First Christmas

In a way it's hard for me to believe that this is Jonas' first Christmas. It feels like he's been with us for so long, that he must have been here last December, right? Well, literally speaking, he was here, just not on "the outside". Nevertheless, it was an exciting Christmas. I knew it was going to be low-key, i.e. just the three of us, excuse me, four of us, (sorry Ginger) at home, but it certainly wasn't uneventful.

After a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Jonas settled in for a nice long sleep until 7:30 the next morning. Enjoy this, I told myself. In a few years you'll probably be finishing the opening of the presents by this time. We got up, had a leisurely breakfast, and--miracle of all miracle--went to church. The funniest part about church, besides the crowd of 12 people, including 2 other babies/toddlers, was the moment when Jonas seemed to wake up to what the minister was saying. All of a sudden in a resounding "outside voice" Jonas squawked, "blah, blah, blah, blah, blahhhhhhh." Maybe I'm the only one who sees the irony in this, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Present opening was next on the agenda. At ten months Jonas was often way more interested in the bow or the wrapping paper than the gift itself. I'd estimate that he opened about half of his gifts, himself. Then, he snuck off behind the sofa where I had hidden his new bike. Just as I noticed he had disappeared, he screamed with glee and I heard the sound of wheels beginning to roll across our hardwoods.

He wasn't squealing because he was thrilled to have found a bike, just that this thing had WHEELS and that it MOVED. I pushed Jonas on the bike closer to the tree, where we had been opening presents. He was so excited I thought he was going to explode. He yanked at the ribbons on the bike and pushed the bike over on its side, running his chubby digits over the wooden "downtube", which is a bit of a misnomer since the bike's so small, it's like it really only has a top tube. He spent the next ten minutes spinning the wheels and laughing as they turned. Jonas was hooked.


Maybe someday he'll appreciate that a bike offers greater function that a mere thing that has wheels you can spin, but for now he's content.

After that, he started to fade a little, so we opened his gifts and showed them all to him. Ginger got in on the action too. She brought her crunchy over to us and begged any of us to steal it away from her. Jonas obliged, as usual.

We took a family walk making use of Jonas' "new" Kelty kid carrier backpack. He loved it. I think he especially loved being up so high.

I don't think he was especially thrilled here, but this is before Joe actually put the pack on. This photo reminds me of little Randy from The Christmas Story.

Our day drew to a close with a scrumptious dinner of ravioli, homemade sauce, and a salad with pears, figs and goat cheese (yummmm). Jonas enjoyed something a little less exotic in flavor. Something like sweet potatoes and apples, but he was happy all the same. It was the perfect way to end a very special day.