Relaxing and Fun Christmas

Monday and Tuesday shaped up to be one of the best little Christmases I'd ever celebrated! Now that little man is old enough to be excited about opening presents and decorating a tree, I had loads of fun shopping for little things for him to wrap and stuff the stocking with, as well as finding a little tree to decorate.

While in LA, my mom and I found an adorable little 3-foot tree in the nursery near our house, which was chock full of all kinds of gorgeous trees, both Douglas and Noble. We put it on the end table in the house, but when we opened up the box of lights and decorations, we discovered that the ornaments and lights were too big, as all our previous trees had been at least 6 feet tall. Still, we decked the tree out anyway and it didn't look too bad!



I got a fake 3-foot tree for our apartment in SB, and we had to forego the use of lights because the string of bulbs I bought was too short, and I had little desire to pay outrageous sums of money to get a new light strand from K-Mart down the street. So, we made do with little ornaments and some garland. Todd had fun helping, though by the time we took this picture, the lopsidedness (as you can imagine, most of the balls and candy canes wound up at the bottom of the tree) had been fixed:



Anyway, Christmas Eve was spent unwrapping presents, and basking in the joy of watching Todd rip open giftwrap with glee. Me, I got a 17-inch stuffed turtle that is identical to Todd's… only bigger, of course :-D

Christmas morning, Todd discovered a plush Blue from Blue's Clues in his stocking—left by Santa, of course. Then we headed to LA to celebrate with Allan's family. Along the way, traffic was blissfully nonexistent—highly unusual for downtown LA!

Todd had a great time playing with Allan's family, really coming out of his shell and actively engaging in conversation and giggles with everyone. He also loved playing with Sammy, Uncle Ron and Aunt Debbie's Lhasa Apso. This was a total first—up till now, Allan's family rarely had the opportunity to glimpse Todd as he really is at home—a big ball of boundless energy, talking a mile a minute and laughing like crazy.



One of my favorite Todd moments while opening presents was when he opened my parents' gift to him—a check. As it fluttered out of the box, he exclaimed: "Oh! I got paper!" But when he opened up Grandpa's gift of cash, he instantly recognized it as money and proclaimed: "I can pay!" And not just for toys and junk, for when asked what he'd pay for, he answered: "Food! For Mommy and Daddy!" :-D

Here's little man on the lawn of Ron and Debbie's house:


The evening ended a bit later than expected, when Allan locked the car keys in the trunk and we had to wait for AAA to show up and "break in" to the car. Very apt, then, that we made immediate use of the Christmas present that Ron and Debbie traditionally give us every year—a AAA membership.

All in all, this turned out to be one of the best Christmases I've ever had. Nothing exciting—just small, quiet family celebrations. Christmas Eve in our apartment in SB, and Christmas Day with Allan's family. But it was loads of fun because of Todd. Things I normally loathe, like shopping for gifts, decorating the tree, and wrapping presents, were made enjoyable because I liked the thought of Todd opening the presents or hanging ornaments on the tree, with the kind of childlike wonder and glee that only, well, children possess :-)

 (originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/341568672)