Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Is It Saturday Yet?

Oh man I am so excited for Christmas to be here. I think I'm more excited than Aiden! We've decided not to put Christmas presents under the tree until Christmas Eve this year because Aiden really thinks that Santa will come. He's too young to really understand that Mama and Daddy are Santa's helpers and that it's okay if there are presents under the tree before Santa comes. He actually told Ethan and I last night that he wanted to climb inside the TV to go find Santa! Next year we'll be able to explain things better to him. For right now we'll let him bask in the magic.

There are a few presents that I can't wait to be opened. Aiden has a couple of really good ones that he is going to go nuts over. There is a show on PBS called Dinosaur Train that Aiden really loves, so my Mama got him a few interactive dinosaurs from the show that like talk to each other and stuff. Aiden is going to be amazed. And then we got him a big set of Duplo lego things that Ethan and I can't wait to build with him.

Last night a box came for me from the Food Network and it took all my strength not to open it right then. Mama told me that I would be surprised so I'm anxious to see what that one is. Ever since becoming a vegetarian I've gotten really into cooking and experimenting with food so I'm super excited. Ethan has also been working on a present of mine for like 2 days that he says I'm going to love.

Speaking of Ethan, also known as Mr Scrooge at this time of year...He hates Christmas. He doesn't like that a holiday like this is turned into an excuse to spend hundreds of dollars on useless crap (his words). Which I agree with in a way, but for different reasons. Ethan isn't very religious anymore, which makes me pretty sad but that is a conversation for a different day, so he just doesn't like Christmas at all. He complains and complains, but I honestly can't wait for him to open his presents this year. I've spent a long time working my magic to get him something that he doesn't know he's wanted since before he deployed last year. I can't wait to see Mr. Scrooge's face split into a sheepish grin when he falls in love with his gift.

For being so negative he sure does know how to make a girl melt though. It has always been a tradition with us since we started dating that every year we get a Christmas ornament for the tree. We have 6 ornaments on the tree (Ethan and I were separated Christmas 2008) at the moment. This is the first year that we haven't been home between Thanksgiving and Christmas since we moved out to NC. Usually we buy our ornament from a kiosk in the mall we've shopped at since 2004, but this year that wasn't possible. We have searched all over the area and couldn't find an ornament for 2010. On Saturday we looked all over Jacksonville, but couldn't find anything so I was reserved to the fact that we wouldn't have one this year. It really made me sad, but I searched online and found a website that makes personalized ornaments. I talked to Ethan about it, but it wouldn't be here by Christmas anyways so I told him not to worry about it.

Sunday night his phone kept going off at like 11, which isn't normal for him. I asked who it was and he just ignored me. I asked again a few minutes later when the phone rang again and he told me it was his mom. He got this little smile on his face and went into the other room. He came back a few minutes later and told me that he had a surprise for me and that he wanted to tell me, but he wanted to keep it secret. For some reason the first thing that came to my mind was "Oh God your parents are surprising us and coming here for Christmas."

Now don't get me wrong, I would be so freaking happy if his family drove up here to see us, but I have this problem when his mom comes to the house. I get on the psycho cleaning tangent and I exhaust myself trying to make the house perfect for a woman who really doesn't care about mess or clutter at all since she raised and homeschooled 9 kids of her own. I immediately asked him to tell me if that was it because there's a lot of cleaning that needs to be done before they get here...blah blah blah.

An hour later he comes into the living room and sits next to me. He told me he wanted to show me something on his phone, but I told him I didn't want to know if it was supposed to be a surprise. He told me that he wanted to me to know so I looked and what I saw immediately brought tears to my eyes. I was looking at picture of a family ornament with our names on it. After we couldn't find a family ornament in Jacksonville on Saturday, my sweet husband called his mom and asked her to get us an ornament from the usual place we go. He said he knew how much it meant to me to have the ornament and he wanted to make sure I got one this year. I seriously cried for like 10 minutes. It made me feel so special that he and his mom would do something like that for me just over a little ornament.

I think this proves that although Ethan really likes to say that he hates Christmas and he has the potential to act like a complete jerky Mr Scrooge, he really does have a kind heart. He made our Christmas that much better.


It's a tradition. 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009


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