Christmas In Connecticut

Nine days of talking about almost nothing but my husband and I seem to still have an audience.  It's a Christmas Miracle - LOL!  Just kidding, he is an interesting guy afterall.  That brings me to Lewis' latest antic.  It seems he's found the wrapping paper.

It is very hard to enjoy Christmas when you work in retail.  The stores are mobbed with people, you have to fight for parking, shoppers are grumpy, and you have to listen to what seems like a very narrow selection of Christmas music relentlessly, beginning around Halloween.  There is more pressure in retail during that time of year, than any other.  Because of all this, Christmas in a lot of ways, just isn't fun for Bernie.

I on the other hand love the whole Christmas season - usually. I have a Christmas playlist on my ipod that I add onto every year.  I have to go see Christmas lights, have a visit with Santa, and get our family photo taken. By Thanksgiving I usually have a pretty good idea of how we are going to tackle the holiday, what presents I need to buy, etc.  I enjoy the shopping, the wrapping, making cards, and sometimes even (gasp) the cooking and baking. 

This year, it seems our feelings and motivation toward the holiday have flipped.  Bernie is pressing me for lists, reminding me I need to pick out recipes, and help come up with a plan.  It seems I am so busy with everything else that Christmas at this point, although it is 15 days away, is little more than an afterthought. In insurance and in some areas of law, things tend to slow down a little around the holidays. This year just the opposite has happened while we all deal with the aftermath of storm Sandy.

Bernie put on Christmas music while decorating the tree, he's been making a gingerbread house with Jack, and he's been ordering presents and picking things up while he is out and about.  Jack is so excited about Christmas, I don't know how he'll be able to wait a couple more weeks.  Having Lewis is fun for Jack and he is enjoying his advent calendar that my mom got him for his birthday.

Bernie took the week off because he has a lot of extra vacation time to use up and to help get ready for Christmas.  Watching him get into it (probably because of Jack's enthusiam), is starting to bring some of the Christmas spirit back for me. You will probably never catch Bernie singing Christmas carols, but he has his own brand of yuletide magic.

My favorite Christmas story is from 2000, when Nick was 4 1/2.  Bernie and I were not together at that time and we were sharing custody.  It was my turn to have Nick for Christmas. I brought him to Georgia to spend some time with my grandparents and my dad.  He loves my grandparents and my dad and always has a good time there.  My fondest childhood Christmas memories are those that involve my grandparents and my cousins, and I wanted Nick to experience that.  The problem was that by then, Nick already had holiday traditions that he loved and they involved his relatives back home in Connecticut. To make matters worse, Nick had caught a stomach bug and was not feeling well for much of the time that we were there. It was also very obvious that he was missing his dad.

I called Bernie and asked him to fly down.  My dad picked Bernie up at the Atlanta airport very late on Christmas Eve.  Before Nick got up, we had Bernie pretend he was sleeping underneath the Christmas tree. Nick's face just lit up when he saw Bernie on Christmas morning.  We told him that Santa had brought his dad on his sleigh so that he could spend Christmas with Nick.  He had so many questions about how that happened, he thought is was the coolest thing, ever. I decided at that point that we could travel for any of the other holidays, but that Nick should always spend Christmas in Connecticut.