When I think back to this week I always refer back to the joy and happiness of my first Christmas as a Mom. I remember Steve who was 3 lying under the tree looking up at the lights. There was many nights that we would get up to check on the kids and the Christmas tree would be on and Steve was just curled up under it like our cat does. I know that he had a very hard young life and so we wanted this to be an absolutely amazing Christmas for him.
I will admit we did go a bit over board that year. We wanted the boys first Christmas with us to be memorable not even considering they were all so young they would not even remember it. When it was time for Christmas Eve we all sat around and watched a Christmas movie or two drank hot chocolate, ate some snacks and opened one present. When I was growing up we would always get to open a gift and it was always Christmas pajamas and I wanted to start that tradition with our kids too.
When the kids went to sleep that night there were no presents under the tree and when they woke up on Christmas morning there was a pile taller than George and most likely taller than Steve. You could tell that the kids never really have a Christmas memory because we actually had to wake them up. Now we expected that with George I mean he was only one but we really expected Steve to be up at the crack of dawn. When we went in and said that Santa came they still had no clue but when they turned that corner and saw the mounds of presents their eyes lit up and Steve asked who they were all for. When we told them that they had presents under there and hey look Santa left presents and your stockings over by the fireplace the smile on their faces was priceless.
I know my husband and I got the most out of that Christmas because they don’t remember but we do and it makes us smile every time we think about it. When our kids come rushing in before sunrise now we think “ Oh what did we start” .