Christmas Simplicity

Since we're on the opposite side of the country from most of our family members, this was our first year spending Christmas as just the three of us. For a couple of weeks I racked my brains trying to think of things we could do to make it special and memorable because I was worried that it would be kind of lonely. Finally a few days before Christmas I told Quinn that I'm lame and couldn't think of any really amazing things to do. All my ideas conflicted with the limits (attention span and other) of a family with a one-year-old. Quinn asked me why I thought I needed to have some amazing and elaborate plan. And...I really didn't know why, I just did! He said, "Well I think we're going to have a great Christmas just because we're together. We don't have to do anything spectacular." So I decided to relax. And you know what? We had a great Christmas just being together! We didn't do anything spectacular, but there was something to say for the peaceful simplicity of it all.

On Christmas Eve day we made chocolate chip cookies (and ate half of them, but we don't need to talk about that). That evening we drove around and delivered them to people in our ward who were alone or had other hardships to bear this Christmas. The last place we went was an older single lady in our ward who has been taking care of her very elderly and very ill mother. When she opened the door she was on the phone and when she got off the phone she told me her mother was dying and she had called the hospital for some morphine to ease her mother's pain as she passed. I asked her if she would like Quinn to come in and give her or her mother a blessing (he was out in the car because Caitlyn had fallen asleep). She gratefully accepted, so Quinn went in and helped her son give priesthood blessings of comfort. We felt like the Lord had been mindful of this family's need on Christmas Eve and had sent us there at that specific time that evening to provide any comfort we could. We were so happy to have been there.

When we got home we made my mom's Clam Chowder and ate it with homemade Lion House rolls I'd made earlier that day. Then we dimmed the lights and told Caitlyn the story of the Savior's birth using the PlaySkool Nativity set Grandma Disparte gave her. She was more interested in chucking the characters around the room, but hey, it's always been a tradition in my family to act out the nativity on Christmas Eve, so it was a start, right? Then we sat on the couch with Caitlyn snuggled up between us and watched some of the church's YouTube Christmas messages on lds.org, which really invited the Spirit. We put Cait to bed, wrapped and assembled her presents, and then crashed. (It was a too many chocolate chip cookies kind of crash.)

Christmas morning we got up and made breakfast burritos and had sparkling apple cider (yeah, I wasn't really sure if you're supposed to drink it for breakfast, but we figured it was Christmas so we could do whatever we wanted!).


Then we turned on our Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir DVD that Caitlyn loves to dance along with and clap for after every song. It set such a nice Christmas atmosphere. After a few minutes, we unveiled the rocking horse Grandma Disparte had sent and sat her on it. At first she wasn't sure what to think and kept shaking her head when I tried to help her bounce or rock. But after about 45 seconds it was love.


Now she does the sign for horse about once every half hour and runs over to play on it or pet it for a while. She also unwrapped an adorable outfit and gingerbread house from Nana and Papa and the Baby Signing Time DVDs from Grandpa and Grandma Sitthichai that I had wrapped up (even though we've had them for several weeks as an early Christmas present). After reading the last chapter of our Christmas book, we took a family nap. Aaah, that was nice.

A family in our ward had invited us and a couple of other families to join them for Christmas dinner, which I thought was a GREAT idea and was totally excited about. Unfortunately, their kids got sick so they had to cancel so that everyone else didn't get sick. So we decided to drive around downtown D.C. which I always love doing, and then drove to the Washington, D.C. Temple to see the lights and walk around the visitors center. It was beautiful!



They had displays of nativities and tree ornaments gifted from dozens of countries, including Thailand, which was cool:


On the way home we stopped for Chinese food which, while not the most traditional Christmas dinner, was delicious!

So Quinn's philosophy proved to be a good one. Detailed and well-executed plans are very good. But sometimes, it's also good to just relax and enjoy simple, spontaneous things with the people you love. And along the way, we ended up doing things that will probably become Christmas traditions for our family.

If any one has any ideas for other simple (or even not-so-simple) Christmas activities/traditions that work with small children, I would LOVE to hear them!