This was a weird holiday for us. Last year, Rudy was a newborn so the holidays flew by without us even noticing. I actually think we even forgot to decorate for Christmas. Still, she was so young that we were able to take her to parties or shops or even the Christmas Market and she would just sleep.
This year, we found that Rudy is too old for us to upset her routine by just taking her everywhere with us and yet, she's still a little young to get excited about the magic of the holidays. That leaves us in a weird transitional year where we "celebrate" the holidays with a toddler who would prefer that we let her climb the sofa instead of trying to get her to point out Santa in yet another book.
That's not to say that this hasn't been an amazing couple of weeks. Seeing things through the eyes of a toddler has filled our days with laughter and wonder. We've also been working on beginning some family traditions. Here's a peek at a few:
We celebrated Rudy's birthday early so that would could decorate for Hanukkah and Christmas. We put her regular books away and filled her bookshelves with holiday themed books.
Rudy carefully helped to light the Hanukkah candles each night.
We extended bedtime one cold night so that we go for a late evening walk with Rudy and the dogs to enjoy the lights in the neighbourhood.
We visited Santa. Corey teased me because I was so focused on pointing out Santa in books (I would point to pictures and ask "Who's this?" so that Rudy wouldn't be frightened when she met him.) that he joked that she would wake up from naps shouting "Santa! The answer is Santa!"
We baked cookies together as a family.
We visited the Christmas window displays at the Eaton Centre.
We had a traditional Christmas morning of opening stockings and presents. Rudy received some lovely gifts but we could have just given her an old box, a plastic Perrier bottle and an empty medicine container, since those are her favourite toys right now.
And once Rudy was in bed, Corey and I watched movies (and binge watched legal dramas) while I worked on crafts.
We stayed in more this year and it was very different but still peaceful and lovely. We have a lot to be grateful for. What are your holiday traditions?
