That Christmas-y Time of Year

We had our first snow of the season yesterday. I love snow, and I love winter. I particularly love Christmastime. I love the songs, the food, the decorations, and the story of Jesus' birth.

I got up early for work, and took Jack outside to play in the snow with his friend across the street. The snow was perfect for snowballs (really hard ones at that when you packed them into tight balls), and thus perfect for a snowman. We had about 3 inches, so we were leaving patches of open grass/mud as we gathered our snow for our creation. As I'm making the bottom part of the snowman, Jack says to me, "Mommy, how about we make um, Rudolph the reindeer?" You see, the other night I recorded the 1964 version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It is an hour long, and Jack has requested to watch "the reindeer movie" at least 5 times everyday since it aired. I told him we didn't have enough snow to make Rudolph this time in an effort to bail myself out so I could get ready for work.

One unofficial tradition we have is to watch the normal Christmas movies. Not just the typical Christmas Story (don't get me wrong, I love it), but even as an adult, I've made a point to watch the animated ones we grew up watching. I've seen previews for a new program coming out this Tuesday on ABC called Prep & Landing by Disney. It is about an elite unit of elves that prep for Santa's landing. It just looks cute and funny, and I think Jack will like it. You can check out the trailer for it here. I'll be recording that as well as the usual holiday favorites like Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and The Polar Express. Hopefully that will give Jack more of a variety to watch.

I can't wait until he is old enough to go and sit through The Nutcracker with me. I remember my mom taking me and my sister to see it at Goucher College when we were younger. I debated taking Jack this year, but I'm not sure it would hold his interest long enough for him to sit through it. My mom and I are going to take him either this weekend or next to see A Christmas Carol. I'm also not sure if he'll get that or even really be interested, but my mom thinks he will.

The next few weeks will prove to be busy with things like Jack and his preschool class having a Christmas program at school where they will sing, family parties, wrapping gifts, figuring out what the menu will be for Christmas dinner, and hopefully somewhere in there, we will make time to light a fire, and all snuggle together to watch some of the Christmas classics on TV. With any luck, maybe we'll have a white Christmas!!!!