Everything Looks A Lot Like Christmas

Zane's first Christmas was spent quietly at home with as little fanfare as possible. He'd only been home for a month, and we had essentially been told that he should have as little contact with others as possible during the winter months due his preemie status. Plus he was only three months old and completely oblivious to just about everything except eating and pooping.

Zane's second Christmas, he was a bit more aware that SOMETHING was up, but still not clear on the concept. Christmas last year was better. Zane was excited on Christmas morning when he came downstairs and beheld the tower of toys that was comprised his "loot". (Yes, we went overboard.)

But THIS Christmas, Zane is not only aware that something is up, he actually understands that it is Christmas(which equals "PEZ-ENTS"). He is so excited that the very air he breathes seems to vibrate. Which is cool, even to a bah-humbugger like me. Christmas was made for the child in all of us, after all.

However, Zane is of the opinion that it is HIS Christmas. So the lights and the decorations so painstakingly put up on houses all over our neighborhood? Those are Zane's, he will tell you. Our Christmas tree is his, but so is the tree at his daycare center and the tree at his grandparent's house. Your tree, which you probably spent hours setting up with gorgeous ornaments in the front window of your house? Yeah, Zane will tell you that's his. He reminds me of the kid in the movie A Christmas Story(THE very best Christmas movie EVER) who was looking at the presents under the tree and yelling "That's mine!" about all of them.

But it's not just a Christmas tree to Zane--it's his Christmas. The physical representation of Christmas itself is the tree. And that's kind of awesome, since the Christmas tree does represent symbolically the hopes and desires of the family who puts up a tree, even if we tend to forget that small fact amongst all the materialistic stuff. But Zane doesn't know all that yet--he just knows that lights are bright, and the half of the tree that hasn't been demolished by Zena the Destroyer(our kitten) is very pretty.

It's HIS Christmas, after all.