As a family, Rory and I are still testing out new traditions and finding our place in the holiday season. His entire family on his mother's side (somewhere near 100 people, I think) all get together on Christmas Eve in West Covina, California. It's his family's tradition and while we had planned to celebrate with them this year (since we stayed in AZ last year), Rory decided that all the work and planning needed to get the three of us over there might dampen the whole spirit of the season. It was a tough decision--we LOVE going out there and being with all that family!
But we were thrilled with what ended up happening back here at home. Christmas Eve started off with a new tradition:
Matching Family Pj's! (It's hard to tell from the blurry camera, but we all had red Christmas greeting shirts (Dia's said, "Who needs Santa when you've got Grandma"--which Grandma loved) and black pajama pants. It was fun to get new pj's on Christmas Eve!) I stole the idea from a friend and, quick tip, don't head out to the stores a few days before Christmas looking for matching pj's, but we have fully adopted it as our own tradition and we all loved it. Even Rory got a kick out of it. It was fun--kind of felt like we had our own cool club, The Starks Family, and that Dia was not just born into our family but officially a part of something bigger than ourselves, our family. I know that's a lot to expect from pajamas, but what can I say. We had fun. :)
We then spent Christmas Eve as a family just the three of us opening up presents and eating Papa's homemade chili. It was a great time to really enjoy just being a family and we even set up the video camera to record all our merriment.
Rory and I had given each other our vacation in California last August as our Christmas present, so gave ourselves a small dollar amount with which we could use to fill each other's stocking. I totally went over the limit, but we had a lot of fun opening gifts from each other while Dia played with her first gift:
Dollhouse nursery furniture! It even came with a tiny baby. What she didn't know was that this furniture was for the dollhouse Grandma and Oma got her for Christmas that she would open up in morning. She didn't need the house, though, as you can see from the pics below. She went crazy when she opened up her "Bee be! Bee be!"
This is her saying "Cheese" ("Deeesh") for the camera
Her fascination with the dollhouse furniture (you can see the little baby doll in her hand in the pic above) kept her busy enough for Rory to open his gifts (a vanity plate for his work truck among other things) and give me a few beauties: the book The Alchemist (very new age, kind of like reading a novel version of the Dr. Bronner soap bottle, but I was still able to glean some wisdom from it and I really enjoyed it's encouragement to banish fear), a lot of great baking utensils (he tries to gift using a theme and this year it was kitchen accessories--you know the cool kitchen things you'd love to have but never take the time or money to buy for yourself?), but my most favorite gift of all, the one that brought the tears, is a photo book he made called "Mommy and Daughter." It's full of pictures of just Dia and me from her first year. If you're a mom, you know how rare it is to get shots of you with your beloveds--usually we're the ones behind the camera. So to get an entire book full of pictures of just the two of us made me feel like the luckiest mom ever.And after we were done with our sappy, Mama/Papa gift-giving (wink, wink), we brought out the big guns:
Her first baby doll and her first bike! Killer combo, let me tell you. We both hit this one out of the park. While all her gifts were obviously from both of us, the bike was a special project Ror worked on for her while I scoured the world wide web for the perfect baby doll. It's hard to tell from the pics, but she was floored with both gifts. And that last pic of D on the bike is EXACTLY how she rides it: one-handed, leaning back as far as she can go while holding her baby with the other hand. She reminds me of John Travolta's character in Grease! No idea why, but she has this motorcycle cool approach to her life that makes me laugh.Honestly, we could have ended right then and there and had the greatest Christmas ever. We both were shocked at how more special gift-giving was even just between the two of us. I was also convinced that no child really needs any more than two or three gifts at one time. It would have overwhelmed her and left with her little option than to feel out of sorts and act out. Which is kind of what happened the next morning...
When I picked out the "Who Needs Santa When You've Got Grandma" shirt, I wasn't joking. A huge part of my mother's love language is gift-giving. And by that I specifically mean giving Christmas gifts. She's addicted. Has been since I was very small. I've been trying to prep her all year in hopes that she would take the "less is more" attitude with her granddaughter.
For the most part it worked. She really only did buy the one "toy": the dollhouse with furniture and a doll family. BUT there were lots of other things for Dia to open like clothes, shoes (if Dia even sees the shoe section at the store she immediately shrieks "Shoes!" and wants to go right over to look closely at all of them), a purse, books and even two beautifully sentimental gifts she and my dad made. I need to post pictures of them but can't find my camera....For one, she and my dad made a bird feeder. A beautiful wood base with a nail standing up in the center to put apples or other fun bird food on that you hang from the roof or a tree. She painted it to say "Dia's Bird Feeder" and it's so special to have something that both her grandparents worked on together. I was touched. The other, well, the other was a project I had started but hadn't finished. She spent weeks finishing it for me (and Dia). I really need to post a picture to do it's justice. It's the most beautiful quilt made out of Dia's baby clothes. She even used the blood-stained blanket and towel that were the first things to hold her after she was born. It's just....beautiful. Perfect and beautiful and I cried and cried. Most of the onesies wore had cute organic-like sayings (since she only wore organic clothes the first 6 months of her life and those clothing options are rather limited) so the quilt is full of sayings like "Organic Baby," "Green is the new black," "Be friends with nature," etc. It's one of my most prized possessions and if Dia grows up feeling indifferently towards it, I'll count it a blessing and keep it forever for myself!
We did learn for next year, though, that too many presents left Dia unable to enjoy the moment, the people and even the gifts themselves. At one point I even wondered if that was the Jewish secret: eight nights, eight gifts, no temper tantrums! She never threw an actual tantrum, but for me, the day would have been just as beautiful if she spent it riding her bike and then playing with her dollhouse. There is a certain element, though, too of being the only grandchild/niece on both sides that keeps her constantly in the spotlight. While it's lots of fun, I think sometimes it might even add pressure to her little heart. We're learning and will keep you posted on how we handle these precious responsibilities of raising a daughter.
Overall we had the best Christmas of our lives, though. Family came to us this year (a major first) and so we served GF Banana-nut waffles, veggie frittatas and fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast. We had a lot of fun and are very grateful to my family for making the trek up here for Christmas morning. After naptime (Rory and Dia napped for close to 2 hours!!!), we went over to my aunt and uncle's to see my cousin in town from RISD and grandparents in town from Cali. We had a great time over there as well, but it will only get more fun for us as more of the family has little ones of their own. Dia really is the only baby, but she has great fun playing not only with all the adults, but the Jack Russell named Bella and Pekingese named Chin-Chin (who she calls "Mo" because it looks just like Oma and Opa's Pekingese named Mo).
Here are some more pics from the big day:
Not just any shoes--silver sparkly shoes that she LOVES
Leather bomber jacket--my two sisters dress her like she's their personal doll!
Her purse--complete with coin purse, of course
Oh! And they found this great bird book at Costco (it even makes all the bird noises and has numbers corresponding to each picture so that you can learn more about each bird) that they gave her with the bird feeder. She loves it--she's waving hi to the birds :)
This isn't from Christmas morning (obviously) but this is Dia's dollhouse--she loves it. We play with it at least once a day, usually she asks for it first thing when she wakes up. Thank you, Oma and Grandma!!!And what would Christmas morning be without one big surprise present? Dia wasn't the only one shrieking that day...My mom and dad gifted my sisters with their most prized possession to date. So fun! No wonder my mom is addicted!
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