'Tis the Season

I am SO in the Christmas spirit, complete with Charlie Brown music streaming in a loop in my head. After a week of walking around the neighborhood to look for decorated houses, I decided it was time to stop being a loser house with no lights up. So Wednesday night after dinner we headed to the store to pick up some lights and see if we could find a decent tree. I have an artificial one, but I want WeiJ's first Christmas to be magical and there's just something special about having a real tree. It didn't dawn on me until I went to get one that it's been YEARS since I've had one! Anyway, we were too late on Wednesday to get one but I got some lights so I was able to get started on the front yard on Thursday after work. I got to spend a good productive hour outside, thanks to a neighbor boy who dropped by to ask about - and then play with - Wei J. And then Thursday evening, GongGong bought us WeiJ's first Christmas tree! Yay!

I strung the lights as soon as we got home. I turned off most of the other lights in the house before I plugged them in so WeiJ could get the full effect...and between the big smile, wide eyes, and the "mmmmmm" sound he made, he was properly dazzled. :) We spent about an hour decorating the tree together. I thought he was content just going through a box of ornaments and pulling out the ones that interested him, but then I saw the section of the tree where he was laying his chosen treasures on the branches. Yes, lots of tears welled up at that. Just like when he gave me that sweet, casual "byebye, Mama" like he'd been saying it forever, here he was putting little decorations on a tree inside the house like it was something natural and expected, something we've done for years. All I could do was shake my head and then give him a great big squeeze. After we were finished, I turned off the rest of the house lights and we sat on the floor with him in my lap to admire our beautiful tree. I'm still overwhelmed that I'm actually living these moments.