This has been one of the best Christmas seasons I’ve had or experienced in some time. A huge part of that has been because Morgan. As she’s approaching 4 years old, she’s finally old enough to get excited about things and the whole season and not just the present part of it. I wanted to share some of my highlights thus far in no particular order of sharing the Christmas season with my daughter.
1. Mom and I broke down and bought her an early present because it was 75% off and we knew she’d love it – This 3 foot tall pink, frosted, pre-lit, christmas tree. She’s gone crazy decorating it with paper chains and ornaments. Her reaction when we brought it home was priceless as I think it was the most excited I’ve ever seen her. She kept saying over and over, “Your’re kidding me! You’re kidding!” Not sure where she got that vernacular, but the pink tree is now part of our tradition.
2. Morgan and I pretty much decorated the house. The two of us carried the team this year and it was very fun to have a passionate partner to deck the halls with.
3. We did a gingerbread hosue together which was very fun. She and I did the frame and she and her mom did all the fun decorating with all the candy.
4. Shopping for mom – morgan and I had good times on a 4 hour shopping marathon. She’s got major shopping endurance.
5. She has amazed me by almost memorizing “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and she has memorized the song, “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Major memory skills here, but it shows her enthusiasm for the season.
6. Watching all the holiday christmas shows for kids with her has been very fun. I’m a sucker for those shows so I’m glad to have a partner in crime and an excuse to throw down on rudolph, frosty, and the rest of them.
7. We’ve had some good conversations related to the christmas tradition. For example – “Dada, why does the song say I better watch out and better not cry? What’s Santa gonna do?”
8. Morgan totally believes in Santa, but not the one at the mall. I asked her if she thought Santa was real and she said, “The one at the mall is fake, but the one at the north pole is real.”
9. The picture to the right shows a trip to “Knott’s Merry Farm” on Toys for Tots day. She was all about Snoopy and the Snoopy on Ice show. We took her on the log-ride too which was re-done into a “Santa’s Workshop” Theme. I didn’t tell her about the big drop at the end by she loved it and was totally into it.
10. Advent Calendars. We’ve got two. One is counting up with magnet things that you put on, but the other is a countdown to Christmas chalkboard. She’s been starting to pick up some subtraction skills from it which is cool. She’s totally in to it and it’s been very fun to have a constant level of excitement for Christmas throughout the entire month.
11. We found a stuffed animal nativity set for like 5 bucks on sale a couple years ago and Morgan has performed various shows for us of the Christmas story. She knows the story quite well and when we did Christmas with Christine’s parents last week we were able to together tell the Christmas story with me reading parts of her kid’s Bible and her acting out the story with the various stuffed characters. Impressive stuff, but her shows are great. “In a land, far far away, there was a little baby named Jesus….”
We’ve had some tough years and more emotionally low Christmas seasons, but this year has been one to really enjoy and I’m sure I’ll remember it for years to come. Now if we could all just stay healthy at the same time!
