It's after midnight and Santa isn't going to be here unless I get to work! Nevertheless, I wanted to share some traditions that we follow on the night before Christmas (even though we don't celebrate the official holiday).
First, we make cookies and tea for Santa. Priya decorated the cookies (I'm looking forward to eating them!).
Then we set the table up with the tea and cookies (usually in our Santa plate, where is it this year?
Then we read our favorite holiday books, even though they are all getting to be a bit young for the kids.
Finally, before bedtime, I take the reindeer's snack outside and spread it on the ground. The reindeers get roughcut oatmeal for endurance, and a bit of brown sugar for a quick start. This year Priya didn't want to watch, because she didn't get in bed until nearly Midnight! She believes that Santa arrives shortly after midnight.
So, when the kids were a bit younger, my neighbor or I would stand outside the kids windows saying, "Ho Ho Ho", or "Merry Christmas". We have also left shoes out for candy, but it didn't go over very well.
The entire day is full of these activities, hot chocolate, fun movies and usually visiting with friends. This year I hurt my back and so we stayed home. Also, because Ravi and Lakshmi are not with us on the night before Christmas, we have created our own tradition of just the two of us. My parents wanted us to come to be with them, but I realized that Priya's tradition shouldn't be uprooted.
Hope you enjoyed the photos, and I'm wishing you a very happy holiday...from work, from daily household care, from the humdrum of driving kids everywhere, and homework, and of course from the fighting siblings. I can't say enough what peppermint does to soothe the nerves of my kids, but especially of me. I hung 12 candy canes on the tree, and I've already let Priya have two of them, just so I could withstand her excitability. I realized about 10am today that Priya was literally just hanging on until bedtime. She was bouncing, wiggling, running circles around me, and talking 90 to nothing. And because she is adopted, I think there is always something uncertain about the holidays, especially with the thought of a big man with white hair, in a red suit, just showing up at our house in the middle of the night.
2 comments:
Merry Christmas to you and your family - Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings. I like your Christmas tradition. Like your family, ours is purely secular and I'm trying to figure out how to celebrate as Aidan gets older. Next year I'll have to decorate the apartment!
Hi Amy,
I'm still trying to figure out how to celebrate Christmas with the kids, without beliving in the faith. It's not easy to celebrate the holiday, and it's not easy to not celebrate. It is a holiday so engrained in our culture. And it is a money spending holiday. During Christmas, everyone assumed that everyone else is a Christian if they celebrate. Okay, I'm in the south, and I realize we will have some cultural differences, since you are near San Fran.
But you may want to think about how you are going to go about remaining the way you are, how you celebrate your own faith, if you do, and incorporating a Christian holiday into the mix.
I wish you the best, and I know you will find a way to continue honoring your own tradition and still have fun during this holiday. That's what I am trying to do, especially to teach tolerance to my children.
Jyotsna
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