I must admit that I love Christmas. I always have. I can still remember the magic and excitement that I felt as a young child. It was nearly unbearable on Christmas eve and in the predawn hours of Christmas day as my brother and I snooped around the tree to see what presents Santa had left for us. The world seemed so much simpler then. I can still close my eyes and see the house I grew up in like it was yesterday; Avocado green paint, wood shingled roof, and red brick accents. Multi-colored Christmas lights line the roof, and a white plastic, lighted nativity set sits under the eaves of a dormer over the living room. A painted plywood Santa with his green toy sack slung over his shoulder is attached to the chimney. It seemed that nearly every house had Christmas lights on them back in those days. Four decades have passed since my earliest memories of Christmas, some of them are still very vivid. They world has changed a lot since then. Its not as innocent as it once was, and everyone is trying to be politically correct these days so as not to offend someone; "Merry Christmas" has become "Happy Holidays," Christmas vacation has become winter break, and so on.
Still, we try to share the magic of Christmas with our children. Apollo is old enough that he gets really excited for Christmas now, Santa Claus aside. He has no love for Santa. He finds him scary and only wants Santa's reindeer to bring him presents. This sets the stage for a month of teasing and joking about going to see Santa or moving to Christmas. "I will only go and see Santa if he has Rudolph with him!" he proclaims.
Apollo is an incredible negotiator. He will try to negotiate his way out of his annual Santa picture. This year, he has decided that he wont be afraid of Santa when he is 10, but if we didn't make him go see Santa this year, then he would agree to go see him when he was 7 or 8. "You can go see Santa for me and tell him what I want for Christmas, dada."
Orion is still too young to be affected by Christmas in any way, but he does enjoy a good party especially when it involves ripping open packages.
This was the first year that we didn't spend Christmas with extended family. We chose to stay home with just our kids, and we had no family over. It was actually quite nice. We took Apollo and Orion on a Christmas eve tour of the neighborhood to look at all the Christmas lights and decorations. We decorated our bikes and the bike trailer with battery powered lights, bundled up the kids and headed out into the brisk winter air. Yes, I said brisk, and at 45°, that is brisk for Santa Rosa :). Upon returning home, Melanie made hot chocolate and served them with candy canes. Orion fell to sleep soon after, and Apollo and I curled up on the couch together and watched Polar Express. About half way through the movie, Apollo's eyes grew heavy and he drifted off to sleep. It was a perfect Christmas eve.
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