The holidays are officially over. Growing up, the tradition was to put decorations up in early December and then take them down on or around January 6th, my birthday. It marked the end of the season for our family. I always liked the tradition – it allowed the Christmas season to linger long enough to really enjoy it, and then it would be capped off with birthday celebrations for me. Yay!
Dan and I continued this tradition all the way up until last year. Actually, there was barely any birthday celebration last year as I was home from the hospital only a couple of days earlier and was beyond exhausted from life with a very newborn baby. I was so exhausted, in fact, that the Christmas decorations stayed up until after my mom arrived in mid-January and took them down for us (this also explains why they were so neatly placed in the storage bins when we opened them this year – a far cry from the way we normally cram them in after the holidays).
So this year, both being of more sound mind than last year, we changed a few of our traditions. One was to take the decorations down on Decemebr 30th. I wanted to start a new tradition. Having a birthday 6 days after Christmas will always be rough on a kid (the New Years thing will only be cool later in life, I would imagine), and so we want to do the best we can to separate birthday from Christmas. People always tried to do that for me (most gave two separate presents when I was a kid, and when I was really lucky, one was actually wrapped in real birthday wrapping paper) but it still kinda sucked sometimes.
Having Jaia certainly brings a new perspective during the holidays. Christmas is never more special than when you can see it through the eyes of a child. And her head must be spinning. Celebrations and gifts started on the 22nd of December and have continued through to today when she opened up one last gift and ‘helped’ her mom open a few. She was definitely a spoiled little bean, thanks to all of her family and friends. (So was her mama, for that matter).
And though I love (love, love, love!) the holidays – now more than ever – I am thrilled that they are over for another year. The sickness, the travel, the non-stop activity, the planning and the preparation were all so taxing. I had a blast (mostly, could have done without the vomitting), but I do not feel well rested. It’s funny that I’m looking forward to life getting back to normal so that I can catch my breath and finally relax.
