camouflage and christmas

In the car ride this morning, Aves said she wanted to take off her toque. She took it off her head and tossed it in the back seat. This is the conversation that ensued between Josh and Aves:

J: Your toque is camouflaged in the back seat with Nikita. Do you know what camouflage means, Aves?

A: No.

J: It means that some thing blends in (pause) so the one thing looks like the other thing.

The thing and the thing in the thing…hahaha. Even with all the “things”, still a pretty accurate definition - but I wonder how much of that Aves absorbed!

It was my Friday off today and I wanted to do something Christmas-y with the kids. So, we spent the morning being Mrs. Santa and her 2 elves. First, we headed to Bri’s work and brought donuts for the guys. Josh hasn’t been to a job site in awhile and he quite enjoys traipsing through the houses, so it was a nice treat. Even Nikita got a chance to run around and I think she really misses going to work with Bri.

Then, we headed into my “old” work to hand out candy canes. I wasn’t sure if the kids would be ok going up to people and handing out candy canes, but they seemed to get a kick out of it - very responsive and not too shy. They even got to peel some candies off the gingerbread house in the kitchen (I think that was the highlight for them!).

When we were back in the car, Josh said, “Mommy, was that your old work?”. I said yes and he went on to say that he wanted to go to my “new” work. I hadn’t planned on going downtown, but I thought it might be a good opportunity for us to go to the Gingerbread Lane display that I saw at the Hyatt. It all still fit with the Christmas-y theme.

I really got a kick out of watching the kids go up to people, hand them a candy cane and say, “Merry Christmas”. In it’s own little way, I hope it’s teaching the kids about giving at Christmastime. They especially liked giving at my “new” work because some of my co-workers returned the gift with gifts of their own. Between the donuts (from the morning) and the candies and chocolates from my co-workers, I think the kids were sufficiently hopped up on sugar by the time we left to see the gingerbread houses.

We spent the next couple of hours looking at the gingerbread houses at the Hyatt and then wandering around downtown, taking in Christmas sights, before heading home. Both kids passed out in the car. It was a fun morning of candy cane giving and Christmas sightseeing for all of us.

Bri and I decided at the start of this season that we were paring Christmas down this year. We wanted to focus on what was important to us and not get caught up in the stress that the season can bring. I think it’s been a really good reality check for us and it has definitely made me enjoy this Christmas season much more.

I recently read this blog post from Crappy Pictures and it struck a chord with me. Being present for my kids is the best present I can give them. I love it. So, this is me unplugging for the holiday season. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and I’ll talk to you again in the New Year!