O' Christmas Bea

I have to confess to having only the weakest Christmas spirit in years past. I associate Christmas with 1) presents 2) my mom's furious scrubbing of her already immaculate house 3) my mom cooking and complaining about having to cook because no one appreciates it 4) the gross chocolate apple cake my mom baked every year that I most certainly did not appreciate and 5) staying home from school and watching Jenny Jones all day. I just never felt the magic as a kid, and being that I had two somewhat mean-spirited and under policed older sisters, I was disabused of any notion of Santa before I ever remember believing. 



Alden and I have spent six Christmases together and most of the time declined to buy one another gifts because his birthday is six weeks before the big day and mine is just four weeks after. It's been pretty much a nonevent around here. Last year was particularly sad. Two of our three cats had just died in quick succession, the second just seven days before Christmas and I was too pregnant to do anything. We went on a short walk in the park on Christmas eve and then just crashed out at home. I was gigantic, miserable and lonely.

This year, we're seeking to make things special for Bea and ourselves. We've put lights in the jade lining our front porch and the day after Thanksgiving we bought a live cypress tree to put on our dining room table up where Bea couldn't choke on the ornaments, some of which are store bought and some of which are handmade (if you notice the Bernie and Muffy ornaments pictured above).



Bea doesn't care about presents yet, but we bought some stuff that we were gonna buy anyway -- books and such -- and are going to wrap them up and put them under the tree. We picked up a snow globe and a dancing chipmunk that screeches "I'm Getting Nuttin' For Christmas" while swinging an acorn to and fro like an axe -- both of which delight Bea to no end. I try not to buy useless shit (I think of WALL·E picking that poor chipmunk out of a landfill in 100 years and storing it in his little robot hole), but I figure we can pull those every year for just a little extra Christmas whimsy. We even took her to the mall last weekend and got her picture with Santa nice and early before there was a line.



I've been working on sewing an advent calendar based on my friend Annie's aunt's model, and of course, pics to come when I finally get that figured out (I attempted to sew it last night out of fleece, but I realized I need to stick to the felt that Annie's aunt used). Instead of my advent calendar, please enjoy a few pics of Bea in her holiday frock on Thanksgiving that we took before her fever spiked:


In short, we're trying really hard to establish some traditions and a general sense of merriment about the holidays despite the fact that we spent Thanksgiving in the ER (okay, an overstatement -- we were only there for an hour and she's fine now) and Alden and I have no existing traditions to build upon. Being that we're 100% secular, this child needs some magic in her life and god fucking dammit! I'm gonna come up with some joyous traditions.

jjk