It didn’t snow at all on Christmas. The grass was green, the air crisp, and the breeze wisping through the house was, oddly enough, warm for an Indiana winter. I woke up to a bright beam of light shining right into my closed eye. I rolled over and cursed Mother Nature for making Christmas day sunny. I wanted a cold, blustery snowfall. A gray kind of day. That kind of thing always made Christmas really feel like…Christmas. I think this was my first winter holiday without snow. It reminded me of Florida and made me wince at the pain of missing that magical (home of the evil rat-Mickey Mouse) place.
Anyway, no sooner than the sun woke me, the boys were jumping with glee asking if Santa had come. I was conscious of the fact that my boys are sneaky snakes and I put the door lock on the inside of the door and made them sleep with me so they couldn’t escape to gaze at the wondrous bounty that awaited them. Oh, what torture that must have been for them.
When we finally snuck out to open presents, they were beyond ready. They ran right to the tree and started grabbing gifts. “This one’s mine, and so is this one”, said Ryder to every present he saw. Stefan stated that all of the big presents were his. Bigger is better when you don’t know what’s inside. Stefan ended up loving all of his small presents, which were Cars2 cars. Half way through opening presents, I made everyone stop while I cooked breakfast. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, corned beef hash, and grits were gobbled up almost before I was done cooking. Oh what a way to get kids to eat on Christmas morning! It was also a way for me to stretch out the present opening time for as long as I could. Usually we are done opening presents within a half hour. Not this year. I drug it out like it was the last Christmas ever (and it just may be, according to the Mayans).
After presents we started opening the boxes to all the tracks, action figures, and animated toys, we realized that we were not prepared at all for how many batteries we would need. Who takes into account how many toys need what batteries? I’ll bet there are people out there who have a running list of batteries needed. I’m not that organized, and I don’t wanna be. If I can be perfectly honest, putting toys together and “powering them up” was pretty hellish. One Hot Wheels track along took me an hour. Who are they making these things for? Rocket scientists? One of the things I put together seemed so simple that I thought, “This cannot be right”, and I took it apart just to reassemble it the exact same way again. I’m glad that part is over. Ryder spent a lot of time rummaging through the torn up paper that I had piled up, looking for more presents hiding in the wrapping paper graveyard.
The boys spent the whole day playing with their presents and being amazingly good.
I started dinner. The menu was glazed ham, cabbage, corned bread. I know, what a feast right? I wish I would have thought of something better. It was good though. I made these amazing meatballs for an appetizer. OH MY GOSH, they were delicious. I put one bag of frozen traditional style meatballs in a slow cooker with a can of cranberry sauce and a whole jar of chili sauce. It cooked for about five hours and they were so Smokey sweet. I wish I had some now. Dessert was the leftover stale cookies that Santa didn’t have the appetite to eat. Chocolate is chocolate, despite a little staleness. Ha ha ha. (or is it Ho ho ho, enjoy that Santa).
Regardless of the boys being good and the day being great, I couldn’t help but feeling overwhelmed at how selfish my children seemed. I want them to understand that Christmas isn’t just about presents, but how do you teach them that. How does Santa tie in with Jesus’s birthday? What a miracle that Santa just so happens to come on that day. Was he really born on December 25th? Why, I thought the date was really sometime in the early fall. I mean, I guess it really doesn’t matter exactly. Why is it important that we know when Jesus was born? We certainly do not use this knowledge to celebrate His birthday—He tells us to commemorate His death, not His birth (I Corinthians 11:23-26). The true date, however, destroys the entire foundation of the Christmas holiday. Who could ever know for certain. I enjoy believing that Dec. 25th is Jesus’s birthday, thus Christmas. I just do not know how to tell my children how Jesus and Santa go together. A simple, “Santa was Jesus’s homeboy.” Won’t work. I guess I will have to work on that one a bit and maybe get over my conspiracy theory. (I’m not putting down believing or religion, I’m religious and a follower of the lord, I’m just confused and sometimes feel that I’m being played).
To get back on track…It is now four days after Christmas and I am disappointed. The day was over as fast as it came, which seemed unusually fast this year. I wish Christmas day could span into a two or three-day event but the day was over in just a few hours. Now everything seems drab and tiring. All I can think about is having to take all these decorations down that I spent so long on. And my “real Christmas tree” idea wasn’t so brilliant. Walking through the house and suddenly getting shanked with a dried spruce needle is…well, its not fun.
Now that the big day is over with, I’m starting to prepare for the New Year. Now is the time for resolutions and promises that we “promise” to keep. I’m excited for what is to come in 2012. The outlook is sunny and I embrace a fresh start. Bring it on 2012. I’m ready!
