christmas Eve, Christmas PJ's will be opened and worn, and a certain tool will most likely be a gift from my dad. I've had a cookie baking day with Chris' mom and sister, I have another one planned for Dec. with family and friends, and next weekend we are taking Austin to a cookie baking event. Most certainly we will create a Christmas pizza thanks to Chris' family as well as enjoy cinnamon buns on Christmas morning. Another family or two that we don't know will have gifts under their tree that we will have picked out for the "giving tree" and some charities will have a slightly larger budget thanks to checks we write each year. The movie, "It's A Wonderful Life" will be played on a TV while we gather around have hot chocolate and most likely some ice cream, and these are only SOME of the traditions that we take part in year after year. These are a combination of Chris and my's childhood, as well as some that we have formed for ourselves, and I really like getting into all of them, especially since we have had kiddos of our own to enjoy them with!

One of my favorite traditions though, and one that we are just now going to be able to get into since Austin is starting to understand the beauty of a present, is the main act itself. The anticipation of Christmas morning, the running into the room full of presents, and the excitement at all that lays there wrapped in pretty paper. Jenni and I have always had HUGE Christmas mornings. I'm not sure if the memory is that big because the amount of presents, or because of how long it actually took to open them, but in my mind, we could have hiked up the mountain of gifts and had proud satisfaction as if we just climbed a 14er.

Our mornings looked like this, wake up and run for the living room. Scope out the room and see how creative Santa was at distributing gifts all around the room. There was usually one large gift that was unwrapped, our stockings, and a letter from Santa. We'd read the letter and go wake the dead tired parents who most likely just went to bed as our procrastinating parents like to wrap presents on Christmas Eve. Sometimes it wasn't the wrapping that would keep them up all night, but the writing of the tags as many of them left clues as to who the present was for, from, or what was inside. Dad would have to shave and brush his teeth before he would come out and mom would have come out and most likely poured herself some Ovaltine and put on some coffee for Dad. FINALLY we'd be able to open our stockings. Those we did at the same time. From then on, it was one present at a time. When a game was unwrapped, we'd usually stop to play it, if a CD was opened, it was call for some music. At some point we'd all stop for some cinnamon rolls, some phone calls to family, and later, some lunch. We could hole up for an entire day opening, playing, and eating.

This is what I see for us. An entire day where we do nothing but enjoy one another as well as larger than life Christmas' in our boys' eyes. This year, the shopping started on Black Friday, and truth be told, Chris and I had a great time! It was crowded, sure, but the excitement in parents eyes as well as the thinking about Christmas morning was not unlike being at a great sports game where the entire crowd is really pulling for the home team. There's nothing like being surrounded with all that spirit! An article in today's paper talked about how Black Friday saw a huge turnout in Boulder and as I read this online, I saw the comments going on about what lame consumeristic hogs these people who were shopping must be. All I could think was how happy I was that they were not out, as their grumpy judgmental spirit was everything that Christmas is not about, in my eyes. And then I felt bad for them, as I realized that if the only thing that comes to mind when it comes to Christmas presents is negativity, their memories certainly are not ones that I'd want to carry around. So maybe, just maybe, somebody was thinking of these grinches on Black Friday, and next year I'll rise to simply be a lame consumeristic person in their eyes. But lame or not, I'll certainly be happy as a hog!