I have been wanting to post something new on here all week, but my brain seems to be in a funk right now, and I have no new ideas to write about. So being that it is almost Christmas, I thought I would just share some random thoughts about that subject and hopefully you will enjoy it!
First off, I will start with
this Christmas. I am
SO excited for Christmas this year! Mostly due to the fact that Ian is not a baby this year and he is starting to understand a bit of what is going on and get into some of the
magic of the holiday. He calls Santa "Ho Ho" and he loves all of the lights and decorations. He loves looking at the presents under the tree and gets excited when we plug in the lights.
Mike and I have finished our shopping for him, and we are absolutely
giddy with anticipation! We cannot wait for him to open his gifts this year, and to watch the reaction on his face.
It will be
priceless!
I am also excited for Christmas this year because by then I will be more than 5 weeks into my recovery from having had surgery. I'm not going to lie - it has been rough. I have had some setbacks, which are frustrating, but the hardest part for me is how incredibly slow going this healing process is. On one hand, I think it is truly amazing how the human body can repair itself, but on the other hand, I SO want to be doing more than I am physically able to and that has been really hard for me! Mike went back to work this week, and I am forced to see just how limited I really am right now. I had a doctor's appt. yesterday and I drove myself for the first time. I was nervous, but it actually really wasn't that bad. However, after lugging Ian to my sister's, spending two and a half hours at the hospital, picking him up, getting us both some lunch and then getting us home, I was WIPED OUT! I am still exhausted today in fact. That is what I hate the most. I have been told that "you only get one chance to heal properly, so make sure to take it easy and not rush into anything". Obviously that advice was from someone who doesn't know me at all! I have a hard time sitting still and letting others take over for me. Of course, at first I was in absolutely no position to do anything for myself and I welcomed the help. And I will admit that the first week of being pampered and lying in bed watching movies was kind of nice. But now I am nearing the three week mark, and I am ready to be well again!!! But, nevertheless, I am trying to follow doctor's orders and take it easy. (At least as easy as I can with an almost two year old monkey running around my house all day long!!!!=)
Okay...sorry. I got a little off topic there.
Now back to Christmas.
Christmas has always been simply magical for me. That is the best word I can use to describe it. I have such wonderful memories of this time of year, and it goes back as far as I can remember.
First up, Christmas Eve.
I have NEVER been able to sleep on Christmas Eve. I have always felt such excitement in the air, and even to this day, I still lie awake half the night listening for the reindeer and Santa's sleigh! My parents had a way of making Christmas Eve so wonderful for our family. There are five kids in my family and every Christmas Eve we would do something fun and special to "claim" a corner of the family room as our own so Santa would know where to leave our goods. One year, we got some big empty boxes and covered them in white butcher paper. Then we colored and decorated them with our names. Other years, we made homemade ornaments. And one year, my Mom embroidered, by hand, our names into fabric and then framed them so we could set them somewhere special around the room. Then we watched the news to see where Santa had been spotted last. Once we heard that he had been seen in New York or Canada, we ran to bed to try and fall asleep before our house got "passed over".
Christmas mornings were just as exciting. My younger sister and brother and I would share a room on Christmas Eve. We always woke up really early and whoever woke up first, made certain that the others were soon to follow. We would wait as long as we possibly could (which was probably never more than 30 minutes) and then we would go wake up Mom and Dad. We were sent back to bed until it was at least 6:00. Then, we were sent to make hot chocolate while they got up. My Dad would always go downstairs first, to "make sure Santa had come" and to plug in the tree. We waited anxiously, on pins and needles, at the top of the stairs to hear what he found. Invariably, my Dad would say "He didn't come. I guess we should all just go back to bed!" We would squeal in delighted protest, and then he would say, "Okay, come check for yourselves." We would race to the bottom of the stairs and cheer when we saw that Santa hadn't forgotten us after all!
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| Notice the five stockings in the background with Post-It notes above them with our names on them=) |
One of my favorite memories as a kid was the year that I started to doubt the whole "Santa" thing. That year I had specifically asked for two things.
A Cabbage Patch Koosa (cat)
and a gray Pound Puppy.
Those were the two things that I REALLY wanted! When I was finished opening my gifts that morning, without having gotten either one, I was so disappointed! I knew there couldn't really be a Santa or I would have gotten what I asked for. A little while later, as we were playing with our toys and my Mom and Dad were making breakfast, my older brother went out back to take out some garbage. As soon as he made it outside, he yelled for us to come look. There, in the middle of the snow covered lawn, without a single foot print around it, was a small pile that looked like some sort of doll. As we got closer, we discovered my beloved Koosa and pound puppy! We looked at each other, bewildered as to how they ended up there in the yard. I don't remember who suggested it now, but the idea was put out there that they "must've fallen out of Santa's sleigh when he landed on the roof". I mean, how else could they be outside in the snow without any footprints around them, right?!?!? Let's just say that I still believe in Santa, to this day!!!
My next rambling on the subject of Christmas is in response to a question posed by my good friend Desiree -
"What was your first married Christmas like?"
