It's holly and jolly.

As you know we are doing the whole Santa myth here, and doing it wholeheartedly. Noah is pointing out every Santa he sees, plastic ones on porches, blow-up ones in the grocery store, lit ones in neighborhood windows. And he gets so excited. It really warms my heart.

What I’m not doing is the Santa threat. I was actually quite taken aback a few weeks ago when the mother of one of Noah’s playmates started telling the kids that they better not be naughty or they won’t get gifts. OH NO. That is not in our Santa tale. And certainly not for two years old. I told Noah that Santa brings gifts for nice boys and girls and since he is such a nice little boy he will be getting presents. The funny thing is he thinks he already got his gift. After he sat with Santa at the Gallery he was given a toothbrush, so when you ask him what he wants from Santa for Christmas he says “a toothbrush.” It’s gotten quite a few chuckles, and even a “Ahh… how sad.”

After two weeks of battling my own cold, Noah caught it this weekend. I spent two nights sleeping upright with him on the couch so he could continue to breath. He didn’t get too ill, just really, really mucousy. But despite the snot we kept on keeping on for a busy pre-holiday weekend. We hit two Christmas parties on Saturday – a cookie making toddler one in the afternoon (where everyone was snotty) and then a adult soiree in the evening where we stopped in and ran out before the childless folk got restless. On Sunday we got our tree – and Noah adores it. He often wakes up in the morning and asks to go see it. And he wants to continue decorating. Despite his protests we had to put the ornaments away before he tipped the poor tree over under their weight. Now he’s permitted to just move them around – luckily we have all plastic balls. After decorating and naptime we went downtown for another gander at the light show and puppets before having dinner in Chinatown. Cause nothin’ says Christmas like dumplings and fried rice. Yum.

After the festive weekend Noah was a bit worse the wear cold-wise so we hibernated on Monday – he was in his pajamas all day. But he was back to his active chipper self on Tuesday when we met Janette at Ikea and let the kids run wild through the decorative living rooms. Love those Swedes. Yesterday we went to check out a different playgroup and found ourselves the only English speakers aside from the facilitator. They were really welcoming but since I couldn’t talk to any of the other mothers I don’t think I will be returning to that group.

Today the boy and I did some shopping and were both rewarded for our good behavior with a lavish lunch at Chikfila. I’m just about done my Christmas shopping and though it won’t go down in the record books as being the year I gave everyone exactly what their little hearts desired- they are getting something and that’s all I’m up for at the moment. If only the thoughts I have about perfect gifts instantly materialized without the prerequisite spending and shopping. But ya know what – Noah is going to be super psyched to get some craft supplies, Playmobil people, a tool set and a doctor’s kit – and that’s what matters most.

What else goes on with Master Noah? He has gained the uncanny ability to pick out recognizable carols on even the quietest store speaker system. “It’s Rum-pum-pum song Mama!” And nothing could be cooler than “Fra-tee the Toe-man.” He’s also still loving the Nutcracker – he’s jumping, leaping and spinning around as well as playing with the wooden ones I got to decorate the house. (Sidenote: I returned the Nutcracker video to the library yesterday IN our late VCR. Mark broke the VCR apart to get the tape out but once he did we realized that the tape was running through the entire mechanism and there was no way for us to get it out without cutting it. Oops.) And though not holiday related I have to mention that Noah has become such a big helper. He wants to help do everything. He just wells up with pride and says repeatedly “I’m helping you Mama.” He’s also definitely entering his “kids say the darndest things” stage. As I we were exiting the house yesterday he said “Mama, you have a penis?”