It's hard to think about Christmas when there is no snow. For the last three years, my family and I have started a new tradition: launching Christmas by attending the Festival of Trees. The Festival closed last weekend, but I wanted to make sure that I put in my two cents about what the Festival of Trees means to me.
At the beginning of every November, I realize that Christmas is only two months away and then I start to panic. I do nothing about preparing for Christmas; I just have a low-level fretting in my subconscious about all of the shopping and gift-making that I need to complete. And then I do nothing until my mom calls me and reminds me that the Festival of Trees is on and she asks me when do we want to go. We pick a day and meet after work and my husband and I, the kids and the grandparents meet up and look at some pretty neat trees. This year was nice because my brother was able to attend and he got to experience first-hand, what it's like when you bring children who run away to large events with lots of people.
Luckily, the only time we lost sight of my son was when he heard Santa's bells and caught sight of the jolly elf and ran after him yelling, "Santa! It's Santa Claus!"
Chasing after our son, my dad catches up to him just as he is introducing himself to Santa: "Hi Santa! I'm Liam!" He was so excited that he just stood there smiling at Santa. Santa said, "Hello, Liam!" and also smiled at another boy who was standing there looking scared, panicked and thrilled.
He asked this boy if he's been good boy this year and the little boy slowly shook his head, no. This whole scene was exceptionally sweet and Christmas-y and has jumpstarted my spirit of the season.
The kids were old enough to do some of the crafts at Santa's workshop and now my husband and I are the proud owners of a very fine Santa hat and mini Christmas tree decorated by our babies with ribbon, glitter and string.
The highland dancers from Dance Your Heart Out were showcasing their dancers and they did a wonderful job.
Given any music and floor space, our kids will dance no matter who is watching and they did just that. I find the holiday season increasingly stressful with each year so when I get the opportunity to just watch my children experience joy and silliness and excitement, it reminds me that everything will be fine and the holidays are for having fun and being together as a family. Thank you very much to the Spirit of the North Foundation for reminding me about the spirit of Christmas and holiday cheer.
