Spin it back to the Season

I was going to write this long post about an incident that happened recently in my family which left me sad, hurt, and defensive, as usual. 

But I'm not going to. 

In stead I'm gonna tell you a story about a little boy who is learning about Santa and the Spirit of the Season. Oh and his mom who is totally excited about it.

I am so loving this holiday with The Boy.  He is pointing out all of the Santas, including the blow up one that is riding a motorcycle in our neighborhood.  He oohs and ahs over the lights on the houses.  Every morning when we drive to daycare, he says "ook ights!  you mommy!"  I say yes the lights, aren't they pretty?  He always responds with "you mommy!"  I like to think that he is saying that the lights are as pretty as me.  A girl can dream. 

So like I said, he knows who Santa is.  He's got that down.  We've been telling him that Santa will come and bring him gifts and then we open all the gifts under the tree, but not until then.  He thinks that all of the gifts under the tree are for him and he wants to open them now, so I've concocted this rhetoric to keep him from ripping paper and going to town.  Alice, his Elf on the Shelf, has not be the deterrent we were hoping for, but I've been told it will work in a few years. 

We went to my parent's house the other night.  They have a plastic, light up Santa that stands outside their front door.  Every time we pull up to the house The Boy yells out "Santa!" and my heart flutters with his excitement.  When we got to their house the other night, The Boy was kind of taken aback by the tree at their house that had gifts under it as well.  He led me over to the tree and said "ook!"  I smiled and explained that Grandma and Grandpa have a tree with gifts just like our house.  His retort, which should be no surprise, was "for me!?"  I said that there was probably one or two in there for him, but that we couldn't open them until Santa came.  He pointed to the front of the house and said matter of factly, "Santa!"  Oy.  So now I had to explain that the plastic light up Santa wasn't the REAL Santa.  The REAL Santa comes on Christmas and then we get to open gifts.  I have a feeling that we'll be struggling with this all the way until Christmas morning.  Oh, and how I anticipate, with fear and excitement, Christmas morning. 

I need to remember to not get ahead of myself, but to enjoy these moments because I know they are fleeting.  So for now....Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Bumble Bee