I have Christmas Fever. This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but to those of you who know me well, you know that I had become a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to this nation’s most overdone holiday. It’s not that I don’t like the idea of Christmas – I actually love the whole spirit of giving aspect. But I have been a strong believer in celebrating Christmas ON CHRISTMAS. That means: no buying gifts in July; no listening to Christmas songs except on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; no obnoxious decorations put up the day after Thanksgiving. Marty and I have never had a Christmas tree before (we always celebrate the day somewhere else!) and we don’t get each other gifts (we usually just paid for our trip back east).
Actually, for me, Christmas had become synonymous with stress and exhaustion. For the past several years it meant flying back east for an intensely jam-packed schedule with family functions and visits with friends, rushing from one thing to the next, spending the majority of our “holiday” on the beltway and returning home completely exhausted and ready for a vacation.Having a child, however, has breathed new life into my Christmas Spirit. Like so many things in my life, I now see things in an entirely new light. Ellie’s first Christmas was very exciting for me, even though she wasn’t aware that it was happening. We bought a tree, bought and hung stockings (over the fireplace even! how trite!), put up wreaths and other decorations (Christmas threw up on our house!) and Marty and I even decided to exchange gifts this year. I even caught myself listening to the All-Christmas-Music-All-The-Time radio station on numerous occasions that were not Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. If you’d told me this time last year that I would be listening to Christmas music I would have laughed until I cried. Why the change of heart? Well…I don’t know exactly.
Maybe it’s because it was the first of many Christmas’s that we will spend as The Molloy Family. While Marty and I have been married for 5 years, we weren’t really a family until now. At least, no one really considers you a “family” until you have kids – you’re just a couple. As a couple, you split time between your parents’ houses carrying out each others families traditions insisting that the way that each of you did things with your family is the “right” way to celebrate Christmas. So, this year we started a new tradition: The Molloy Family Christmas. We will spend Christmas morning at our house opening presents and eating Pumpkin bread and drinking coffee (well Ellie can’t drink coffee until she’s at least 4)…or whatever it is that we will do that will become our family’s way of doing things. We will do this so that one day Ellie will say to her husband “but in MY family we always…” and argue that her family’s way is the “right” way.
Our first Christmas with Ellie was as wonderful – she licked her presents (we wrapped up two toys that we already had) and was in great spirits all weekend, especially considering that we threw off her normal bedtime routine and put her in loud situations with tons of people for three days straight. We got to spend lots of time with each of our families, upholding many Wolfe/Molloy-Stauffer traditions, and we also got to have Christmas morning together as a family unit, starting our own tradition. It was the best of both worlds. It wasn’t stressful, it wasn’t rushed. In fact, I am already looking forward to doing it all again next year. What a difference a year can make.
There was one little thing that happened, that I need to document as well. At my parents house, Ellie woke around 4:00 AM crying in the next room over. Marty got up and went to her right away, fearing that since she was in a new place and not in her own crib, she might be a little confused or afraid. Well, by the time Marty picked her up and brought her into our room, she had fallen right back to sleep. So Marty, basically a lazy man ;-), decided that the effort was too great to get her back in the other room - so he laid down and we snuggled together as a family for a few hours. It was one of the nicest Christmas memories we will ever have to share.
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