The 12+ Days of Christmas

As last year's Christmas was decidedly unrelaxing, with the city on lockdown from Snopocalypse, and kind of a letdown, with Finn's total ambivalence toward his gifts, we had high expectations for this year.   As previously noted, we got an early start on Christmas, having picked up the Christmas tree just after Columbus Day.

Due to concerns about our household of demolition experts, equally dangerous in the arts of breaking stuff and flooding stuff, I would have been happy not decorating the tree at all, surrounding it with furniture and only looking at pictures of it on my phone.  However Mema was going to be in town so that just wouldn't have been appropriate.  Instead, we waited until the absolute last minute to decorate it.  And by "decorate it," I mean localizing all delicate ornaments in the top half of the tree.  Note the soft/unbreakable items hanging on the lower branches in the pic above.

The weather gods smiled upon up this year and it was a beautiful weekend in Seattle and a great time to check out West Seattle's insane Christmas light displays, including some of soon-to-be national renown.  In fact, we've spent so much time checking them out, that I'm not sure what I'm going to tell Finn next week when he starts his nightly call for "eh-eh liiiights."  Maybe I'll tell him we're now Jewish.

It was an all around fantastic holiday and as I now wait for our Christmas tree to drop its last needle before I finally get up the energy to carry it to the curb, it's time to look back at the highlights:

1. Christmas lights!  If you haven't clicked the link above, there are seriously some amazing displays in West Seattle - from the Menashe's to the house with the FM broadcast.  And nothing gives Finn the opportunity to point our how much yellow is in the world as Christmas lights do.  
2. Yellow!  Turns out, in Finn's world, everything is yellow (LAH-lo).  Though to be fair, he's starting to get better at identifying the other colors.  Of course, he might just be memorizing every light on the tree.
3. Presents!  MUCH better reception this year for presents, though I've found out that it doesn't take much to bring back the unpatience you felt opening a present as a child. Finn unwraps presents in fingernail sized pieces.  I had to step in.
4. Presents!  Did I mention this one yet?  It turns out that I also like putting stuff together. It makes me feel useful and it works out the coffee.  I know I'm going to regret ever admitting this.

But perhaps the single most astonishing thing about this Christmas?  I was able to get all of the wrapping paper, packaging and trash into a single load, which was picked up today.  AMAZING!

Also amazing?  The fact that neither Kitty nor I noticed that daycare was closed this week.  Luckily, this was caught just prior to our dropping Finn off this morning - something I typically don't even come to a complete stop in the car for, so that's... lucky.

Christmas with a soon-to-be two-year-old?  Expensive.
Finding out that you've all got one more week together, without any work/daycare/baseball to hide behind?  Priceless.

Happy holidays!