As I sit here writing this, I can hear Rob in his room saying, “Trrreeeeee.” He’s happily building Christmas trees with his Legos. Casey is listening to Christmas music on her iPad. All of the trees are on and everything is ready for Christmas, except to finish baking. This is the most magical time of the year in our house.
We have visited several light displays. Casey and Rob have shopped and wrapped presents. Casey carefully looks under the tree several times a day to make sure her presents are still there. She never touches them, but she does encourage Blue, our dog, to nose through them so she can peek at other presents easier. (Blue loves to unwrap presents!) Casey knows the plans for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas.
Some of the coolest moments happened a few nights ago. Santa Claus visited our ASK Autism group and everyone got to meet him and have their pictures taken. Because we are a small group, even the children who are scared of Santa were able to talk to him. Casey was so excited that she couldn’t sit still and when she heard Santa’s sleigh bells as he came in the door, she jumped up and watched with a huge grin as Santa came closer.
Rob sat near Santa and, after some encouragement, told him he wanted Legos for Christmas. He was happy, but not nearly as excited as Casey was. She told Santa she wanted a big Grover and a Big Bird. Then she watched as the smaller children (yep – she managed to talk to Santa first) went up to Santa.
Rob will take the week as it comes. He’ll do whatever, whenever and go with the flow. Casey will have some stressful moments when the excitement gets to be too much for her and she needs to decompress. She’ll be on edge, wondering if she’s been good enough for Santa to bring her gifts and won’t sleep on Christmas Eve until she is sure he has visited us. It’s hard to watch at times. I tell her all the time she’s been so good that I’m sure Santa will leave her some amazing presents, but as much as she loves holidays, she gets anxious about them, too.
She will want to be sure everything she thinks is important happens and she’ll be very serious. She will have fun, too, but she will constantly be thinking of the next activity. It’s a hard week for her, even as she loves it all.
Our Christmas won’t look like yours. Santa will bring things my kids enjoy – socks, Sesame Street, crafts, construction paper, Legos and cards. I don’t care that some people won’t buy things that aren’t age appropriate. I buy what they like – same as I would anyone else. I hope each of you does the same and are able to ignore people who insist that you buy things for your child’s age and not their interests.
We usually have a fairly relaxing holiday that is spread out over a few days. This works best for our family. We don’t go to a lot of parties – we choose things we can do without large crowds or lots of noise. Sometimes, it’s a tough balance between the needs of my “go go go girl” and my “stay at home son” but we manage pretty well, usually.
Merry Christmas to each of you! May your holiday be filled with love and laughs!