'Tis the Season

Chocolate Mice we made from Hershey Kisses

Wreaths we made from Peppermints & Red Hot Candies

The holiday season is in full-swing over here at the moment.  We're 'home bodies' so that means we're cranking up the Christmas music, making lots of holiday crafts, spending time with friends and trying not to 'over do' it with Santa prezzies.

Yep, we do Santa (called "Father Christmas' by the children). Graham was already doing the Father Christmas stocking prezzies for Derek when I became stepmum, and it just became a natural progression since both our extended and immediate families celebrate Christmas the same.

There are many modern families who are not 'Religious' but do celebrate Christmas. We trace the history and customs back to many various myths the children learn about, and indulge in Christmas stories revolving around 'the spirit of giving' versus 'away in the manger'.

Indigo's first Christmas was totally overdone. I bought wayyyy too much stuff.

Indigo's second Christmas, Cypress' first Christmas, I bought wayyyyy too much stuff.  As I watched my sweet babies get over stimulated from unwrapping prezzie after prezzie, forgetting all about 'peace, love and understanding', (thinking more about 'are there more!'...'is this it?').....I decided right then and there that we would be having more 'meaningful' future Christmas'.  We were getting the kiddo's prezzies, forgetting that our relatives were also sending bunches of gifts. It was toooooo much.

Though I do fondly look back at an event we participated in that same year; whereby, we adopted a kid living at a Children's Centre, and at a party with the kids, we gave our kid prezzies on their wish list. But we spent more time with the kid (a young teen girl) getting to know her, and listening to her story. She was only in the home temporarily hoping to get back with her single-mum who was trying to get back on her feet. I wrote to her a few times after that, she wrote back. I wish I had kept in touch, but as an older teen the letters stopped coming. 

The next Christmas, 2005, we found ourselves huddled up together in a donated mountain cabin up in Canton, North Carolina. When we were evacuated from hurricane Katrina, and I was trying to push little Zephyr in to the world back on September 22nd, we got a phone call asking if we wanted to move in to this 'free' cabin for awhile, since it was empty during winter. I screamed "YES!'' (remember, I was in labour), and a month or so later, we moved in. It was a tiny cabin, with no kitchen, but the retreat centre that owned it installed a donated fridge/oven for us in the basement. We were snowed in pretty much the entire winter.....as it was way up in the mountains away from all civilisation. The nearest teeny-weeny store you could find milk/bread was a 30 minute drive down hill. Not possible when you're iced in. The place was beautiful though, soooo quiet and peaceful. We could see 'Cold Mountain' from our front porch. 

We had a very small and quaint Christmas that year.  We couldn't 'go shopping' for prezzies, so the kids just got what relatives sent via UPS from England. We filled their stockings with a few little things, mainly oranges/nuts/socks/underwear.  They were SUCH happy kids, and we had a peaceful day.  Derek and I made dollhouse furniture out of sticks and twigs we found in the surrounding forest, hot gluing them together in to tables and chairs, etc.  I made some little dolls using acorn caps for hats, covering pegs with wool for 'clothes'. It really really was a lovely Christmas.  The retreat centre had a big Christmas dinner for workers and patrons in the big event hall, and invited us to join them. It was really odd feeling like a 'charity case', when I've only ever given in my life, but for the sake of our kids alone, we transcended the odd feeling and joined in with the 'community' as much possible. 

