Ever Changing Christmas Traditions

Like many others, this was the weekend our house got Christmas-a-fied – real tree and all. From changing the 5 disc CD player to all Christmas music to swapping the hand towels in the bathroom, every inch our house has been transformed to reflect the magic of the season. And, I say this without any sarcasm at all, what magic it is when you throw a wide-eyed and eager toddler into the mix.

As I unpacked our bins of Christmas stuff I remembered the mind frame I was in last year as I put it away, full of wonder as to what our life would look like in a years time. Would it still just be the 3 of us? Would my dad still partake as knowingly and eagerly as he did last year? Would Toby actually “get it”?

What a gift it is to know that my dad is still alive and well and able to share yet another Christmas with his beloved grandson, Toby. And what excitement we have in this second child who is waiting around the corner for us. But perhaps the biggest joy right now for me is one I hadn’t anticipated as I packed up the stuff 11 months ago: the enchantment that hovers in the air as we get to watch Christmas unfolding in the eyes of Toby.

Every little detail is noted and commented on; he’s eagerly learning the words to Christmas songs, bonding with Rob over the old classic Christmas movies on Sunday nights, relishing each and every glass of egg nog he is allowed to have, and was almost moved to TEARS when Santa Claus “The REAL ONE, Mommy!!!” finally arrived at the end of the Stayner Santa Claus parade this weekend.

But perhaps his greatest discovery came yesterday as we unpacked the bins of Christmas decorations together. And that was (OBVIOUSLY) my collection of Christmas socks.

I don’t know how, for someone who doesn’t like to collect things, I have acquired such a vast array of brightly coloured Christmas socks, but it captured Toby’s eye right away. And THEN he put them on. For those of you who aren’t well versed in our sport-fanatic-child, the fact that they come up to mid thigh won’t immediately jump out at you as an obvious triumph. It almost didn’t for me until I saw him assume the usual stance and shout in an excitement I can describe with nothing but the words “sheer glee”

“LOOK, MOMMY! These are BASEBALL SOCKS!!!!” he hollered before taking off “around the bases”.

And so, as we work away fighting with Christmas lights and ornaments, our festively clad boy has been wearing nothing but diapers (insisting on only the green or red fuzzy-buns) and thigh high Christmas (er…I mean, BASEBALL) socks while tearing around the house sliding into imaginary bases and chanting a very baseball-like “Ho-ho-ho MERRY CHRISTMAS, Mommy, I got a HOME RUN!”

I suspect that the only predictions I’ll be able to make for this time next year is that life will be very different. I also suspect that the baseball/Christmas sock obsession will have been usurped by some other 4-year-old fixation. I guess there’s nothing like rapidly changing Christmas traditions to remind you of the excitement and unpredictability of this particular phase of life we happen to be in right now.