Had a Holly Jolly Christmas

Although Super doesn't understand Christmas, we still had a wonderful holiday. I felt a little bad for him when everyone asked if Santa brought him something and he just looked back with a blank stare. No, I don't really mention Santa and we totally forgot stockings this year, I don't read Christmas books and I don't know the words to most of the carols (which doesn't stop me from belting them out as loud as I can while assembling my Nativity scene). It's not that I'm not in the Christmas spirit, I honestly don't care about Santa and his little fictional elves and flying reindeer. I think the red suit and long beard are creepy and the "ho, ho, ho" has really been lost on me my entire life (we tried to get pictures of Super with Santa and he was NOT having it, even though "Santa" was a familiar person). As a second child, my Santa belief was crushed very early on and since my parents didn't really care about keeping the illusion up either, I guess it is something that just stays in family. However, he does know that we give gifts to each other to celebrate Christ and he really knows that grandmas spoil with lots and lots of paper covered presents. In my family, we traditionally eat a huge dinner and open our gifts on Christmas Eve and open our stockings the next morning from "Santa" (we even used those quote marks as kids). Stockings include things like shampoo, candy and other random small items that can be useful with some fun stuff mixed in. We get our stockings, rummage through it, eat a bunch of candy and play with the toys we got the night before. None of us had to get up early, no one needed to cook (candy was the usual breakfast) and we loved it. The reason it is done like this is my mother and father didn't want to get up at 6am for presents and then spend all Christmas day cooking a big meal and listening to us complain that we were bored. After we all got old enough it was family trips to the movies. However, my husbands family does the more traditional Christmas morning openings which, to be perfectly honest, I hate. I LIKE to sleep in (which I can't do with a toddler ) and so does my husband. Waiting until noon or 1pm to open gifts sucks! Especially since we let Super open the gifts from my parents on Christmas Eve, what did he want to do the next day? Open the rest of them. How do you get a 2 year old to wait patiently? You don't. He opened all the rest of his gifts before his father peaked through his eyelids. I don't like yelling at my husband to get up, nor do I enjoy the feelings of frustration and anger I have toward him because I'm in the one dealing with the small child and he is sleeping ever so peacefully. Next year, I'm sticking to my traditions and Danny can either come along with the fun or do his thing alone while I'm off having a Christmas morning Starbucks and playing with the kids toys. Maybe next year Hunter will be old enough to take to the movies! Hunter loved the little computer he got and this little refrigerator magnet set that has a little fridge and food magnets that sing at you (I'm totally going to get my sister back for that one). The computer is still used all the time, either for a step stool or just play time and we hid most of the other stuff so we didn't have to listen to it even though he does find it and someone keeps putting all the pieces back in one spot. Over all, I do love Christmas and I hope to pass that love onto my son.