Sunday, December 21, 2014

Unforgettable Christmas

I love Christmas. It's a great holiday! The only reason I have been doing my "Forgotten Holiday" series is because there are seven holidays that get lost in the power of Christmas. Even if you don't actually celebrate Christmas, you can't forget about it.

If you celebrate Christmas you probably have a favorite memory or Christmas thing. My favorite is Angels. However, I do love almost anything that is a symbol of Christmas. I like to say there are two types of Christmas, the commercial Christmas and the religious Christmas. Most people use a mix of both. After Zach was born I have found myself more drawn to the Nativity, Angels, and Star of Bethlehem that represent the religious side of Christmas. Perhaps it's because one of my strongest childhood Christmas memories is playing Mary in the church Pageant at 13.

This particular Christmas marks a marriage milestone. For ten years Josh's Mom, Josh's Aunt and I have had a running joke about the Spitzbuban recipe. It's from Josh's Dad's side of the family. Josh's Aunt didn't give the recipe to his Mom until his parents were married for ten years. I got the recipe on our Anniversary this past October. It's delicious and Josh's favorite. But it's hard to make so his Mom just makes one batch. This year, I made my first batch.

I saved the very first one for Josh. Both Josh and his Dad agree that it tastes like Josh's Mom makes them. She was impressed too. That's apparently hard to do on the first try. Josh got a small tin of nothing but Spitzbuban's just for him! Zach loves these cookies too and was also happy to see I made them. We have a small tin for when we see his Aunt on Christmas Eve. I know she'll be proud of me. She almost caved and gave the recipe to me early the last few years. But I'm glad we waited for the ten year mark. It makes it special. It will make this Christmas unforgettable for both me and Josh.

In December, you can't turn around without seeing something for Christmas. For me that's actually literal. My December house decorations are all about Christmas. But I also carry those decorations with me in a way. You might remember that I started making jewelry with embroidery thread this past summer. It was a teenage hobby I have rediscovered. Most of the bracelets I have made for myself are for the months and the seasons. My seasonal bracelets have four colors, one for the whole season and one for each of the months. The monthly bracelets have two colors. The first is that color for that month in the seasonal bracelet. The other represents some other monthly theme. I am looking at the red and green for December as I type this.

Christmas is unforgettable. I still see people with Christmas decorations up in March each year! Even if you don't celebrate Christmas there is probably some experience you had or something you saw that you won't forget. If you're a small child, you are probably just having those experiences. My unforgettable Christmas was Zach's first. He was six month's old.

It wasn't actually Christmas yet. Since he was a baby, we decided to put the presents under the tree after they were wrapped. That proved to be the motivation Zach needed to learn how to crawl. It started with him pushing backwards. Eventually, he also learned how to push himself around into a different direction before pushing himself backwards. When I caught him, I would put him back in his play gym. On one attempt he pushed himself backwards between the L shaped couch and the coffee table. Eventually, he made it and started with the bag in the below picture.


Our first day with the Tree. This is when it was lit that night.

His first attempt to crawl

Ironic that his first bag said "Dear Santa, Define good"

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