Still A Kid At Christmas

 When Zach was 5, he asked if Santa is real. I told him the truth. No, Santa isn't real but, St. Nicholas is. Then I taught him about St. Nicholas. We also talked about not telling his Kindergarten classmates. He did, it was a thing. The same thing happened in first grade. Again it was a thing after he told his classmates. He had tried to just stay quiet but, a classmate put him in a tough spot. Here he is a sixth grader and those moms still shut me out of their click. They are nice to me. But, I'm not "one of them".  Luckily, I don't have that problem with mom friends with kids that came from other elementary schools. 

When he was in 3rd grade he wanted to help put the presents under the tree on Christmas Eve. He still wanted to leave the cookies out for Santa. But, he also knew his dad was the one eating them. As a 6th grader, he has already called dibs on being the "I make the gift piles" person. He is also looking forward to another tradition we have on Christmas Eve. 

When he was a baby, Josh's sister suggested he open his gifts from her on Christmas Eve so he wouldn't be overwhelmed on Christmas Day. Ever since we all open her gifts on Christmas Eve as a preview of the coming morning. Zach is already talking about how excited he is for that. 

When he was 5 months old we set up his first Christmas tree. He turned 6 months old shortly after. The tree lit up and so did he. That year, I thought we could get away with putting the wrapped gifts under the tree. After all, he couldn't crawl yet and didn't know what they are yet. So, Zach was up to the challenge. See, that's the month he learned how to crawl. He started by pushing himself backwards into things. But, it only took From November 28, 2009 - December 9, 2009 for him to figure out how to crawl over to those gifts and start exploring those gift bags. That is my favorite Zach Christmas story ever!

November 28, 2009 Day tree was set up 5 months 3 weeks and 2 days old

November 29, 2009 1 day later he starts figuring out how to crawl by pushing himself backwards

                                                       

December 9, 2009 6 months 4 days old. Yup, he crawled over there all by himself. 11 days later! Is that a learning to crawl record?

A few years ago we started wrapping the gifts early with Zach's help. We do four gifts for each of us that we know about and one surprise for each of us. Zach and I are horrible at keeping secrets. Josh is lucky that I have not burst and told him his surprise gift is a Candy Crush gift set with a "advanced playing guide", t-shirt, coloring book, and some candy. He does know about the M&Ms but, he doesn't know what else is in the set or the theme. I hope he doesn't read this until after Christmas morning! I'll warn him to skip the red part if he does read it before then. If you know him, Shhh don't tell! He handles the surprises for Zach and me. 

We usually go to a Christmas Eve party at my in-law's. Clearly that isn't happening this year. But, weather permitting, we are going to try an outside distance chat during Zach's vacation week. My parents come for breakfast on Christmas morning. We started that Zach's first Christmas. There is something special about a kid on Christmas morning. I wanted to share it with them. They  still come and will this year. We have been quarantining together. For dinner, we go to their house Christmas Day. 

These are all traditions Zach still loves. He was never bothered learning the truth about Santa. Mainly because St. Nicholas was real. Instead, he has enjoyed taking part in the parent part of Christmas. He likes being in charge of Christmas. He has been enjoying advent and our tradition of saying things that have brought us whatever the theme of that week is. Hope week 1, Peace week 2, Joy week 3 and Love week 4 starts today. It's fun watching him be a bundle of "X amount of days until Christmas" and smiling so often. He's 11. He is still a kid at Christmas. Even with the modification for this year he is enjoying himself the way he should.