It's a Magical Time of Year

I'm so excited about this Christmas! Cruz is now 19 months old, he'll be 20 months by Christmas. While he still doesn't really understand the whole concept, I'm hoping he'll catch the Christmas spirit and get excited as well. We still don't have a Christmas tree, but we started a tradition last year of going to a "cut your own" Christmas tree farm and picking out our tree together. I'm so looking forward to doing that this week. Last year Cruz checked out the hundreds of growing trees from a comfortable perch on my chest. He was in a Baby Bjorn carrier. This year he'll be able to cruise the fields on his own two feet and take an active part in the process. Maybe even assist his dad with the actual cutting of the tree (or at least we'll let him think he's helping).

Also this year I've decided to put the tree in the family room. Usually I put it in the formal living room (which is the room we never use so it usually stays clean and neat). But I want Cruz (and me) to be able to see it while he's playing and to associate it with the season and the holiday. I realize keeping him away from some of my treasured ornaments is not going to be easy. So what if there are no decorations on the bottom three feet of the tree, right? And it might be hard to keep him from climbing on it, but we'll give it a try.

This is a good time of year to start thinking about rituals too. I want to start some for our little family. I've got some ideas I think will mean a lot to us now and later. I'm going to take a picture of Cruz every Christmas wearing the jacket I had tailor made for his dad for our wedding. Obviously, it will swallow him whole! But that's the point. Every year we'll see him slowing growing into a man and filling out his dad's suit jacket. Makes me cry just thinking about it. I also want to create a ritual of giving and helping others during the Christmas season. (Of course this is a great tradition to start all year round too) I haven't decided exactly how I want to do that one, so if you have any suggestions please let me know. And finally I want to make sure Cruz always understands the true reason for the season. All the Christmas lights, decorations, presents and Santa are a lot of fun and I really hope he enjoys it. But I don't want to let all that overshadow the fact that Christmas is the recognition and celebration of the birth of our Savior. So church has to play a part in our rituals as well.

My husband comes from a large family. He's the youngest of six children. There are plenty of relatives who want us to spend Christmas with them on his side and mine. This year we're going to Florida to visit his parents and sisters. I'm really looking forward to it, we always have fun with the Hebert clan. But I'm hoping next year we can start the ritual of staying home for Christmas. Some of my best childhood Christmas memories are at home in a familiar environment. And I want that for Cruz. Hopefully our families will be ok with that and instead come to visit us when they can. Thats a tough decision for us since my family lives here in Birmingham. So by us staying at home we are essentially seeing my family every Christmas. So we may have to make some adjustments there.

Luckily for us, Cruz is so young he doesn't understand gift giving and he certainly doesn't understand who gives him what. And Cruz has grandparents who SPOIL HIM ROTTEN! So I doubt he'll get much from "santa" this year. Probably a good thing with the economy in the state its in. Next year though...a totally different story, and I'm already looking forward to it. There's nothing like Christmas with a toddler!