Much like
her first married Christmas, and I imagine most of yours too,
my first married Christmas was absolute loving, romantic, cheesy
bliss!!! Mike and I had been married for exactly seven months by Christmas that first year, and we were living in a very cute and cozy two bedroom apartment in Sandy, Utah.
We bought a real Christmas tree and had so much fun decorating both it and our little apartment for the holidays. We would come home from work, turn on the lights, and snuggle together watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate.
There was one part of that Christmas that wasn't so cheerful though. On Christmas Eve, Mike's sister's ex-husband got into a fight with his new wife and ended up going to jail. Mike's niece, Kaitlyn, was at their home and was planning on having Christmas morning there. Well needless to say, plans changed, so Mike's sister picked her up and we picked up all the presents and put together all of her Santa stuff that year. She came to our house Christmas morning and we got to watch her open all of her gifts. What could have ended up being a really bad year for her, thankfully, ended up being a really fun Christmas at our little apartment.
And as for me and Mike, we have always had a tendency to spoil each other at Christmas. I think it started while we were dating and we had nothing better to spend our money on than each other. We are trying to get away from that now, because we know that as our family grows, there will be less money to spend on each other, but some habits are hard to break!=) And that first Christmas, even though we didn't have a lot of money, we still managed to find a way to follow tradition and spoil each other.
I don't remember all of the things that we got each other that year, but there is one thing that I will never forget. As usual, in the days leading up to Christmas, presents began appearing under the tree and I remember that there were two rather large boxes in the very back. One was for me from Mike, and one was for him from me. We joked that we had gotten each other the same thing, but I knew that there was no way he had bought the same thing which I had wrapped and lovingly placed under the tree for him! It was such a random thing, and one that neither of us had asked for or mentioned, so I knew I was in the clear. Well, on Christmas morning, everything had been opened except for the two big packages in the back. We decided to save those for last. We each grabbed our respective boxes and on the count of three, we opened them at the same time. And guess what? I was wrong -
We bought each other the exact same thing!!!
There before us were two foot baths - you know the kind that you fill with water and they bubble and massage your feet? We laughed and laughed at how we could both come up with the same idea for such a random gift for each other. I said, "I saw it in the store and I immediately thought of how much you like foot rubs, so I thought you would love it!" Mike laughed and said, "I saw it in the store and immediately thought of how much I love foot rubs too, and I thought this would make it easier for you to give them to me!" Then we laughed at how "thoughtful" he was to get ME a gift that was really for HIM! In the end, we took it as a sign that great minds do think alike and how much we we were truly meant to be together=)
And who can forget our first Christmas
ever together as a couple?
Man, we were young!!!=)
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| Mike's company Christmas party - 1994 |
That was the year that Derk got a "new" used truck for Christmas. We decided to go four-wheeling in some fields by my house after Christmas dinner, just the three of us. Well, we got stuck and this is what my head did to the windshield on our way getting "unstuck".
That little Christmas doozy is the reason why I sometimes have a "fuzzy" memory=)
Another Christmas that we had together which I will never forget, was Christmas 2007. That was the year we spent Christmas in Hawaii. It was the year before we became foster parents, so we didn't have children tying us here. A friend of ours, who was working in Honolulu at the time, was coming home for the holidays and her condo was going to be sitting empty. She casually mentioned that we could stay there if we wanted, and initially we just blew it off. We had never spent a Christmas away from our families, plus it just didn't seem like it would be Christmas without snow. But after some thought and several, "Why Not's?" we decided to take her up on her offer.
This is what I woke up to Christmas morning 2007.
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| This was the view from our condo |
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| One whole wall opened up to the ocean. |
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| Mike took this picture from our condo of me snorkeling. |
We had such a wonderful time! We had been to Hawaii together before so we didn't feel the need to do all the "touristy" stuff. Instead, we walked a lot along the beach, swam, shopped, ate, and just enjoyed the peace, the serenity, and of course, each other!
It was so relaxing and we had such quality time to just be together. I had no idea how much I would come to cherish those years when it was just the two of us, and I am so grateful that we took that vacation that year.
Because as it turns out, it was the last vacation we took before we became parents. In fact, other than little weekend camp outs or getaways, that was the last vacation we have taken
period. Sad, but true. Believe me, that is going to change in 2011!!!!
Christmas is such a magical time of year, for so many reasons, and I feel very blessed to have been able to enjoy many, many wonderful Christmas memories. I am excited beyond words to now add Christmas memories as a Mom to my list, and to help my little Ian to have wonderful memories of this holiday too.
Last year was our first Christmas as parents, and the excitement and joy we had then, pales in comparison to the excitement we have for this year. Each year with him will just get better and better, and if I get nothing else this year, the joy of watching him on Christmas morning will be enough! Heck, just knowing that I get to wake up
every day with him is gift enough!!!!
But I have a feeling that Christmas 2010 will be a memory to treasure for many years to come!
Thanks for taking this little stroll with me down memory lane! It has been fun for me to remember some of my most cherished Christmas's and I hope you enjoyed the stroll too.
Happy Holidays!
