Ian's Christmas

We all enjoyed a simple and satisfying Christmas today. We are taking these first few years with Ian (in which he has no idea what's going on) to try to find the right balance for Christmas. We want to de-emphasize the commercialism of Christmas, avoid massively overeating, but preserve what is meaningful about Christmas. What this meant for us this year was a shortened season of traditional pre-Christmas activities, a few carefully selected gifts, a mix of family traditions, and a relaxed atmosphere in which we could spend some time together. Overall we were very happy with our holiday. Hopefully Ian will enjoy our approach when he's old enough to understand Christmas (although it's hard to beat a huge pile of presents on Christmas morning for a kid, even if many of them hardly get used!). This year he had a fun but clueless day . . .

We got a real tree for the first time this year and liked it much better than an artificial one. We got it on Sunday and decorated it on Christmas Eve evening. We had a wreath on the door and stockings on the fireplace, but other than that the tree was our only decoration this year. We really enjoyed sitting and admiring it before going to bed. Here it is last thing on Christmas Eve:


Maybe in future years we'll be up early with an excited little boy, but this year we had a relaxed morning. Ian slept later than normal (7am), and then we walked the dogs and showered before starting the festivities. Stockings first:

Zrbrt and Lilo share the stocking marked "Zrbrt" (sorry, Lilo, she was first). They enjoyed some jerky strips. Ian, a victim of parental neglect, does not have a stocking and had to use Doug's childhood stocking. He didn't seem to notice. We'll fix that for next year. Lilo suspects that his stocking gift may be tasty:



And Ian agrees - homemade dried apples from Grandma and Grandpa Allen. Eventually we had to hide them because he wouldn't stop asking for more!:

I thought Ian might get a kick out of unwrapping presents this year, but no. He unexcitedly pulled a few pieces of paper off, but was largely uninterested:

He did, however, appreciate our gift to him inside -- a set of wooden trains and tracks. We expect he'll be able to play with these for several years. He had fun unpacking the pieces and handing them to Daddy to lay out:

Since many of the pieces in this large set are too complicated for his ungentle fingers, we plan to keep only a smaller set accessible for now. But he found this quite satisfying -- here he and Daddy watch the train roll down the hill. Choo chooo!:


Although he wasn't hyper with excitement, Ian seemed to find Christmas very tiring, and a bit overwhelming. He took two naps (the exception for him these days), both about two hours long. We were grateful for this break and took the opportunity to relax and spend some quiet time reading:

When he awoke from nap #2, Ian found his other gift -- a water table from Grandma and Grandpa Allen. Since it was raining all day, and our yard isn't quite ready for him to play in yet, I set the water table up in the kitchen with a very small amount of water. He had a great time with it, and we expect it to be a big hit on the patio where we can fill it completely. Here he is giving a kiss to duckie:

And asking from me to put more water in his cup to pour in (and not for the last time!):

He also got some water friendly foam blocks which he enjoyed -- here he is tossing one into the water:

And the best gift of all is yet to come -- soon we will all be able to play outside! Doug worked all day yesterday building a fence in the yard. It is looking gorgeous and it will be great for Ian and the dogs to be able to go out. Ian loved watching Doug working out the window. As soon as each cut with the saw was done he would say "More.":


So, Christmas day is over, but there is more to come next week as Grandma and Grandpa McVey, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Eli arrive!