Christmas with a toddler

Christmas this year was a little hard for me. I just had a hard time getting into it, and I didn't go on break until 4 days before Christmas, which made it hard to shop, decorate or do crafts. It made me really miss last year when I wasn't working. And work was stressful at best. As a matter of point, I don't blog about work. I find it to be unprofessional at best, and even detrimental to success. So we will leave it at stressful. This whole year has been stressful, and I have no idea what to expect when I return to work.

However, Christmas with X is amazing. He is finally at an age when he can really enjoy the holiday. He doesn't really get it, but he does understand that people get him new toys. On Christmas Eve, we went to the mall to get a few little presents that I hadn't gotten, and we had a great time. Usually the mall is stressful on Christmas Eve, usually it is stressful with X, but somehow, on Christmas Eve with X it was great. He even saw Santa.

Mike had to work Christmas Eve, and Christmas, and the day before. Essentially, he worked all of Christmas (he also worked all of Thanksgiving and New Years). So on Christmas morning when he got home we did presents and breakfast. Mike and I try really hard to mitigate the effects of technology, consumerism and privilege. We only buy X 4 gifts total--and starting next year the same for us: something you want, something you need, something you wear and something you read. We got X a basketball hoop, two books, an outfit and a pair of boots (that I just picked up today, thankfully he is 1 and doesn't know that his parents are insane slackers). That is it. Yes, I plan to do this for forever. We are standard middle class Americans. Our child wants for nothing. He has tons of toys, plenty of food, more clothes than he needs. He will never know what it is like to do without. Even if something horrible happened to Mike's job, my parents and his parents would be able to provide all necessities until we were back on our feet. Would it be hard and embarrassing? Yes, of course, but our child will really never experience need. And I am thankful for that, but I want him to be thankful for that too. And this Christmas taught me that he still got a ridiculous amount of toys.

Finally, we finished our holiday with a trip to Zoo Lights, where we froze. X didn't really get it, but as always he loved seeing Otto, and I love spending time with Allison and Ben. Really, it made me feel like we had Christmas.