Who Wears the Pants

We all had to ask for pants for Christmas this year. Funny how it happens all at the same time. Zeke has gradually outgrown all of his remaining 12 month size pants this fall and recently I have been doing laundry at least twice a week to keep him in clean pants. Aaron's pants were in fair condition except for his typical wear pattern of holes in the left knee -- and naturally all of the left knees tore through in the same week. I have various sizes of pants in my closet, few of which actually fit, and it drives me crazy. Most of them are too big, stretched wearing them far too long (4-5 months!) while I was pregnant with Zeke.

Fortunately, Christmas pants were made possible. Zeke's grandmas showered him with pants and other clothes this Christmas. He went from 5 pants to 15 literally overnight. And they are all cute. (Now I just have to worry about keeping him in clean pajamas....) Aaron also found a pair of hole-less pants under the Christmas tree, so he has one pair that will keep his knee warm. And I went shopping today (yay for gift cards) and actually found something that fit. How fortunate we are.

Boxing Day

Aaron and I are both careful present-openers. I come from a family who respects beatiful wrapping paper, while Aaron is a man alone in a large group of gift-wrap tearers. Zeke barely has the patience to unwrap a gift, let alone do it carefully, so we encourage him to rip his paper (for now anyway, he can decide his own gift-opening philosophy as he grows older). He does really well but is so easily distracted by the toy he just received that it's hard to get him to move on to the next gift. He's probably thinking 'Don't interrupt me to rip some more paper; I'm busy with this cool thing.' Yesterday morning, the first things he saw were the box of legos we got him and the toy tool bench that Grandma and Grandpa Loertscher bought for their house. Zeke was so excited about these new toys that it took all day to get him to open his other gifts.

While we were with Grandma and Grandpa Carlile, Dynna gave Zeke a stack of three wrapped gifts. Zeke was on my lap and we started one of them. He tore into it with gusto, pulled open the box, ripped out the tissue paper, held onto the clothes inside long enough to take a picture, tossed them in Aaron's general direction, and picked up the next package to start all over again: rip, open, pull, picture, toss, repeat. When it was over I was out of breath and surrounded by wrapping paper and boxes. The clothes were cute (from what I saw of them) and it was really quite a rush -- we've never had the free-for-all Christmas morning where everyone opens gifts as fast as they can, all at the same time. Exciting, yet a bit overwhelming.

We had a fabulous Christmas this year and appreciate our generous family and friends who have given us so many great gifts.

Grass in December !?!

I picked up some grass turf repair seed late in the season this year. I put some down in the back yard but didn't really notice much difference. I don't know why for sure but I decided to grow some grass in a pot. Manndi let me use the little purple pot. I planted the seed about a week ago and about two days ago there was green and WOW has it gone wild :D. See.

Christmas Traditions

We have been thinking about fun and meaningful family holiday traditions, trying to balance our own family celebrations with those of our parents. Right now we're still heavily involved with our parents, but that only encourages our creativity in developing our own traditions amid established holiday routines.

We head out Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, in the afternoon after all the terrific deals and zealous shoppers are exhausted. The Christmas tree goes up that same weekend - decorated with colored lights, a variety of treasured ornaments, and a star on the top. Some gifts are out under the tree all season and others come out on Christmas Eve as stocking gifts. Whether they are wrapped depends on the size - if it's too big or awkward, it just gets a ribbon. This year it so happens that we each have one wrapped and one unwrapped gift.

Stocking gifts come from mom and dad, not Santa. While we tell the Santa story, and Zeke is free to go whisper his Christmas wishes into that elfen ear, it's fiction. There is another true story that is much more important to tell -- about our Savior who was born and then died for us.

Christmas Day is about sharing the day with family: exchanging gifts, playing games, hanging out, and catching up. New Years is too. We go shopping for a new movie on New Year's Eve, then come home and watch it together. That tradition is truly our own, and developed almost by accident. New Year's Day is flying with Aaron's club in the morning and hanging out at home for the rest of the day.