Winter Wonderland

We are busy celebrating the holiday season, finding magic in the mundane and creating memories and traditions for ourselves as a new family. I'm not going to lie, as trite as it is, I am finding the joy of Christmas again through the eyes of my son. I even got a little teary at the end of "Elmo's Christmas Countdown," ( a gift from grandma D) not because of the content per se, but because of the excitement and thrill in eaw's dancing and clapping. I know he doesn't "get it" yet, and mtw and I are still debating how we want to structure the whole Christmas scenario, but it sure is fun. Last Thursday, we ventured out into the freezing cold to find a tree. Again, we struggled with the environmental costs and impact of a live vs. an artificial tree, but talked ourselves into the real thing as this was our first holiday with eaw and in a new home. Yikes, I guess that sort-of justification leads to a global environmental crisis. Nonetheless, we found a gorgeous frasier fir that smells like heaven. Since we are a little house poor, we bought an extra big one to take up the extra space in our living room. mtw's friend, Terrence, came over to help us decorate. It's a great tree!

Later in the week, we visited the "Festival of Lights" at Alum Creek during grandma D's visit and enjoyed some beautiful and some rather odd Christmas lights. For example this depiction of a hottie nurse, and Santa giving a shot to a deer in the buttox. The festival also included a very over commercialized Santa's shop that sold snowmen in boots with shotguns, among other holiday items. Still, eaw loved the lights and enjoyed looking at Santa through the window at the store (the line was WAY too long to wait for a moment with the man who is still a little bit terrifying to eaw). Other holiday highlights include a visit to the Franklin conservatory where eaw enjoyed a holiday train exhibit and gingerbread competition. On Thursday evening , mtw and I enjoyed our first school performance. eaw's daycare sponsored a holiday concert that included adorable songs and sweet performances by the children. The program began with the children entering the darkened room carrying candles. It was so beautiful and so hopeful. eaw stood in his spot and participated with some gestures and smiles. His big moment was singing the "wish" during the lyric of "We wish you a Merry Christmas," although I thought his portrayal of a spinning dreidel was spot on! Here's a shot from the after -party: