This year may have been one of my favorite Christmas'. The kids are just the perfect ages where everything is magical, exciting & fun. It all started when our neighbor hung up his outdoor Christmas lights a few days after Thanksgiving. That night, after Marieke was in her PJs and all ready for bed, I took her outside to see the lights. I wish I would have taken a picture of her face. Her eyes were so wide & her mouth made the quintessential "O". She excitedly shrieked, pointed and laughed at each new thing she noticed. Throughout the season, we took LOTS of walks to see the lights at night.
It just seemed that every little thing we did was met with excitement & joy: hang up a little handtowel with Santa on it = Marieke talked about it for days. Put a Santa hat in the advent calendar for Lukas = jump up for joy.
I did get a sense that Lukas is beginning to enter that stage where magic starts to clash with intellect/maturity. This is the first year that we did "elf on a shelf". Someone in Lukas' class was talking to him about it, & I told him that our family had an elf too. I don't know the whole story that is suppose to accompany the elf, we just decided that it would appear each morning in a different spot causing different mischief. After the 2nd morning, Lukas asked me point blank if I moved the elf. I never want to lie outright so I did the usual "what do you think?", "it might be magic if you want to believe", etc. but he was persistent & kept asking me if I did it. Finally, I admitted that I had moved it that morning. About 10 minutes later (and 2 minutes before we have to leave for school) I find him crying in his room. He says "it isn't so fun if I know that you did it". Backpedal, backpedal...."well maybe I just moved it after the elf had already caused his mischief" or "maybe it was magic the other days" or "maybe...what I said I don't really remember. I don't think Lukas really remembers either. But it was enough to sway the balance back towards magic & enough that he could believe in the elf again. And smile again. whew!
We went to our usual tree farm & cut down our tree with some friends this year. We got a good tree, although Lukas pouted a bit since we didn't go with his choice. Marieke just thought it was exciting to cut down the tree & put it on top of our car. The weather was so mild & beautiful that we brought a picnic lunch to share afterwards.
I did get a sense that Lukas is beginning to enter that stage where magic starts to clash with intellect/maturity. This is the first year that we did "elf on a shelf". Someone in Lukas' class was talking to him about it, & I told him that our family had an elf too. I don't know the whole story that is suppose to accompany the elf, we just decided that it would appear each morning in a different spot causing different mischief. After the 2nd morning, Lukas asked me point blank if I moved the elf. I never want to lie outright so I did the usual "what do you think?", "it might be magic if you want to believe", etc. but he was persistent & kept asking me if I did it. Finally, I admitted that I had moved it that morning. About 10 minutes later (and 2 minutes before we have to leave for school) I find him crying in his room. He says "it isn't so fun if I know that you did it". Backpedal, backpedal...."well maybe I just moved it after the elf had already caused his mischief" or "maybe it was magic the other days" or "maybe...what I said I don't really remember. I don't think Lukas really remembers either. But it was enough to sway the balance back towards magic & enough that he could believe in the elf again. And smile again. whew!
We went to our usual tree farm & cut down our tree with some friends this year. We got a good tree, although Lukas pouted a bit since we didn't go with his choice. Marieke just thought it was exciting to cut down the tree & put it on top of our car. The weather was so mild & beautiful that we brought a picnic lunch to share afterwards.
And of course, we made loads & loads of cookies again this year......
Sprinkling magic reindeer food out on Christmas Eve
Lukas wrote his wishlist/letter to Santa:
1) tour of Santa's workshop
2) puppy
3) nutcracker
Luckily, Santa was able to deliver one of the things on his list (not the puppy!)
Marieke's list was much easier:
1) soft puppy stuffed animal
2) hard dinosaur toy
But the big hits for presents this year were stilts that Grandpa made for Lukas, a wooden kitchen that Grandpa made for Marieke, a $1 panda hat that Marieke got from Tanta Cora, and a new Canon DSLR for me!
But the big hits for presents this year were stilts that Grandpa made for Lukas, a wooden kitchen that Grandpa made for Marieke, a $1 panda hat that Marieke got from Tanta Cora, and a new Canon DSLR for me!
Lukas all excited as he guesses this is the nutcracker he requested
One of Marieke's favorite presents
Lukas masters his stilts
1 comment:
I love everything about this post, but I'll pick the elf story has my favorite and the stilts as second place. Miss you!
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