It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Waving to Santa as he circles the Christmas tree in his train

As most of you know, Christmas is my hands-down favorite time of the year for a multitude of reasons. In fact, before the last remnants of my Thanksgiving meal have fully digested, I am already making preparations for the holiday season to come. This year I am doubly blessed during this time of year, as I finally have a willing cohort in all my holiday hijinx—you guessed it: Miss Ava Brooklyn Smith. She has embraced Christmas with a gusto I hadn’t actually expected. Not just the typical Santa excitement, but every single aspect of the yuletide. Let me expound upon a few such happy moments between Christmas-crazed mother and daughter.

Making the tree beautiful

Perhaps my favorite tradition to share with Ava was the time-honored ritual of decorating the Christmas tree. (Note: last year, since it was our first Christmas in the new house, Erik lowered himself to allow me to purchase a live tree, which in my opinion is the only tree worth having; however, his allowance came with a price; namely, that every year thereafter we must use an artificial tree.) I, however, have refused to let this transgression dampen my spirits in any way. Moving on….

Ava literally vibrated with anticipation as I unpacked the ornaments and other decorations for our tree. She had personally selected some shatter-proof balls at K-Mart to add to our collection, and she could barely wait for me to attach the hooks. You may not be able to tell in the pictures, but the entire bottom section of the tree is fully ringed with these beautiful blue, red, and silver balls. All courtesy of Ava’s hard work. I focused on the upper levels of the tree, and between the two of us we are quite pleased with the result. Still, I will forever cherish the memory of my little daughter meticulously selecting her ornaments and finding just the right spot for them. Priceless!

Posing with our masterpiece (ignore my pants, please, there is no excuse!)

Next we tackled Christmas cookies. Ava saw a commercial for Betty Crocker sugar cookies on TV that featured Santa, so naturally she simply had to make some herself. Thus, we duly armed ourselves with a package of the very same Betty Crocker sugar cookies, plus icing and a variety of holiday sprinkles. After assuring Erik that making a mess was all part of the process (even if our cookies weren’t entirely homemade), we dove right into the project.

And Ava? She mixed dough. She rolled said dough into balls. She arranged said balls on the cookie sheet. She (with a bit of help here) added icing to the completed cookies. She sprinkled to her little heart’s desire to finish the cookies. She smiled her beautiful smile. What a wonderful way to start our cookie tradition!

Lastly, I want to share a moment that occurred as Ava and I were unpacking the Nativity scene. She is quite familiar with this story, as last year Mimi and Papaw got her a Fischer Price Nativity set that she plays with year round. Her favorite piece? Baby Jesus, of course! Our actual Nativity scene—as you can imagine—is quite breakable, a fact I was trying to impress upon my little adult. She simply couldn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to play with these pieces like she did with her own. As gently as I could, I pried away Mary, then Joseph, then the wise men, and finally the various animals. As I did so, Ava vehemently clutched the breakable Baby Jesus in her tiny fist. Her mouth set firmly, her eyes daring me to try it—just try it. Finally I broke the silence.

Mommy: Ava, honey, I’m going to need to add the Baby Jesus to our Nativity scene.

Ava: Mommy, you can’t do that to me! PLEASE DON’T TAKE THE BABY JESUS AWAY FROM ME! I need the Baby Jesus! I LOVE the Baby Jesus!

This was said in such a desperate pleading voice that I went against my strong Catholic tendencies and let her play with the Baby Jesus. And you know what? She didn’t so much as chip the little figurine.

Ah—I love miracles at Christmas time!