Christmas Then and Now

Last year was Ryan’s first Christmas, and although being only six weeks old, he didn’t appreciate it much, it was extra-special doing all the Christmas things that parents do with their children.

We got him some festive Christmas outfits:

We took him to see Santa:

 

We even took him to see the production of “It’s ChristmasTime!” that we usually perform in (we weren’t in the show last year but Ryan’s cousin Kayla was):

 

We told him how Santa would come down the chimney and put treats and goodies in his stocking:

So this year, we’re doing those things all over again. He has another festive new outfit this year (and oops, apparently Mom does not):

 

We took him to see Santa, but since last year he seems to have developed an irrational fear of beards, so we were not successful in getting a photo (so far; the season is still young).

We knew he would be too wiggly to sit through a performance of “It’s ChristmasTime” even though Mom and Dad performed in it again this year, but we did manage to wrangle him a cameo appearance in one of the scenes. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to manage photographic evidence (flash photos during a performance are a big no-no), but we had a number of family members and friends in the audience who got to see it in person.

And we’ve been telling him stories about Christmas. He has a beautiful little board book with the story of the first Christmas that we can occasionally get him to sit still long enough to read a page or two:

And he’s actually noticing the Christmas decorations this year, unlike last Christmas. Fortunately, he’s still much more interested in the giant Nutcracker than he is the glass ornaments on the tree:

He’s even left the poinsettia alone since we got it home. Since he shredded several leaves in the car on the way home after we bought it (I still underestimate how long his reach is!!), I guess he figured he’d done enough damage.

But most of all, I’m looking forward to seeing his face on Christmas morning. I know he won’t care about his presents for their own sake, but it will be a morning with Mommy, Daddy, and his sister, all sitting around paying attention to him, and it will be a morning filled with tearing wrapping paper, shredding tissue paper, good crunching sounds, and boxes of all sizes and shapes. And then the afternoon will be spent with more family, more paper, and more boxes! And the next day there’s even more family, more paper, and more boxes! It’ll be about as much joy as one little boy can handle.