More on Christmas

Now that I've caught caught up a bit more on sleep I can better reflect on our Christmas.

Christmas Eve morning began with a trip to the mall to see Santa. Mimi and Papa accompanied us. The mall is close and their Santa is actually pretty good. A friend gave me the tip last year that if you go to the mall first thing on Christmas Eve the lines are much more reasonable. That has been true for two years in a row now. As I drove to the mall I pondered the whole Santa experience, which is still clearly more for me than for Nora. While last year I could put her on his lap and think it was cute and funny that she was crying, this year it felt much more mean. I guess that's because now I know she understands things and can communicate her hurt to me. So we asked Santa to stand behind us and Mimi and I sat with Nora on Santa's chair. It was much more pleasant.

Christmas Eve dinner Ken cooked pinwheel steaks, sweet potato fries and salad. It was low key and easy (especially for me since I didn't even help. I had Christmas Hand, Foot and Mouth disease - Nora's own special present for me).

Really Nora's Christmas was defined by three gifts. The first, lucky for us, was her table. She has spent considerable time already sitting and coloring there. She knows it is her table - saying "MY table" pretty often, and sitting with her knees tucked under as she concentrates on coloring whatever picture she is currently creating.

The second gift was the tent - the igloo - that Mimi and Papa gave her. She was a bit hesitant at first, but once she got in she loved it. If Nora was missing, she was in her igloo. She ate, played and read in her igloo all evening. And she convinced everyone to get in with her at some point.

And the real winner was the cheerio book from Betty - "Betty Dallas" as Nora calls her. The book asked the reader to fill in certain pictures with cheerios. Nora liked that idea, and she liked the idea to eat the cheerios a whole lot more. She ate her weight in cheerios and more. She would "read" the book and eat the cheerios at the same time. Over and over and over again. She wouldn't eat any dinner.

Christmas has never been my favorite holiday - I'm not a scrooge, but I'm not Fezziwig either. But watching Nora and seeing how much she makes everyone around her smile and laugh may make more of a "believer" out of me after all.