Life in England: "The Best Christmas Ever!"

For Jackson, it was indeed his "best Christmas ever" since he announced this twice while opening his presents this year. Each year gets more and more exciting as we watch Jackson's reaction to Christmas. The entire month of December is just one big bundle of giddiness and I think that's one reason parents are so exhausted once all the presents have been opened. One month's worth of pent-up anxious anticipation builds until that morning and then after about 25 minutes, everyone begins to finally relax.

Since we couldn't go out as much this year, we made some new traditions at home during Advent. We built a Pop-Tart house (in place of a gingerbread house) with Jackson. He even ate the entire construction himself! We also made Christmas cut-out cookies, peanut butter fudge, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Jackson did some crafting and made his teacher and teaching assistant beaded wreath ornaments and sock snowmen. I was impressed by the attention to detail he gave to the placement of the accessories and how carefully he chose the little extras to match what his teachers would like. And lastly, Jackson can write his name very neatly now so he even signed all of his friends' Christmas cards!

Little Freddie turned three-months-old on December 18th. (He'll be turning 15 weeks old this Friday.) He weighed 16 pounds that day and just two days before that, he rolled over--from his front to his back--for the first time. He is currently trying to roll from his back to his front, but this is proving to be a bit more difficult. I think he's worried about how he's going to stick the landing. Also, Freddie decided that he was going to sleep for a five-hour stretch two nights in a row to celebrate turning three months. We were very proud of him for his big accomplishments--and still, for being a fantastically happy, smiley baby.

Jackson's class made a video of the very first Christmas and Jackson had the role of playing one of the three wise men--the one with the gold, of course. This was in place of a live nativity but in my opinion, it's better because we can watch it over and over; whereas, the ones at school are only seen once and you have to hope that you get a good seat and that you can hear your child's line over the whispering and coughing of the other audience members. After Lee and I watched the video, I said, "Wow! Jackson, you were the star of the show!" But Jackson had the right response: "No I wasn't; Jesus was the star."

To keep Jackson occupied during his days off of school, we practised his spelling. I laid out letter tiles for him to form words--which I was expecting three-letter words that he has shown me before. He decided that he wanted to spell the word 'insect' and I let him try, although I thought it was going to be too hard. Low and behold, without any help, Jackson laid out i-n-s-e-c-t! I let him have a break (and some chocolate) after that.

Other than some learning games, I also tried to teach Jackson some Christmas carols. For fun, I left out words of The Twelve Days of Christmas to see what he would fill-in. In Jackson's version, there are "eight maids of courage" and "two turtle ducks."

Leading up to Christmas, Jackson received an early present from stage school. He was the only one chosen in his class to receive the trophy for Outstanding Achievement! We always knew he was quite the entertainer, but it's nice that his drama teachers recognise this, too.

And then, all of a sudden, it was here: Christmas! We were surprised when Jackson came into our room at 8:15 since we expected to see him around 5 A.M. When we said that he had slept in, he told us that he had been waiting in his bed until there wasn't "any dark left" because he was worried that Santa might still be here.

Then Jackson told Lee and I that he heard "three thuds" on the roof during the night. I said, "I didn't hear anything." Jackson said, "Well, you should have been awake then. Hey! I thought Santa was supposed to know when we are awake and when we are asleep and he came when I was awake." I guess he was a pretty convincing fake-sleeper.

Freddie stayed awake just until his last present was opened and then he was out like a light. He took a nice long nap which allowed me to make breakfast (French toast, bacon, eggs, and hot chocolate) for everyone. I guess even Freddie was feeling exhausted after all of that built-up anticipation.

Once all of the presents had been unwrapped, Jackson said, "I didn't get any presents." I said, "Jackson, you got lots of presents." He sadly replied, "No, I didn't get any presents for you, Dad, or Fred." I told him that the only things we need are him and Freddie.

Jackson was reflecting on the presents he got from Santa this year and he said, "Usually, Santa only gives kids one present, but I guess I was the exception." Lee and I were shocked by his correct usage of the word 'exception'!

At the end of the day after story time, when I tucked him into bed, I asked Jackson what his favourite part of the day was to which he replied, "Opening presents." And then, after a few seconds, he followed that with, "And the thuds."