I don’t know how you do Christmas when families are in different states, but we tend to just have multiple Christmases and celebrate with everyone.  We switch off Christmas on the 25th between Chris’ family and mine and then celebrate with the other family either early or late.  THIS year we are having four, yes you read that correctly – that’s not a typo – 4 (!) Christmas celebrations. First up is my family in Colorado, and we celebrated today, Saturday December 19th.  Next up is our “little” family Christmas in our apartment with just Chris, Addie and me when we fly back to Chicago.  THEN we drive to Stanley, Chris’ parent’s home town and have Christmas eve with his dad and his mom and then Christmas day with Chris’ mom and her mom.  THEN we have Christmas with Chris’ mom and sisters at his mom’s house when we get home from Stanley.

Whew.  Good thing I love Christmas, huh?

We have been working on telling Addison the stories about Santa Claus and the reindeer as well as the story of Advent and that Christmas is when baby Jesus was born (there will be another post about an awesome Overgard family tradition with advent calendars.)  and with every story I realize how confusing this must be for a two year old.  She’s super excited about Santa and whenever anyone asks her, or she sees a Santa somewhere, she is very happy to let everyone know that he says, “Ho Ho Ho” in her adorable little voice.  And ask her “What’s the baby’s name?” and she’s quick to respond, “Jeeeez.” So I know she’s listening…but my goodness, what a lot to remember!

This morning on our first Christmas morning of 2009, Addie woke up before the sun came up and so Chris brought her in our room for family cuddle time in hopes that she would fall back asleep for a little while.  After poking us in our faces for a little while she snuggled in and fell asleep.  She was deep enough asleep that she was making what my mom calls her “mewing” sounds in her sleep (a little ‘hmmm’ with every exhale) when she rolled over just slightly and her little tiny voice came from the pillows with a “ho……..ho………ho” and then she rolled back over and went to sleep.

It was so freakin adorable.

I’m interested to see how she reacts when she’s told that Santa is coming to our house too, as well as MoMo and PaPa’s.  And then do we tell her that Santa is coming AGAIN to NaNa’s house? What about Great Grandma’s and Grammy O’s?  I don’t know, at least she is just starting to get the idea and she LIKES it.  We’ll have to reassess how we deal with all the Christmas lore as she gets older and understands more.  Maybe Santa only comes once and the rest of the Christmases we just get presents from all the people we love and who love us.  What I know for sure is that every Christmas is SO important to me, and to Chris, and it doesn’t matter if its on the 25th or the 19th or the 27th…to me Christmas is about being with the people we love the most.  And we are incredibly blessed to be with them ALL.

And how could I complain about having Christmas four times a year?  I’d have to be nuts!

Good luck to you and your Holiday celebrations, I hope they go as smoothly as our Colorado Christmas did for us 🙂