Holiday Memories

Hope everyone isn't sick of Christmas already because I have two adorable stories to share. Lucas has really been great through a ton of traveling and a lot of being out and about.

Here's the first story. It was the day of his birthday and we were at my parents' home in Pennsylvania. My mom and dad had to work that day and so we were just hanging out at home without them. All of a sudden Lucas walked into the room holding the (empty) box to his big Christmas present from them: a wooden tool bench. He was so excited and said, "Mama! Mama! My present from Grammy!" Apparently they had put it together already but had left the box in plain toddler-level-view under their bed! I didn't know what to say, so of course said the totally wrong thing. I told him it wasn't for him that it was for another little boy. He freaked out and started crying "No, Grammy got it for ME!" He was positively heartbroken. After some soothing and many birthday presents later that night, he seemed to forget about it.

Until, that is, two days later when we were in Ohio visiting Abel's parents. There is a cute independent toy store at their mall that we really like. It happened to be right next to Santa so we stopped in. Wouldn't you know that right up front was a very similar wooden toy bench! Lucas stopped right in front of the display and I prepared myself for a meltdown. Instead, he very nonchalantly commented "Oh man, Grammy forgot my present." And them moved on. I burst out laughing!

After Christmas, when we got back to my parents' house, they had the tool bench set up under the tree. He was so excited! After a few minutes of play, he exclaimed, "Grammy remembered!" And, the next day, my Mom tells me, he said to her, "That other little boy must be sad he didn't get his toy." She told him that his Mama was just joking and this present was for him all along. He still insisted "Well, he must be very sad. But, I am SO happy!"

The second story is of Lucas's visit with Santa. By virtue of a very busy December, we never got to our town Christmas party or even a local mall for Lucas to sit on Santa's lap. So, on Christmas Eve in Ohio we went over to the mall. We were psyched that there was only one person in front of us but as we got closer Lucas started literally shaking with fear. He was totally freaked out. I didn't want to scar him for life to we just said hi to Santa, got a candy cane and left the area quickly. Oh well, no photo with Santa this year. After a little last-minute shopping (and a visit to the toy store mentioned above) we left the mall and started running to the car through freezing rain.

About half way to our car Lucas started crying telling us that he was a good boy and wanted to tell Santa Merry Christmas.

Decisions. Decisions.

Do we keep going, get to the comfort of the car and take off telling him he missed his chance? Or, do we head right back in, get back in line (of course now there was a line!) and risk that he'll freak out again upon closer proximity to the Big Guy?

I decided to give it a shot.

We ran back into the mall and waited in line. Lucas was so excited he started dancing. He got right up on Santa's lap and they had a several-minute-long animated conversation. It was a great experience and we paid way too much for the most adorable photo with Lucas and an expression of pure little boy joy! Priceless!

I hope you had wonderful holiday celebrations and created many priceless memories with your family and friends, too!