Yesterday we celebrated Christmas for the first time as a family. Our precious Brooke Lynn enjoyed her first Christmas as much as one can expect an eight month old too. She has become the center of our world since we started caring for her full time in June. Our little bundle of joy is all too quickly growing and growing. While her achievements are greeted with excitement, they serve as a constant reminder that she is in fact going to grow up and be an independent adult eventually. This is of course the goal of any parent I suppose, but having her fit in the crook of my arm, and sleeping there for a couple of hours is already something that will never happen again.
One benefit of being an older parent, and taking the advice of Kim who has already raised children, is the knowledge that today is the day to enjoy being with your child. They grow so fast, and you can miss out on a lot by looking forward to the future to much. Sure, I am excited to think about future Christmas holidays, when Brooke Lynn will know who Santa is, and all of that. At the same time I am careful not to take the present for granted. Who knows whether or not I will even be here for those seasons. Nothing, but the present is guaranteed, and I plan to enjoy it thoroughly.
This is supposed to be a Christmas story, not a philosophical yarn about the joys and frustrations of aging and being a parent. So it shall be. The wife and I got out of bed fairly early yesterday morning, and got some coffee brewing. About half an hour later the princess woke up and we got busy with opening the presents that were under and surrounding the tree. As Brooke is so young, Santa decided not to wrap her presents, and instead he just laid them out around the front of the tree. She was interested in the first item as you can see in the picture below.
We went a bit overboard with presents for Brookie. She didn’t care to look at them all, so I set them aside for her to play with later. My wife and I then opened up our gifts and had a great time doing so. She always gets me such thoughtful things that mean so much to me. She gave me an awesome little laptop, the Acer Aspire One, which I am typing on right now, and a very nice set of headphones. The thing that means the most to me however, was a nice little Case canoe that she found that has the nativity scene on the side of it. The knife is a special edition, of which, only 350 were made. She found it at a small mom and pop store in Spurgin, TX. This knife means more to me than anything else I received. My wife spent a lot of time procuring it, and that means a lot to me. It will outlast my computer, and my headphones, and will be passed down to Brookie most likely when my time on earth is over.
After the little princess took a nap she was ready to play. We opened and assembled all her new toys and put them on the floor with her. Her favorite seems to be a little driving toy that makes car sounds! That’s my girl! Maybe some GI Joes, and toy guns will be in order for next year. Who needs Barbies anyway?