Life as a Garvey: Christmas with a toddler

Christmas has always held so many magical memories for me. It’s the best time of the year and I truly believe that. A majority of my most special memories are those from around the holidays. Sleeping in my brother’s room and waking up with them early on Christmas morning. We’d tiptoe through the house at the crack of dawn, admire all the gifts Santa left for us, dump out our stockings and then refill them, careful to place everything back the same way we found it. We thought my parents were none the wiser.

However, as you get older, it’s like part of that magic fades away. The anticipation of wearing that fancy Christmas dress in the back of your closet, the prediction of what Santa’s arrival will bring, the appearance of sparkly gift-wrapped treasures under the tree, the cookies and frosting and sugarplum fairies. With each trip around the sun, you believe a little less, you anticipate a little less. All of it gets choked out by the buying and the wrapping and the coordination of plans and the go-go-go mentality. You just get farther from how it used to be. But this year was different.

This year we did all the magical things I remember doing as a child that make the holidays so special. Claire had her own Christmas lights in her room (pink!) and a mini Christmas tree she got to decorate. We baked and decorated gingerbread cookies, eating more icing than we really should. It was fun taking photos in her fancy dress in front of the twinkling lights. Making our cinnamon roll Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Wearing special jam jams on Christmas Eve. We even baked a birthday cake for Jesus. Life is so much fun when you see it through the eyes of a child. Claire, in all her sweet innocence, brought back the magic of Christmas and I am so thankful. Waking up with her on Christmas morning was really the only gift I needed. She’s the reason I believe.