Christmas Merry, Wish You I Do

We ended up with a pretty low-key Christmas this year. My mom came up and spent the week with us, which has been fun. And my sister was able to stop by for a bit before heading off to deliver food to those less fortunate. Nobody else we invited was able to make it.

We decided this year not to overwhelm Troy with the experience like we did last year. So, we’ve been letting him open a gift every day for the last few days, and he’s been getting to enjoy and play with it immediately. We did the same thing today. We let him open a gift and play with it before moving on to the next gift. He seemed to enjoy that a lot better than just open and slide to the side. We also decided not to give him everything today, so he’s still got a few gifts under the tree that we’ll pull out over the next few days and weeks. We’re hoping it’ll help to prolong the Christmas experience for him.

This year was his first year believing in Santa Claus. He has actually visited several Santa Clauses over the last few weeks, and he was sure to reiterate each time what he wanted. Always the same thing…a fish game. And lo and behold if the old elf didn’t come through. Troy and my wife left dinosaur cookies and apple juice out for him last night, and by this morning both were gone and presents were left by the plate instead. And one of them was the fish game. Troy was so excited when he saw the gifts. He screamed, “Santa ate all the cookies and left presents!” I wouldn’t let him open them until my wife got up, so Troy went in and told her, “Mama it’s not time for sleeping anymore. It’s time to get up. Santa came, come see!”

Besides the fishing game, Troy also loved the Magic Ink book and zombie bowling set my mom gave him. He enjoyed the Play Doh hair salon my wife and I gave him. And he loved the Yoda parka and sleep set that my sister gave him. He even insisted on wearing the parka while he took his nap, Yoda ears sticking out and all!

We wrapped it up with a puzzle, some amazingly delicious food, a variety of tasty desserts, and a movie. And to top it all off, we even sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was a fantastic day.