When was Christmas again?

I can hardly believe that Christmas has come and gone and our decorations and ornaments are back up in the attic for another year. And...we still haven't sent out our holiday/new year letter to friends and family yet. It is a sorry state of affairs at our house. Well, even if we haven't blogged or emailed you about it, rest assured that Christmas was a wonderful time at our house last (!) year. How could it not be with two 2 year olds and a four and a half year old?



We headed out to a Christmas tree farm back in November to get our Christmas tree. We roughed it, and cut it down ourselves. Well, our friend Mark cut it down for us, but Lara hauled it off. The kids helped us decorate it, and then redecorate it and redecorate it every day until Christmas. We wisely put the less breakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree.

The day itself was delightful. Our friend Ruti came over to spend Xmas morning with us. She is Jewish, and this was her first ever Christmas celebration. We were honored that she spent it with us, and also that it was our children through whom she got to witness the over indulgence and materialism that this holiday has come to signify. We felt that we had not gone over the top with presents for our kids, but somehow the tree was still bursting. And our kids were ripping open presents, saying "Yay!" and "Wow!" at the appropriate times and then tossed fabulous gifts aside for the lure of other wrapped goodies that were still under the branches. What is it about the temptation of the wrapped gifts? The lure of the unknown, vs. the known?