Sunday, November 12, 2006
12:15 AM
This afternoon I got so hyper about Christmas and wanting to decorate that my husband went into the garage and dug around until he found the little 3' tree we used in the condo and my beloved Peanuts snowglobe, the one put proudly on dislay every single holiday season, the only "knick-knack" I ever really loved. The one with Charlie Brown inside holding court over his forlorn tree, the one that plays "Linus and Lucy", and the one I stare into for hours during every holiday season when I yearn for snow that we just don't get here in Florida. The snowglobe has been the holidays for me for many years.
The fact that everyone else has started decorating is not lost on me. Tom figured the little tree and my snowglobe would shut me up until we could get to Target and get a real, overpriced, 7.5 foot pre-lit tree that will look tiny next to our 15" ceilings. He was right. I instantly feel much better about the status of our decorations.
As I was hopping around, putting up the little tree with Grace watching from her highchair, singing Christmas songs out of tune, my husband said "promise me that you're not going to freak out when this is like every other Christmas, just another day." I have a bad history of getting completely psyched for the holidays and then completely let down on Christmas day when nothing special happens and it all passes without much excitement. No one in my family likes it as much as I do. I see it as this opportunity to bake and have fun and sing silly songs. My family (and Tom) see it as an opportunity to have dinner without the television on. I have had several of what I call "Woody Allen Christmases" the last few years- family stuff so neurotic it could have been in a Woody Allen film.
But not this year. Oh, no. Now there is a CHILD. Grace is home. Everyone else can be as grinchy as they like, as boring as they like. It'll just be her and me, caught in our own little special bubble of pretty lights and sweet songs and seasonal decorations.
As I wound the garland around the tree, I told Tom that it WASN'T going to be like every other Christmas. All I wanted this time next year was for our daughter to be home for the holidays. I obsessed about it. We started our adoption right before Christmas, so it was all I could think about.
I explained to him that because Grace is here, there's no way this holiday season was going to be summed up by "just another day". There hasn't been "just another day" since Tom left for Vietnam in June. It's all about Grace now- when I bake strange lopsided cookies, she'll help me eat them. When I shop, it's for her. When I decorate, it's to make her smile. When I wrap, it's for her to tear it all open. She may not remember it, but if she gets even ten minutes of fun out of it, it's all worth it. I finally have someone to have fun with this holiday season. I finally found a reason to make a huge fuss.
Just as we were discussing this, Ginger (one of our cats) started munching on the Christmas tree and as we dove to prevent her from doing serious damage, Grace managed to nudge my Peanuts Snowglobe off the counter with one of her toys. It fell to the ground and smashed instantly, and Grace looked both puzzled and somewhat delighted at the sudden pile of glitter and fake snow splashed on the floor. (She was in her highchair, remember, and there was Christmas stuff piled on the counter. She has a set of sticks that came with her xylophone and used one to poke at the snowglobe until it went over the other side of the counter. Just so you know we didn't put her on the floor with a big glass ball full of water and left her alone or anything.)
It was either a wake-up call (getting rid of pre-conceived notions of the holidays, blah blah blah) or a sign of all the destruction that may happen in the next few weeks. Both, probably.
Like I said, there's no such thing as "just another day" anymore. Three cats, two birds, two lizards, and a new house and a baby- broken snowglobes and all, "just another day" is history.
Aside from the snowglobe incident, this is beautiful!!! You are right Chel, it will never be the same. Just you wait!!! Seeing the magic of Christmas through a child's eyes is one of the greatest highlights of parenthood. It will be great this year and even better every year to come.
Posted by Nicki @ November 12, 2006 05:35 AM
I am so sorry to hear of your snowglobe. Like you I build up Christmas to be so super and magical and spectacular only to be let down one more time. I don't really know what I expect, maybe, Santa to really appear?!?
Merry Christmas early.Posted by Beverly Moore @ November 13, 2006 03:57 PM
The halloween pics are too cute! The holiday hype situation is something that I go through every year, without fail. Though it's true that sometimes Christmas is just another day, I think this year will be better than ever... even without the snowglobe.
Posted by Jessica @ November 13, 2006 11:51 PM
