It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I am a self-described Christmas snob.  I love the holiday and I love classy, Martha Stewartesque decorations.  I turn my nose up at poorly hung lights.  I am especially turned off by the ever popular "from the roof to the fence" hanging style of many houses I see on my way home from work.  This is probably why our house is lightless.  I realize I need perfection to be happy with the final product, but I also know how difficult perfection is.  Luckily, I have this house as my neighbor.  Not only are their lights crooked and uneven - there is SO MANY of them.  I'm not exactly sure what their message is...Merry Christmas?  Peace on Earth?  Winter Wonderland?  Go USA?  Again, a poorly executed light display in so many ways.  I will keep pondering this until January when they take their lights down (but leave the gigantic plastic bow on the side of their house up all year).

So, while the neighbors light up the night sky - I have been decorating inside our house for our first Christmas with a toddler in the house.  The Christmas Tree is up and decorated.  Lights from top to bottom and ornaments from top to middle (so our tree looks like it's wearing an ornament shirt with no pants - Donald Duck style.)  Also, this year - the ornaments are all non-breakable.  All the beautiful, shiny, glass ornaments are safely packed away.  We have been using the tree as a learning tool to teach Owen the difference between "take" and "just touch."  He can "just touch" all the lights on the tree.  To my surprise, he is doing great!   He likes to run up to the tree and touch 3 different lights and then run away and continue with whatever he was doing.  The ornaments though, are fair game.  Although we've limited the amount he can reach by using the ornament shirt method, there are still a handful he can stretch to touch.  These are pulled off and placed back into the tree where they promptly fall down to the floor. 

Santa has become a daily topic of discussion too.  We will be visiting Santa again this year for the obligatory photo shoot, but I have some concern that Owen will not be as excited to sit on a strange man's lap as he was last year.  So, whenever Santa makes an appearance on TV, in books, items at the store, I get all excited and point to him and say, "Owen, LOOK!  It's SANTA!" and he smiles and points.  I can't wait to see how fast that smile turns into a "oh, HELL NO!" when Santa takes him into his lap.  Fingers are crossed though!

I think the Holiday's are so much more special when you are seeing them through the eyes of a child.  Owen is still too young to understand what is going on, but there are still some special moments where even if he doesn't understand, he enjoys.  He loves the lighted tree in the house - he dances to Christmas music - he points to Santa - he didn't watch any of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade until the Sesame Street Float appeared and then he was mesmerized.  This month, we will be going to the light display at the zoo, a holiday sing-a-long for toddlers at the Seattle Symphony, a visit with Santa, and Snowflake Lane (think fake snow with lights and music along the streets of Bellevue).  All things that Owen will have no idea what they mean, but he will hopefully enjoy the experiences.