Holiday Season 2012

Well, another holiday season has come and gone. AGAIN. I have to stop saying how fast time is going. With two kids. So, ignore that.

Christmas was busy and very fun this year! Three and a half is so aware of everything to do with Christmas, it was so magical! Kalaya loved everything about the holiday season; the lights, the treats, making and wrapping presents, GETTING presents, visits from friends and family, seeing decorations and lights everywhere, counting down the days, baking treats, especially baby Jesus’ birthday cake, and especially, Santa.

Holy cow, does 3 years old get Santa!!!

I love it. I adore it. I encourage it and Nelson feels the same way. Santa is such a magical joy and I am so, so, SO glad that I married some one who gets this. (Not married? Make sure you talk about that before getting engaged. Seems silly, but people have crazy opinions on the jolly guy in red these days and your and your partner/spouse should be on the same page long before children!! There is a seriously Boy Meets World episode about holiday traditions…..)

Anyway, visiting Santa, the Elf on the Shelf (At our house, she is simply a friend of Santa’s that we can tell our good deeds to. We don’t say that she’s going to report ‘bad’ behavior so Santa won’t bring gifts. No judgement on the parents who do, I’m just avoiding that. Mainly because I know I could NEVER follow through on no presents…), watching him feed the reindeer (which is AWESOME!), writing him a letter, waving to him at the mall, reading story after story (after story, after story….), watching movies about him, and talking about everything to do with him was so much fun!

I could get into a major discussion about believing in Santa. MAJOR. I respect families who don’t. That is their decision. But, for Nelson and I, we want to give our children magic in their lives, even if they don’t always believe the same way. The tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, princesses, Jedi, you name it! We don’t worry about these characters taking away from Christian holidays and if doubting the existence of Santa means doubting God as some faiths claim will happen? That’s okay. I don’t want my kids to believe anything blindly and we’ll talk about it each time something comes up. They can decide for themselves what to believe and pass on to their own children some day.

Anyway, Christmas morning was great fun and the kids had a blast opening all of their presents and playing with their new toys! Jakiah didn’t quite get what was going on, of course, but he caught the excitement from big sister!! They took turns with the ridiculous amount of new toys they are sharing and made huge mess of the living room and it was GREAT! We were blessed to have my brother and niece Allie with us this year (after missing him in Afghanistan last year) which made it extra special! Allie (who is 4 ½) and Kalaya get along SO WELL and had so much fun together!! Unfortunately, Christmas night (not Eve, thank goodness!) Kalaya woke up at 4am throwing up and was down for the count for 2 days, but recovered quickly. Poor Nelson got it a week later, YUCK! But, luckily, Jakaih and I seem to have avoided it!

I didn’t get quite as much time with family as I’d hoped, since I was taking my LIFEGUARDING CLASS!! Very exciting! Other than the fact that I was the oldest in the class, except for the instructors…..by 10-15 years…..that’s okay! I held my own and passed all the tests (on the first go round, others were not so lucky) and I can tell that my water polo career (even though it was 10 years ago….) is still some where in me and helped a lot!! I got hired a couple of days later and am happy working a couple of nights a week!

My aunt flew in a couple of days after Christmas to be part of Jakiah’s baptism. Both she and my brother were Godparents and the ceremony was beautiful. Jakiah did great! He loved having the water poured over him and looked like a little angel in his gown.

New Year’s was uneventful; I went to bed long before midnight, but woke up at 2 to find out Nelson had caught the stomach bug too. Happy New Year!!

The season finished off with our church's traditional Epiphany holiday pageant with 2 of our family members! Kalaya did fantastic, until the end when she cried and ran to Mommy because of the applause. (I had anticipated this and was in the front row!) Jakiah had done perfectly in rehearsals and at the last minute decided he wanted to nurse instead. Oh well!!