My Christmas Carol

My ghosts of Christmas past, present and future have been flitting about in the background all month long. I think often back to my Christmas post of how sad I was to decorate my home all by my lonesome and how different my world has become in a short two years. I remember how happy I was decorating Christmas 2011...I couldn't let go of how exciting it was to trim a tree with two wee babies growing inside me. My Christmas dreams of a happy family celebrating a jam-packed season were finally unfolding. I dithered this year about decorating. I knew I wanted to and I also knew that two extremely curious and somewhat mischievous twins would have their hands all over everything. I finally settled on all the decor displayed all month long with the exception of a Christmas tree. I'm not going entirely Grinch here, as tonight we'll put up what Bryan has dubbed our first Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I knew deep down inside that the exuberant Laith and Vivienne would be too much for my sanity and keeping two sets of hands off a tree was something I was not going to put ourselves through. Why spend most of the month of Christmas upset about ornaments on a tree? I also had the stroke of brilliance to set up our tiny tree in our guest room. Currently this room is used for all sorts of crafts and I've set up the baby gate to keep the twins out and me in. Our set up works decent enough, as no one has yet figured out how to climb over the gate into my hidey hole. I figured the tree could reside behind the gate for all to see and clamor at yet keep the ornaments where my OCD brain needs them...on the tree.

Ghost of Christmas past has also come to visit while present shopping. The excitement that has been generated in our hearts is more than I could've wished for. I know Laith and Vivienne may not entirely understand present opening, or the enormous amount of time & energy put into a particular gift, or the reason of this holiday season. Yet we've been given the wonderful opportunity to lay the foundations for many happy Christmases to come.

Ghost of Christmas present taps my shoulder often. When making Christmas treats, Laith rushed his truck over, climbed atop to the highest part of that truck and set to work helping me. At least he thought tipping the can of evaporated milk over was helping....twice. He also grabbed at chocolate covered spoons, empty boxes of Nilla wafers and sampled a few treats before deciding his help was no longer necessary. He then went to work driving his trucks on the kitchen floor. Meanwhile, Vivienne kept up a running jibber-jabber, walking circles around our entry and through the kitchen, giving me the most darling smiles a mommy could hope for. I've planned to deliver our home-made goodies to our neighbors tomorrow night. I've got grand dreams of two little helpers, decked out in their winter hats knitted by Ginger Nannie, holding a parent's hand each and knocking on neighbors' doors. Thankfully we deliver to just a handful of neighbors that all live within a four house block, so my idea may just work.

Ghost of Christmas present also smiles when I sing carols with the twins. Vivienne's ever watchful eyes sparkle with happiness, as I can see she is stowing the words and tunes in her head. She still dances like crazy but she has now added singing to her repertoire. I love listening to her sing along to Outdoors by Jason Mraz on Sesame Street. There's a part where Elmo sings really high and Vivienne matches his octave. We've watched Elf several times this season and the original cartoon Grinch. I wonder what will be their favorites later in life. I caught the end of Bundle of Joy and smiled at memories of watching this movie at Grandma & Grandpa Garrett's house. Will the twins love the old flicks like we did as kids? I have a hunch they will...mostly because it will be force fed while they're too young to realize it's not 'cool'.

Ghost of Christmas future may be a little foggy, yet I know he's been here too. There have been several traditions we'd like to do yet know the twins are a little too young still, like eating at a fancy restaurant to watch the Christmas boats float by or catching the steam locomotive for a short ride into Portland. Their current time span of interest is far too short. However in just another short year (or maybe two) we'll be able to do any Christmas tradition we set our minds to. I've loved where the Ghosts of Christmas have taken me this year and thank my lucky stars every evening for having been blessed with the sweetest two souls ever.

Thankfulness