Christmas Past

My son is not materialistic. At least, not yet. This Christmas was his third. His first Christmas was in 2008 and he was nine months old. Obviously, he didn’t understand much and we pretty much opened his presents for him. A year later in 2009, he was a year and nine months. And it was more or less the same scenario. He had received a lot of presents and we decided we wouldn’t give him one and save it for next year. It was a book on automobiles. And since it was still a little old for him, we stored it away, fully wrapped, in our gift-giving box. That is the one where we have purchased items and when the need arises, we have a gift.


So this year, as we were preparing for Christmas, we knew that our son already had one gift. And this Christmas would be fun, as he would have the base concept of opening presents and giving them to the proper recipients.

We got him some more books. He really likes books. He can sit for twenty or so minutes just observing the pictures on the pages. It has sort of become a ritual in the morning that after he wakes up, he wants to stay in his crib bed and “read” four or five books before signaling he is ready for the day. That signal is a loud and determined “UP”.

This year, Christmas 2010, was spent at the grandparent’s house. Our son had a really good time. Some of his adventures included turning the light switches on and off, jingling the Christmas bells that were hanging on the doorknobs, opening and closing the doors, you know, the good stuff. I think his favorite pastime was running down the hall and yelling. Nana and Papa would act startled and they would all laugh and laugh. Some things never get old.

Christmas morning, I get my son up and he runs down the hall to the front room. It is there that he sees a present on the table by the tree. He looks at it and then bangs on it like a drum. Ironically, the present was for him and it was a drum. My boy is brilliant. From there on out, he was not so interested in opening more presents and the family ended up opening most of his. He just likes to play. He was most excited by the crinkly gift confetti and the red tinsel that came in gift bags. He also enjoyed the tubes from paper towel rolls.

Turns out, he still has that automobile book wrapped and ready for next year. A water bottle and a baseball mitt now join the book. Maybe next year.

For now, he isn’t caught up with the quantity of gifts and the selfishness that can come with them. It is nice to see. Wish I could be content with a paper towel roll.