Growing in Grace: Halloween / Christmas 2015

Halloween and Christmas - an unlikely combo, but when you were a kid (and maybe now?!) they were your favorite holidays. Am I right?! So, as a parent, they become our favorite holidays to celebrate with our kids. You get to relive your childhood while trying to make theirs as perfect as you remember yours being. It's actually BETTER than being the kid in that scenario.

The struggle at our house has always been that both Halloween and Christmas also, just so happen, to fall during "sick season", so that has limited our adventures (read: no trick or treating, no big family gatherings). Also, because Addie hasn't gotten to go do all of those "typical" things and because of her developmental delay, she hasn't really understood what the fuss was all about, so Philip and I have been trying to sell her on the excitement of both for 4 years now. She's enjoyed the excitement but not really bought into dressing up or understood who Santa was / what he was all about.

Enter 2015. It's been my favorite. Halloween - best Halloween EVER. Addie was able to go to her first fall festival EVER at her school. We were able to go to the pumpkin patch not once but twice. With friends! She chose her costume (Minnierella - think Minnie Mouse with a pink Cinderella dress, add crown) and actually thought it was magic that she looked like Minnierella. She went trick or treating with her friend Lilah, and she went to Prince Mickey and Minnierella's ball with her BBF (Best Boyfriend Forever) Dalton. On Halloween! Disney on Ice was in town, and Philip and I had hoped she would enjoy seeing Mickey & Minnie in person, and we thought that if she could see them on Halloween, while dressed as Minnierella herself, it would make the holiday real and magical for her. Y'all. I was so excited for her that I teared up with joy as Minnie was making her debut on the ice. My eyes were so leaky and I thought my heart might explode. It's really impossible to explain (I'm tearing up just reliving it!) but if you're a mom, I think you know. It was a combination of everything - she believes in Mickey and Minnie and they are as real as you and me. And they were THERE! We were at a SHOW with a ton of people (full disclosure: the lady two rows up had a nasty cough, and I thought I would have a stroke if she kept it up. I kept seeing this diagram from the Today Show a year or so ago showing how germs spread in airplanes, and they actually drift back behind the person coughing. ..Yikes!!) on Halloween. Addie's first big show, public gathering, etc. and the look of awe on her face. ..I would give you a million dollars right now to see that look on her face again. I liked Disney before but never understood the "magic" that so many perfectly normal grown adults proclaim to see there. ..that afternoon, I became a full on Disney believer. The magic is real. And now I want us to go to Disney. ..Mama may have to go back to work or sell a kidney to afford that adventure… ($$!!)… But to see this face again, whatever it takes!

"It's Minnie, Mama. …!!!"

We love them!

So, Philip and I agreed, it was easily our favorite Halloween, ever!

Enter, Christmas. I don't know if it's because she's in preschool now or because she watches lots of Christmas episodes on Disney Junior, but whatever it is, she "got" Santa this year! We would go stare at him at the mall, and she always insisted that he had her Little Einsteins present - she was a little confused on "when" he brought the gifts, so she just assumed he always had them with him! Pretty cute! She got to go to her Christmas party at school, which was a ton of fun, and she got to meet Santa (also a first! Germy mall Santa's haven't been high on our list of activities to try)! This Santa. ..he was the real guy, I firmly believe it. His charisma, his twinkle, his "Ho, Ho, Ho!" were all spot on, and he gently and patiently helped Addie warm up to him. No joke, he spent at least 10 minutes with her. I just loved Santa!

Thanks to our friend Betsy's suggestion, we got Addie an Advent Calendar from Melissa & Doug that was shaped like a Christmas tree. Each day you cover up a number with a magnetic ornament to count down to the big day. This way she could learn when Christmas was - it wasn't every day in December, just one specific day. She loved putting the ornaments on each day that I remembered. We made cookies with friends, sang Christmas songs, and really just enjoyed the magic of the season. She even got to be in her school's Christmas program! First program, ever! And of course, I teared up just seeing her with her classmates and thought she stole the show. ;-) About the school's Christmas show - I have to tell you that seeing so many adorable kiddos, several in wheelchairs, some with hearing loss and others with autism and other challenges you can't always see, I was in tears. They are just the most beautiful children and their courage every single day leaves me feeling inspired. If you ever want to meet the most adorable, inspiring children, come visit Fort Sanders!

Since it was unseasonably warm this year (hip hip hooray!), we were able to get outside and enjoy a meal in Market Square on Christmas Eve - 75 degrees on Christmas Eve is Heaven! Still no big family gatherings - it's just not fair to ask others not to come if they have the sniffles just so Addie can be there - but we were all healthy and able to do Christmas with our parents, siblings and Philip's Grandmother and Uncle and it was wonderful. Addie woke up on Christmas morning, not really excited until she realized it was "finally" Christmas! She found her Little Einsteins present from Santa and a Mickey train set she had asked for and was just so excited. She was even more excited to make the trip to Greeneville to see all of her grandparents later that day! All in all, it was a fun, magical holiday season, and we are just so thankful that Addie's world is able to get a little bit bigger each year.