Nicole Tasker Woods

Getting everything set just right for Santa and his reindeer…

I work a half day today. Ryan has the whole day off. What sense does that make!? Glad I can get up at 6:00am to be in to work by 8:30am and take off at noon. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right? I’ll take the early release! Ryan’s going to stay home with Aidan so that he can get much needed rest. I’m glad I don’t have to wrestle with him to wake up this morning because that has turned into a real chore!

Tonight, we are going to dinner with the family to Mastro’s. We are all getting dressed up, even the Big A, to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal.

In years past, we always changed out of our fancy clothes into our PJs after dinner, then huddled around the tree at Clark & Carolyn’s house to open presents together — yes, you read that right — we open gifts on Christmas Eve until the wee morning hours. This year will be the first year that we are not doing it that way. We are going to have a great holiday meal together then go to our respective homes. We are going to tuck Aidan into his own bed at a decent hour so that he can get enough rest before the big day tomorrow. The idea of struggling with Aidan to get him to sleep upstairs while we opened gifts downstairs was frightening. Equally frightening was having a tired boy wander around the house while the adults opened gifts. What if he wants a gift? We have to include him! But what about Santa delivering gifts on Christmas Eve? We can’t tell him one thing and then do another.

This year, we are going to wake up and see the smile on Aidan’s face when he walks downstairs from his room to see all the presents under the tree — and an over-stuffed stocking — waiting for him to rip open. Last year he struggled with the opening. He stopped after the first gift (and believe me there were tons!) because he just wanted to play with the first thing he got. I think this year he will be all about opening. We’ll probably make him wait every few gifts so that Ryan & I can open some gifts as well. In hopes of pumping him up, we keep talking about Christmas morning, all the presents at our house and then even more presents at Grammy & Pop’s house when we go there for breakfast.

I get the feeling that the hype is already there, he doesn’t need any help getting excited.

Aidan had his first gift exchange with his cousins last night, everyone was all smiles & happy to tear open some gift-wrap.

Aidan walked downstairs from his room this morning, turned on the Christmas tree and looked at it for a few minutes.

Then he made his way back upstairs.

I met him halfway and he said, “Mommy, there are no presents under the tree.”

“Nope, not time for that just yet, buddy. You still have a few more days until Christmas.”

“Oh man!”

My first gift from Aidan is a mug he decorated himself at school.

Love. Love. Love.