learning to navigate the world, j-bear style

Tag: christmas

Merry and Bright

Tonight as I worked on our Christmas dinner, I coughed into my sleeve.

Whenever someone coughed, J asks immediately “okay?” and he will persist in asking until you answer and reassure him you’re okay. It’s my fault he does it, as whenever he gets coughing I ask him the same thing. The habit is completely endearing to me when he does it though.

Anyway, tonight I coughed. And he said, “okay?” and I was busy with what I was working on and did not answer immediately.

And he said “fine, mama?”

Everything stopped, if just for a split second.

One year ago, “mama” was only said as a fluke. It was said once and forgotten. The past few months, “mama” has been said when prompted, and with intention and understanding. I can ask him to bring something to mama and he will bring it to me and so on….

But… “Fine, mama?”

My son asked me, by ‘name’, if I was okay.

The boxes under the tree, he’s making it a habit of trumping anything that could be in them.

Yes, baby. I’m more than fine. I am wonderful for you having asked.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone.

Ho Ho Ho

Little bear is a man after his Queen Nana’s* heart.

You see, he loves Christmas. More to the point, he loves Christmas decorations.

I discovered this last year when, upon arriving for what would usually be an ill-fated trip to Wal-Mart we discovered the inflatable decorations outside. He was so very excited. We spent a good fifteen minutes interacting with them outside the store before going in to attempt shopping. Shopping turned into a total success, complete with him sitting in the cart’s seat, thanks to the Christmas decoration part of the store. The lights, the trees, the ornaments… Everything just amazed him.

It’s all the same this year, he’s just bigger and a little more vocal about it.

The lights and big decorations seem to be his absolute favorite right now. He actually almost got himself into a lot of trouble a week or so ago trying to bolt across a local highway to go see an inflatable Santa and inflatable snowman on the other side of the road. It was scary but it made the point clear – decorating for Christmas this year was going to be non-negotiable.

Now, we have a tree. The fake sort that you put in each little branch one by one, the sort of fake tree that screams to little boys to be taken apart. Between that, the string lights, and so on … Well, maybe I am just trying to make myself feel better about getting a new tree that already includes the multi-colored lights and the branches do not easily come off of.

So tomorrow morning, little Christmas Bear will wake up to a shiny tree in the living room that he’ll get to decorate when he comes home from school. Let’s hope it goes over well!

————–

*= Queen Nana is the mother of my best friend since we were 15. I call her Queen Mum for various reasons and she and her husband were there for me when I had no true guidance from those who brought me into this world. She would put up two dozen or more Christmas trees every year, with help from her elves of course, and thus will always be known for her love of Christmas decorating amongst many other things.

© 2024 J-Bear and Me

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: