Oh How I Love Christmas

(Just a little something to listen to while reading this post, if you choose.  One of my new favorite Christmas songs this year)

 

I am quite often in awe at how quickly time passes… and even more so at the holidays. But really… did December fly by shockingly fast for anyone else?  I CANNOT believe that it is already December 20th and that Christmas is in FIVE DAYS.

The Christmas spirit starts whispering in my ear each year around the end of September, and I get the urge to play Christmas music and see twinkling lights all through Halloween and Thanksgiving.  But I tried really hard this year to keep the my holiday enthusiasm at bay until it was actually December.   And though it took us half the month to decorate our little three foot tree… I am now thrilled to death to be basking in the glow (to borrow the phrase from my friend Megan) of colored lights and an ornament collection that builds with each year.  And a certain little babe is rather captivated by the lights as well.  I can’t wait until next year when he’s a little older and more able to enjoy all the Christmasy goodness that I love.

I’ve been a bit of an absent blogger this month… save for a couple photo posts.  But December is a month that demands so many activities!  As much as I wanted to chronicle all of the events of the month… I was caught up in living them!  There was cocoa to drink, gifts to dream up and wrap up, decorations to make, trees to decorate and recipes to try.  There were holiday parades, Christmas parties and last minute Nutcracker tickets to take advantage of.  And of course all of this had to be done amongst the everyday routine of  little Mason’s needs. And while I know that a lot of people are eager for the holiday season to be over and done with, and while there were some days that the business has left all three of us tired and cranky by the end of the night… mostly it just leaves me wishing Christmas lasted at least a couple of months! (I might have to start thinking about Christmas in November next year… sorry babe)

So…. since I think it would stress me out to try and recap in any detail… here are some snapshots of our month.  Our delicious, cozy against the (Santa Barbara version of) cold, cocoa sipping, Christmas onesie wearing, crafting, lovely, occasionally jarring, jam-packed month:

A post on the actual day of Christmas soon to follow.  Hope everyone had as lovely a time as we did!

And yes… there is snow blowing across the page 😉

Things are Good

    

From nap-time, to bath-time, to tummy-time, to eating-time, to changing-time, to walk-time, to bedtime all is good. We all have our moments, but Mason is such a fun kid to have around. It’s really difficult to find words to describe what it feels like to watch him grow, learn, develop, and coo. Amazing. Beautiful. Love.

Elaine and I are truly fortunate to have a happy, healthy baby who is interactive, fun loving, and go with the flow (talk more about that later). Mason enjoys his sleep, puppy kisses, and long walks. At times Mason is a talker- his coos are always changing but right now we hear a lot of aboom, atum, gue, b’ga, and mammum. Fun

Last weekend my work received extra tickets to an afternoon performance to The Nutcracker ballet at the Arlington Theater. Three months ago any last minute impulsive trips were no problem, but now they are either impossible or take extra planning. It took only one phone call to have our first non-family babysitter (no tears this time). Thank you, thank you, thank you Juliana for helping us get out of the house and taking such good care of Mason. He loved spending the afternoon with you- bouncing, playing, and having fun. The ballet was a lot of fun but it was really nice to come home to a sleeping baby and an excited puppy.

Elaine started back to work on a part-time basis the other week and is currently picking up one shift a week and others as needed. Things were slow on her first few shifts but yesterday things got busy. Elaine was out from 12-630pm and Mason and I had some quality boy time. (Not to brag but my previous record for being alone with Mason was 2 hours) We had a great afternoon of rocking, eating, we went for a long walk with Ruby, and even watched a few Daily Shows on hulu. While I was a little nervous, I really couldn’t have asked for a better day.

While Mason is pretty good at giving cues for what he needs, I’ve learned a lot from Elaine. I’m really impressed at how much she knows about him, what he needs, and how best to give it to him. It really is a science. Not just reading verbal and non-verbal cues, but a baby science. Yes he cries, pouts and sometime the bottle is a chore, but I’m doing pretty well and we have a lot of fun together. I don’t know if it is experience or confidence- but both are growing. Its a good thing too as Elaine picked up a shift today and tomorrow so I’m getting more smiles and a new kind of fun weekend.

Thanks for reading- Mark