Honeybee’s First Christmas

Our Christmas tree by day…

The Christmas season is finally at an end in our household.  It was a wonderful holiday and we were very, very thankful that Honeybee was here to celebrate with us.  As is the tradition in our family, Christmas Eve was spent at my sister and brother-in-law’s home (FatherWinter’s sister).  We all gathered for a Christmas Eve dinner and to exchange gifts.  Because there are so many of us, the family has established some guidelines to help with the gift exchange.  We only give gifts to the children age 0-21.  Three people have your name, so you receive three gifts on Christmas Eve.  Honeybee received a closet caddy for all her accouterments (which was sorely needed), a Gloworm to keep her company as she sleeps, and a Learning Dog that identifies body parts and ABCs.  She LOVES this gift.  She has played with it over and over again.  What is so special about the gifts is they were from a first time giver.  Our nephew (FatherWinter’s brother’s son) aged out of gift receiving and gave for the first time.  All of his gifts were from the heart.  They were perfect.  He is in school right now, but is working a job and still finding time to do for others.  He will be a great man one day.  I look forward to seeing the contributions he brings to society.

A Christmas tree is beautiful in the evening…

After we left my in laws on Christmas Eve, we came home and SuperBug and Honeybee were tucked in for the night.  I gathered the wrapped gifts and deftly placed them under the tree.  Then, I retired with FatherWinter.  The next morning, we woke up and SuperBug began his household chores while I prepared Christmas brunch.  After brunch was prepared, SuperBug’s birth father joined us and we ate, enjoyed each other’s company, and then opened gifts as a family.

SuperBug has been hinting for quite some time that he would like an electric scooter. I mentioned it to my mother in passing and next thing I know I’m picking a package up at the local store.  Leave it to my mother to spoil her grandbabies :). SuperBug also loved his other gifts especially the Nerf foam shooters.  He, FatherWinter, and I all have one and have had great fun sneaking up on each other planning our attacks.

Our Honeybee enjoyed opening her gifts as well.  Her favorite part was tearing the wrapping paper.  As mentioned in one of our previous posts, Honeybee has minor developmental delays.  Nothing major, but enough that our pediatrician has recommended different activities we could engage in to help Honeybee to progress on her milestones.  With that in mind, we focused on toys that would help Honeybee with her fine and gross motor skills, hand eye coordination, and problem solving.  So far, so good as Honeybee has truly enjoyed stacking her new blocks and knocking over her train.

After Christmas gifts were opened and exchanged and wrapping papers cleaned up, we allowed SuperBug to play with his gifts while I began Christmas dinner and FatherWinter began assembling some of the gifts the family received.
Collard greens, macaroni and cheese, turkey, stuffing, baked beans, green beans, candied yams, cranberry sauce, all prepared in the kitchen.  While things were preparing, I came down and assisted FatherWinter with some of the more intricate pieces.  It wasn’t too long before we got the scooter constructed and up and running for SuperBug.

FatherWinter assembling SuperBug’s electric scooter

Later, after our guest had left for the day, we sat down with Superbug and discussed why we celebrate Christmas.  It is a discussion we have every year, but we let him tell us what it means.  We listen to his answers, correcting if needed, and enjoy discussing what he would tell someone who asks why our family celebrates Christmas.  Faith is truly important to our family and we don’t take it lightly.  We look forward to being able to share the Christmas story with Honeybee and letting her explain to us why she celebrates Christmas when she gets older.  After spending some time together and enjoying the family moments, we all decided to catch up on our sleep for a while.  We realized we were all still pretty exhausted from the Christmas Eve celebrations.  We hadn’t gotten home before midnight and I hadn’t gotten in the bed before 1 and wasn’t sleep until 1:30ish.  We were all up by 7, so a nap was certainly in order. After about a 90 minute siesta, everyone was up and ready to eat.  We had a wonderful meal, finished eating, and sat in front of the television to watch more Christmas movies.  It was the perfect way to end our day.

Our Christmas weekend was rounded out with the building of a new gaming area in the basement for the family, a visit from Nana Winter (who famously spoiled her grandbabies), and a birthday phone call to my honorary father.  NanaWinter came bearing gifts and bought new outfits and toys for her grands and sweet treats for FatherWinter and I.  Finally, today was the last Sunday of the year.  We went to church service where I sang this afternoon and enjoyed the fellowship of the family one more time.

As I sit here even now,up much later than I should be, I am extremely happy with Honeybee’s first Christmas.  I took a ton of pictures.  I look forward to being able to construct a little photo book for her that she will get to look at as she gets older.  I have the same thing for Superbug.  My plan is to present the book and photos for each child on their 18th birthday or their wedding day.  I am looking forward to 2015 and a date that will allow us to move forward in Honeybee’s adoption.

She had an amazing, amazing Christmas.  I am so very thankful that she got to celebrate it with us, her forever family.  I pray she gets to enjoy many, many, many more.

-WinterMommy