Nice Try Santa

Christmas has come and gone in a flash. It always seems that the preparation and anticipation leading up to the holidays builds to almost epic proportions that are difficult to live up to. This year I was a bit more on top of my game, I took full advantage of online shopping and free shipping. I lied through my teeth as packages showed up at our door, "just boring books for Daddy," was my standard explanation. I got a Barbie radio for Lucy before November had ended and felt like I was bringing my A-game to Christmas this year. I wrapped in advance to prevent the stressful, late-night wrapping session fueled by wine and chex mix. I think I was probably more excited than Lucy and Josh.

Lucy was excited about Santa coming and bringing her presents. She remembered everything from last year and was adamant that she deserved a Barbie radio. Michael and I (more Michael than me) liberally used, "Santa is watching," as a means of discipline and Lucy did her best to behave - most of the time. She wore her fancy Christmas dress whenever she could, getting maximum mileage out of red, plaid taffeta and velvet jacket. Josh learned to say, "ho, ho, ho," and didn't protest too much when we plopped him on Santa's lap with his big sister.

We filled our house with Christmas cheer, baked cookies and picked out beautiful, and obscenely overpriced tree. Lucy loved having the Christmas tree and Josh took every ornament off of the lower perimeter, until eventually the tree was dense with ornaments for the top-third, then totally bare on the bottom. On Christmas Eve we went to the park in Nonantum and looked at the lights, drove the sleigh with the weird fake reindeer and mailed our letter to Santa. This is our Christmas tradition now and it is fun to see how things change from year to year. Josh is not a big fan of the snow and his strong will and big lungs make sure you know when he is unhappy with the scene. Christmas Eve night we left cookies out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and Lucy and Josh went to sleep in their cute little matching jammies, dreaming of Santa and presents. Then Lucy woke up at 4:30a.m.

After coaxing her into the big bed with us, she held out until about 6:00. Then she waited until Josh woke up around 6:30 and then all hell broke loose, but she had been a very patient three and a half year old. She opened the Barbie radio and it was so great to see my little girls face lit up with the magic of Christmas and the unconditional belief in Santa. Josh was confused at first, then was right on board with ripping and tearing - having as much fun opening the presents as playing with them.

After it was over we were buried in toys and listening to the Barbie Diamond Castle soundtrack over and over for hours on end. Josh vroomed his way around all of his new toys and Michael cut, unscrewed, powered-up and put everything together in a furious pace as the kids breathed down his neck. All the planning, deliberating between a Mustang Road Ripper for Josh or a Hummer and the actual morning went by faster then I could have imagined. It was fast, furious and wonderful.

As Christmas passed we celebrated with our families and Lucy and Josh were deluged with more wonderful and thoughtful presents. They were in awe of their older cousins playing video games and Rock Band, with Lucy sitting in on drums of playing guitar whenever she got a chance. Josh ate right at the table with all the big kids, laughing when everyone else laughed - without any clue what he was laughing at. Every now and then Lucy would start a pout because, "she didn't get anything cool for Christmas," because she didn't have a video game. This is what I fear. The magic goes away and is replaced with the materialism of Christmas. How do you combat that as a parent, I haven't figured that out quite yet, but I know it is something that I will have to think about carefully before next years ho ho holidays.

Christmas is awesome. I love seeing it though Josh and Lucy's eyes. It is just organic belief in good and magic that the world needs a little more of these days. A couple of weeks after Christmas Lucy was taking a bath and using some of her new Lightening McQueen foamy soap and shampoo that Santa left for her. She took a big whiff of the shampoo and let out an unadulteradted, "Yuck," because it smelled gross. However, quickly realizing that maybe that was not the most polite reaction, she looked at the ceiling and into the sky and smiled broadly, put her thumb up and said, "Nice try Santa." That's my girl.