Christmas is coming

Tomorrow is take two of my scar revision procedure and hopefully there will be no reason to delay it again. Cross your fingers for me.

This weekend we went to my Dad's house for the annual Christmas party he throws for his employees. Dad made sure Jackson had a present under the tree to unwrap when the employees and families got theirs. He was really good waiting all day to open it. He would ask periodically if we could open presents yet but managed to hang on until it was time. My dad gave him a huge monster truck pulling a trailer with a smaller dune buggy thing on it. Jackson loved it of course. David and I were less than pleased with the amount of space it will take up in our home. The toys take over Christmas, indeed. But Jackson is very happy and that is all that matters.

This morning we were in my Dad's kitchen talking about Christmas being almost here and Jackson was confused. "We already had Christmas," he said thinking of his new truck-pulling-a-car loot. I am amazed at this fleeting moment of time. Jackson thinks Christmas is over. We had a party and he got to unwrap a new toy. One present and he is happy. This moment in time will soon be erased by the glut of the actual holiday. We will have three more Christmases, complete with multiple presents, toys, clothes, everything a little boy could want. We are a family blessed with more than we need and like many, we give, give, give for the holidays. It is fun and frivolous and the giving and receiving of shiny wrapped presents to and from the people we love is a national past-time. At this moment in time one wrapped toy made him think that Christmas is over and he is happy. I hope we don't cure him of that with our three Christmases. I hope to be able to keep some of that innocence intact. We have to teach him that having so much is nice, but not the end-all-be-all of life. We have to somehow help him become a person who appreciates what he has but is happy in lean times and in times of plenty.

Heh, this may be a moot goal as we as a nation may be heading into some seriously lean times and the lessons I want to teach will be taught to us all through a forced lifestyle change.

All that aside, I really am enjoying this season with Jackson. He is able to express the wonder of it all this year. The lights and the tree and everything. As we drove to my Dad's on Friday night, we drove through several small towns and many of them had lots of lights and decorations up as a township. Lampassas really impressed Jackson with lighted decorations across every intersection. "Wow, I like this place," he said as we drove through. We so need to take him to the trail of lights in Austin. If the little lights of Lometa and Lampassas make him happy, that will really flip him out.