I'm not very good at celebrating holidays. I'm also not very good at letting David help me or allowing him to feel involved at the center of family life. In an effort to help me feel like I'm celebrating the Christmas season, and even more importantly, to help me remember to include David in that celebration, David and I posted this on our refrigerator:
It's a dump truck delivering a load of Christmas cheer. Each shape is an ornament with an activity written on it, like "Listen to Christmas music" or "Wrap a gift." If we do the activity, we get to put the ornament on the tree. Some, like "Visit a museum" or "Invite friends over to play," aren't directly related to Christmas, but they are fun things that we were already planning on doing in the week or so before Christmas Day. That's the key--they are all things we would do anyway. 
Aren't I tricky? All I had to do was tape some construction paper to the fridge and suddenly all the stuff we were going to do anyway (like "Put presents under the tree" and "Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas") becomes part of some grand Christmas celebration. Cheating, I know. My lazy self gets to feel like I'm remembering to celebrate Christmas without actually doing anything extra. Plus, David feels like he's in charge of Christmas and has something to do/think about as we wait for Christmas Day. Our Christmas cheer dump truck made its delivery last weekend. The tree started out looking like this:
But since then, among other things (like "Read a Christmas book" and "Deliver donations to the Y"), we went to visit Santa's Reindeer at the Greene, who weren't there, so instead Mary watched her brother dance on the big presents in front of the giant Christmas tree:
And we ventured out in the cold to Woodland Lights, where David rode on a really creepy flying Santa Claus:
But since then, among other things (like "Read a Christmas book" and "Deliver donations to the Y"), we went to visit Santa's Reindeer at the Greene, who weren't there, so instead Mary watched her brother dance on the big presents in front of the giant Christmas tree:
David also decorated these bags for his teachers (and he was so particular about it that I had to take a picture):
And we ventured out in the cold to Woodland Lights, where David rode on a really creepy flying Santa Claus:
And some other rides (including a big slide that was his favorite and of which I have no pictures):
Mary watched her brother:
Until she got to join in the fun too and accompanied David on a creepy flying clown:
But then she got kicked off the ride because she broke the rule to keep your arms inside the clown at all times. Then we walked through the winter wonderland of lights to Santa's cabin, where David reminded Santa to bring him an army tank:
And Mary cried:
So now the tree is looking a little less bare:
And we still have 6 days to go.
And Mary cried:
So now the tree is looking a little less bare:
And we still have 6 days to go.
