I’m Feeling Nostalgic Tonight

The boys and I put up the Christmas tree tonight.  They’re at a magical age where they still believe in Santa and yet, they’re old enough to understand the meaning of the season. 

For the first time, I simply took all of the ornaments out of their various containers and boxes and laid them on the coffee table.  The boys picked out which ornaments they wanted to hang and where.  They remarked about remembering certain ornaments and asked who gave them others.  After I broke my third ornament of the season, I decided this was a good year to keep the fragile ornaments in their boxes and in the closet. 

Logan was the last to break an ornament and even though he had heard me say several times that they were just things, material things, and nothing would really change in the long run if they were broken, he got really upset.  A tear rolled down his chubby cheek as he picked up the shards of glass.  I took the glass shards from him, gave him a hug, and told him the really important thing was the time we spent together, not the material things we owned.

I realized tonight that this would probably be the last year the boys believe in Santa.  There are two reasons for this.  First, both boys have requested a laptop for Christmas.  Ed and I are both adamant they are too young for such an extravagant gift.  They are still too young for used laptops too, though maybe next summer they’ll get hand-me-down laptops.  The second is that Trip has been asking for one of those Elf on the Shelf creatures and I steadfastly refuse to participate in such nonsense.  I am a mediocre housekeeper on my best cleaning days and I sure as hell have no intention of making a mess in my own house just so i can blame it on a stuffed toy and clean up my own mess later.

With those huge disappointments looming, I’m fairly certain each boy will figure out the truth about Santa.  Either way, we will all be okay because I think we’ve finally gotten this Christmas thing down.