Merry Christmas 2021
Merry Christmas to everyone!
Several days ago, while leaving a park, Xavier asked why people wanted to know what presents they got early. "They'll find out on Christmas," was his reasoning, so why be anxious to know ahead of time?
Fast-forward to Christmas Eve, or the morning of. Xavier pops in to announce he has nine presents under the tree. A few minutes later, he pops in to announce "Correction. I have ten presents under the tree." The was followed quickly by a third announcement of him having eleven presents under the tree.
He grew anxious as the day progressed, wanting to know what might hide within the colored wrappings of his eleven presents.
Christmas morning arrived. For Xavier, that meant 03:30 in the morning. He came into our room, crawled in bed with us, but did not sleep, nor did he lay quietly for long.
After half an hour, I got up with him and we went downstairs. This allowed Rebecca and Aunt Kathy to sleep until a reasonable hour. We prayed together, then read further in the book we are reading (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), then came upstairs to get some breakfast.
At about 06:15, Xavier was vibrating with more excitement than I could control. I told him he could make noise to get the girls up; making a child wait past 06:00 on Christmas is a mild form of child cruelty, not to mention I had been shouldering his ever-building exuberance for nearly three hours instead of sleeping.
The girls did get up grudgingly. Rebecca fixed her coffee, then they moseyed into the room and sat down.
Stocking first, of course, then Santa's offerings. Xavier had tried talking me into opening Santa's gifts before the girls got up. When I said we needed to wait, he tried to convince me to let him at his stocking. (yes, such were the hours between 03:30 and 06:30)
After Santa's gifts, we moved on to family gifts. Xavier got some piano books, gag toys like a woopie cushion, Life ® board game, a microscope and a rock tumbler to name a few of his eleven gifts.
Throughout the day, we had other times of opening of gifts when the grandparents were available, and when Aunt Chelle arrived for dinner.
Two remote control cars (which seem to be the biggest hit this year so far) and two wrist watches. He wears both watches (one a storm trooper helmet, the other that pops up with a "Baby Yoda"), unable to decide which he favors more.
Hope you all had and are enjoying a very Merry Christmas.
Christ is Born!