Wed 13 Dec 2006
Last year, Kaiya turned 5 months old the day after Christmas and as excited as I was for her to experience such a special holiday, it was essentially like any other day. She was still taking frequent naps so we had to rush and fit meals and gift giving into her schedule. She did like the lights on the tree and this crazy piano playing-singing snowman that my mom had on display, but other than that she didn’t show much interest in the festivities.
This year, however, the Christmas season has already been so exciting for Kaiya and although she doesn’t understand the true meaning behind it all yet, she sure is happy we have this huge tree with special ornaments just for her standing in our living room. She loves all of the lights and shiny red balls that she can see her smiling face looking back at her. She especially loves the ornament that holds her Christmas picture from last year and her jingle bell and of course the special ornament from her Poppa. She points out each of them every morning and wishes them all “ni-ni†before bed each evening. I’m not sure how we will take the tree down after Christmas without having a very sad Kaiya on our hands.
I think one of the reasons the tree is so special is because she helped us pick it out. While my parents were here, we went to a local tree farm to select a tree, something I hadn’t done since I was little girl. The last few years Andrej and I just picked our trees from various roadside stands, but this year we chose it and cut it down ourselves. It was rather challenging as neither Andrej nor I are extremely decisive and there were so many trees to choose from, but in the end I think we found the right tree and Kaiya certainly agrees. The next morning when she saw it all decorated and lit for the first time, I heard her squeal in delight louder than I had ever heard her squeal before, and I was in the bathroom taking a shower at the time. We will be uploading more pictures from our tree cutting experience, along with other fun pictures from our Thanksgiving holiday with my parents soon. We had a blast! Thanks, Mom and Dad!
It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I know this one is going to be so much fun for our family, and I can only assume it will continue to get better and better as Kaiya and Baby Ciho grow and understand why we celebrate a little baby who was born in a manger so very long ago.
