Where did Christmas go?
No, seriously. I was shopping my socks off just 3 days before Christmas, and all of the sudden it’s gone. My tree is down. My decorations are boxed up. And I’ve eaten all of my Christmas fudge (buttttttt, I can always make more).
This was such a whirlwind of a holiday. It went by too fast, and we did absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why it flew by.
We traveled to Boone, North Carolina on the Friday before Christmas to spend time with Ben’s mom. She had rented a condo on top of Beech Mountain, and we came in just as a literal blizzard was going on. The wind was ridiculous. It was whirling around all night. I think we all got around 1.75 hours of sleep that first night.
We had a great weekend, and were able to get out and play in the snow a little. We took PB sledding, and although he wasn’t a huge fan of the snow flying in his face, I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it and join the ranks of his sledding enthusiast mother.
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| this was after I crashed into the haybale ‘seating’ area |
We also got to stop and shop at one of my favorite stores in Valle Crucis, the Mast General Store. If you’ve never been to a Mast, you need to treat yourself. It’s such a quaint little store with odds and ends. I could get lost in there.
We came back home on Sunday, and were able to enjoy Christmas Eve with my family. It amazing how much fun Christmas becomes with babies in the picture. My uncle has a little boy who’s almost 4, and he and PB play so good together now. It’s so much fun to watch, and it reminds me of me and my cousins years ago.
We came home Christmas Eve night and laid our cookies and milk out for Santa. PB cried. He wanted the cookies for himself. He said he didn’t want Santa to eat them. We put PB to bed, and then we participated in an age-old ritual practiced by millions of parents around the universe, putting those dern toys together.
We were up well past midnight putting trains and tool benches together, you know, because Santa needed a little bit of help gettin’ that stuff up through our gas log pipes.
I may have slept 3 hours that night. I stayed up watching Christmas movies snuggled up on the couch, soaking up every last bit of Christmas. I was so excited about watching PB open his presents. We had been talking about Santa and his job (more on that later) for a few weeks, so I think he really knew something was up.
We woke up before PB Christmas morning, and turned on his electric train (that was a Santa gift). He heard it immediately and jumped up. We went to get him in his room and he was already pumped up. He ran in to the living room and started grabbing at all of his presents. We let him open the first one (which was a new pack of markers). After that, he was done, ready to draw. We had to pry the markers out of his hands to open the rest. He tore through all of his presents in no time.
His ‘big’ thing was a Craftsman work bench and an electric train set. The train set was a little too big for him, but he’ll really enjoy it in a few years. And the best part was that we got it for FREE! Yep, we won it during a visit to the Santa Train.
It was SO much fun to watch him open his presents. The look on his face while he opened presents gave me a whole new appreciation for Christmas. I’ve always been overly excited about Christmas, but experiencing the holiday with a toddler has taken my enthusiasm to a whole new level. Creating traditions with him and instilling that same excitement that I feel in him just made my day. To see the world through the eyes of a child again…..
The rest of our Christmas was spent eating, lounging, and playing with our new toys. Ben got me a new skillet and a mixer. Those were the ‘toys’ I played with. We had such a nice, relaxing break, with little obligations. We rented movies and slept in (a little). It was a true staycation!
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (although this post is now a month late), and wish you many wonderful things for the new year!
Have a blessed Wednesday 🙂