Our Christmas' have been small and quaint ever since.  I home make most of the kiddo's Christmas prezzies, though this year I have yet to get around to making things (busy job & wobbly health), so we have indulged in getting things they desperately need. (bike helmets, car booster seats, socks, wellies, hats, gloves). Got a used bike off Free-Friday-Ad for Indigo, found a 'heart mug' for Cypress at the charity shop, and my mum-in-law gave us a 'tank' for Zephyr he really wanted. (these are the things they wrote to Santa for).  We found the girls each a rather-large Barbie gadget at the Charity shop, so am sticking those in a gifty bag with a newly purchased Barbie (doctor Barbie, and Vet Barbie). Indigo's is a kitchen, so will print out these 'make your own' doll house foods I found online and instead of me making for her she'll LOVE cutting and folding and making them herself. Cypress' is a canopy bedroom, so will put some fabrics and sewing kit with hers so she can 'make her own' blankets/pillows etc.  Hubby is building Zephyr a custom Lego set that is replica of Norman Castle and an Anglo-Saxon fortification, complete with mini-figs he's customised with old English flags, etc. It's super cool. I'm hoping to find time to sew the girls some felt horses but they are staying up wayyyy too late for me to sneak that in :( 

I love Christmas magic, and I am not fearful my kids are going to totally freak out when they realise Mommy & Daddy are 'Santa'.  Derek figured it out and loves now helping out to be 'Santa' (he had to few years ago, when Zephyr shoved a shiny bead up his nose on Christmas Eve, resulting in several A&E visits, finally getting put under to surgically remove :(...... I had to ask Derek to 'be Santa' whilst I was at A&E until 10pm)

I posted on another FB friends wall recently that for me, when I learned who 'Santa' really was, it was exciting to be introduced to this 'rite of passage' in to big-people world.  I understand, some people are devastated when they learn, and maybe we encourage kids to fib about other things then, but I'm really really close with my kids and know they'll appreciate it's just us keeping the magic of childhood. 

I also posted a reminiscent story of when I just had my 10th birthday in 1978, on Christmas Eve morning, our house burned down.  We were suppose to get up early anyway, to drive to my Papaw's house to pick up my Mother who had just had surgery up in Mississippi. We were bringing her home for Christmas that day, would head to 'Midnight Mass' in the evening, then come home to find that Santa had left a mess of prezzies for us beneath the tree. Whenever we would head to Midnight Mass, apparently my Daddy would find an excuse to go back in the house for something, and that is when he would quickly whisk prezzies beneath the tree, then we went to mass, and came home to a Surprise.  Well, plans obviously changed that Christmas. The house burned down completely, as we lived out in the backwoods of Louisiana and fire trucks never found us. Later, we drove up to Mississippi and I'm not sure when my Mom found out about it, because back then folks didn't have phones/computers/mobiles, so we probably broke the news to her that evening, in person.  We went to bed at my Papaws, and the next day on Christmas, there was a prezzie for me. My Aunt and cousin brought it by saying 'Santa left you a present under our tree!!'.  It was SO cool (a tape recorder). I was tickled pink. I found out later that my cousin had actually asked if she could give me that prezzie when she found out I wasn't having a Christmas. 

We eventually built a new house out in the woods, and every Christmas since 1978 we didn't get many prezzies. We always each got a special book from my Dad and he took time to inscribe something nice in the book. Sometimes he put theatre tickets to Saenger Theatre inside to surprise us with an event. We got a few bits and bobs, but he said later after losing all those presents on xmas even '78 that he had stored up in the attic was just too much. I loved getting my book every year, I've kept every one of them. It's funny to see that I got books like 'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Tom Sawyer' as a teen, then in my twenties, I started getting those 'self help' type books....ha!  Now that my pops is passed on, it's nice to pull a book off the shelf to read (found some Walt Whitman recently) and I'll find Dad's inscription. ''Dear Louise, you'll always be Missy to me......love Dad' (ha)

I'm glad my kids look forward to Christmas. We're not doing the 'naughty or nice' threats, and we make sure they get most prezzies from Mom & Dad. Santa gifts are only in stockings.  We'll always contribute to a Charity helping children because it breaks my heart that some children have a miserable Christmas. Starting in the New Year we want to start visiting elderly in our community who don't have anyone and make sure they enjoy company and cheer next Christmas. For me, Christmas is all about Family and Giving......but the spiritual side of giving (not the commercial).