Christmas Reflections

Christmas has come and gone.  We are still picking through the aftermath of gifts, and grandma apparently has some more packages coming this week that she forgot to send last week but the tree is down.  The lights are put up.  I just transferred money from the Christmas fund to the checking account to pay off the wife's credit card.  There are a few gifts left to return but I say again, the tree is down.

I think this was the best Christmas ever.  Not because of material things, although the gifts given and received were great.  Not because of my personal career situation, that is still circling the crapper.  The wife still has to work part time, which after more than 20 yrs in the work force has her a bit ticked.  I got a pre-holiday poor health test results, gonna have to change my ways, or resolve to not see my grandchildren. (I'm fat and getting old, not a good combination). Even with bad stuff happening to me and my extended family, I can still see how this was a great Christmas. 

I enjoyed this year better and more fuller than any I remember.  The kids are still young, 4 and 2.  Res Jr. is totally into opening gifts and Little Miss is just starting to get the hang of it.  Christmas was fun.  I mean deeply enjoyable, down right satisfyingly fun.  From the "that's a big present daddy", to the "I bought that for you mommy" to the box of Luppa brass I received, it was great.  

I'll spare you the details of Res Jr's Christmas.  Just envision a Class V Hurricane hitting a landfall of brightly colored presents and you have the general idea, except most hurricanes are a little laid back in comparison.  That and they don't say "cool", "oh wow" and "all right!" with nearly as much enthusiasm.  This was Little Miss's first time to be old enough to get the hang of opening the boxes and being excited about what was inside.  She had several boxes left to open when she ripped into one with a baby doll in it.  She got that doll out and said "baby".  After that she was done opening presents.  She loved that little doll.  She walked it around and fed it from the bottle and said "baby" and "mine baby", a lot.

I don't know how to explain the look in her eye.  She had "her baby", nothing else mattered.  She wouldn't even open the rest of her gifts.  Seriously, this is the kid that just the night before ripped up all the gifts that Res Jr and I had wrapped up for mom.  She had her baby and she knew just what to do.  She's not even potty trained and she was changing the diaper.  Its amazing girls are truly amazing, this motherhood instinct must be genetic.

After much coaxing and after all of Res Jr's gifts were opened and he was eying her stash with a gleam in his eye, we managed to get Little Miss to open another package.  This one had shoes.  Little plastic, high heels with puffy feathers on them.  These have to be the most girlish foo foo shoes ever made.  She almost set the baby down.  Not quite mind you, but almost.  She put her heels on and grabbed baby by the ankle.  She tried to walk, of course she couldn't, but she tried.  She could however remain true to her sex and talk all about it.  SHOES!!! SHOES!!! SHOES!!! BABY!!! SHOES!!!  Pretty much that's all she said for about an hour as she carried the shoes in one hand and dragged the baby by the other. 

Eventually she got the other gifts opened including her kitchen set and she seemed to like them.  Girls sure are different than boys.  With my son, I instinctively know what manner of mischief is brewing behind those blue eyes.  With my daughter, I am absolutely clueless.  But its so fascinating to find out what will strike her fancy next or how she will open her heart to one object and receive total gratification from another.