End of the holidays

Took down the Christmas decorations today, officially marking the end of the holiday season.  The kids go back to school on Monday and life gets back to normal.

It’s always a little sad and somewhat of a relief when this day comes.  After almost six weeks of holiday cheer, I’m ready for a little sarcastic reality.  But at the same time, it’s nice to have something special going on.

This is the first year Nathan has “gotten” the concept of Christmas.  He was very excited with putting up the decorations and I could share the stories with him.  Like our Christmas Bear who hangs from the lamp and watches over the tree.  He was bouncing around waiting to see what Santa brought him and he sat on my lap to read the letter Santa left in his stocking.  We’ve always gotten letters from Santa telling us about his adventures at the North Pole and letting us know which of the elves helped with making our presents.  It’s been wonderful to see him participating and believing in the magic.

Alex still finds Christmas more stressful than special.  His routine is disrupted, he gets sugared up by well-meaning relatives and spends days after in a state of agitation.  It’s sad to see but he still finds his own enjoyment and I’m learning to let him go at his own pace rather than dragging him with me.  It’s been difficult managing his aggression at home these last two weeks, which makes me worry about school next week.  We’ll just have to see what happens.

My favourite parts of this holiday season have been:

Rediscovering the Muppet Christmas Carol with Nathan.  I’d forgotten how fabulous Dickens can be when you have puppets involved.  And Michael Caine does a great job as Scrooge.  We picked up the DVD at the beginning of the season.

Decorating the tree with Nathan and my parents.  Usually I end up doing it by myself but this year I had helpers.  It makes things more fun to have other people joining in.  We put on Christmas carols and I think everyone had a good time.

Visiting with my sisters while they were here from Toronto.  I got to spend some one on one time with both of them.  And we had a lot of fun Christmas night playing The Hobbit (board game) and Mah Jong.

Our visit to Santa.  Not only was Nathan good as gold but we got see a surprise marriage proposal with the couple ahead of us.  Nice to still see some romance and optimism in the world.  For the record, Nathan didn’t ask Santa for anything specific this year.  He just wanted some new toys.

Having Christmas crafts from both kids to put on the tree and around the house.  Alex made a wreath of hand cutouts and a hand and foot cutout reindeer head for the tree.  Nathan made a lightbulb reindeer for the tree, a red and green candle holder, a giant paper candy cane and a wreath.

My gift from Dave (although it’s only funny if you watch Castle).  On the show, Castle is a writer who follows around a police detective and helps her to solve crimes.  All the police have flak jackets that say NYPD on them.  He got one which said “Writer.”  Dave got me a t-shirt with the same “Writer” on it.