No, we’re not pregnant with twins or anything of the sort if that's what you were thinking… We have added two fur babies to our family! Jessica brought an adorable grey fluffy ball kitten she named “DeathMetal”, and we purchased a beautiful ‘blue’ Chihuahua with a bit of fawn and white on his belly and toes, and a touch of fawn on his face. We have named him Vincent after Don McLean’s song about Vincent Van Gogh. He was an early Christmas present for the family, which we got for a complete steal! His colour is very rare, so we are considering breeding him later on - but only after we find him a companion in a year or more. Pinxit simply adores the two of them and all things considered, she’s really good with them. But she still has to learn not to pick up the cat not by the throat…
In other news, Christmas is quickly approaching (in case you’ve been living under a rock), and we are done shopping. Emmanuel and I started early this year(back in April or so), and compiled a list of things we wanted to give people, set a budget, and started purchasing early. We’ve spent a long time figuring out how we want to celebrate the holidays and what traditions we want to include for our family. Originally I didn’t want to have anything to do with Santa - I don’t think it’s right for kids to think that all their ‘good’ gifts come from some fictitious person, especially when majority of the population lives in poverty. I also don’t think kids should grow up to think that the only reason they should be good is so that Santa will give them gifts. But most importantly, I don’t want my kids to go up to be materialistic and think that’s all Christmas time is about.
It’s kind of hard for me though, because if I were Christian like Emmanuel is, it would be so simple to focus on the religious aspects. Not saying we won’t teach any of it to her, but it won’t be the main focus. Originally it was hard to convince Emmanuel to ditch the Santa routine, but last year we did just that. Recently I started to think about the topic again, and all the things she would miss out on that I know were such a joy for myself as a child; things like the Santa Claus parade, seeing Santa at the mall, Christmas movies and special shows, etc. If we were to remove it from her life, we would have to avoid the malls, keep the tv off(as we now have decided to have cable again), not let her see other kids so she doesn’t ruin their Christmas… That just seems like a lot of work for something she’ll only believe in for the next 6-8 years, and will create lifetime of memories for her.
So for now we have decided that she’ll get her stocking, one ‘cool’ gift from Santa, and then things like socks or other clothes from Santa. We also have tried to figure out how to incorporate our parents traditions as well as creating our own. Things that my dad always does is puts clementines into our stockings, as well as with all our candy and chocolate he included a toothbrush. And every year we always got socks - a tradition I didn’t always love, but have for the last several years. One tradition Emmanuel wants to include is opening one present the night before, which like most families who do this, will be pyjamas.
Something new we want to do, is in our stockings to include a book in place of all that excessive chocolate everyone is used to getting. Not saying we won’t have any, but I find people end up over indulging that way. And to deflect some of the attention from Santa, we’re going to do a lot of family activities. Making ornaments, decorating the tree, baking, watching movies, making homemade presents, wrapping gifts together…
I’m really quite excited for this holiday season now that we’ve made these decisions.
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