A “Spetchul” Christmas

Luna recently learned to say “special” and it is the cutest thing ever. Sometimes it sounds like spetchul and sometimes it sounds like spider, and it’s cute either way.

Christmas didn’t really go according to plan. We were all sick as dogs the entire Christmas week. What are the odds, haha! I’ll admit I did briefly cry in self pity over missing the Christmas Eve Candlelight service which is my favorite thing ever. And I felt very weird not being with family on Christmas Eve, but we managed to see everyone on Christmas Day and that was great. And in spite of sickness, we had a really special time. It’s what you decide to make of it.

In early November I made a wonderful plan to have set holidays for our two sides of the family. We switch it up every year, but I love having holidays always be the same. So I decided on Thanksgiving with Karen and the day after off to the tree farm with Hoovers. Christmas Eve with Karen and Christmas Day with Hoovers. For the rest of eternity! I love this plan. Maybe it’ll happen next year.

We had Thanksgiving with Karen which went without a snag. There was more food than I knew could exist on one table. And although Karen will say she is a terrible cook, she isn’t. It was all amazing.

Then we went to get our tree the next day.

Getting our Christmas tree, in my imagination:

We walk thru a snowy field, dotted with Christmas trees. Laughing together like cookie bakers in a Hallmark movie. Watching Dada cut the tree down. Sleigh bells ring in the distance. It starts snowing while Luna simultaneously learns to say “Christmas” for the first time ever. Aaron cries while I take videos. We go home and decorate our tree while drinking hot chocolate and listening to my Handle’s Messiah record. Luna learns to say “I love Christmas as much as Mama” for the first time ever. We all cry.

What actually happened:

Aaron was like, “I know the truck has been making that weird noise but it should be fine to take it. It has more room for the tree.” Half a mile from the tree farm, the rear axle says its final prayers and goodbyes. Aaron then says a lot of truck words to me that I don’t understand along with, “Axle. Tire. Tow truck. Alex is coming to pick us up to get our tree”. We leave the truck on someone’s private property and I call a tow truck. At the tree farm, we walk thru ankle deep mud for five minutes and Dada cuts a tree down as quickly as possible. The greenest tree we could find because I do not believe blue trees are Christmasy. Luna does not learn to say Christmas, but she does say the f-word a couple times because that’s what she calls all trucks. We walk thru endless rusted cars, 4 or 5 rusted trailer houses, barns, fencing, 100 or more broken farm appliances, a washing machine, and more mud. Aaron says, “This is a very North Idaho tree farm.” We didn’t get one picture or video.

The tow truck took about 24 hours to show up (literally the next day), and our tree sat outside our garage for a couple days. But in the end it worked out well. Our tree is the best, and even though Luna hasn’t said Christmas yet, I think we will never forget the time we broke down on the way to get our tree from a literal junk yard.

There was a time when this would have really bothered me. A broken down vehicle, plans dashed. But I don’t know, anymore these things are just another part of life. They happen. It’s still a fun time. Insurance covered the tow, and Aaron already had a new axle sitting in our garage waiting to replace the old one because he knew it was just a matter of time. We have a beautiful tree and the junk yard was hilarious. We plan to go there again next year. We’ll tell Luna about that day when she’s older and we’ll all laugh. And be thankful the axle didn’t cause a bad wreck on a curvy, mountain road and we are all safe and sound.

As for Christmas week, we coughed and hacked and complained the whole week. Laid around on the couch and wondered if we are still alive or is this purgatory. All three of us.

But the day before getting sick, on my 38th birthday, we went ice skating. Which I’ve wanted to do for the past few years and it just never works out. It was so fun! I could go every day. We had the slowest, calmest morning which never happens for us. We went ice skating with all of our family at the pop up outdoor rink in Coeur d’Alene. I don’t know how to skate so Aaron got a nice work out keeping me upright. Then Aaron and I went out to eat and had the best steaks of my life. Aaron got me the sweetest mother’s ring for my bday gift. And best of all, Luna said “I yaya you, Mama” (I love you, Mama) for the first time ever. We have tried getting her to say I love you for months and months and she had stubbornly refused until that day.

The only ice skating picture I got.

I wrote up a list of things for us to do. I love lists.

Luna and I had matching nails. She was very excited for our “spetchul finkers”. 

Aaron did our little Advent calendar with Luna every day. Just mini MnM’s. Every day Luna has asked for her “spetchul snack”. She gets one of my mixing bowls, turns it upside down, stands on it like a stool, and reaches with all her might toward the snack. Nevermind that she is still about 4 feet away from the shelf it sits on. She truly believes that overturned bowl is helping to get her closer to her new favorite snack.

Dada got her a Christmas balloon. Sadly, they were out of actual Christmas ones, but this narwhal was a hit anyway. She’s learned to clip it to her pigtail and walks around the house like it’s totally normal to wear a giant helium balloon for a hair clip.

Aaron takes gift wrapping very seriously, and it usually takes him a few hours to wrap mine. Not because there are so many either, but because he is so meticulous. During Christmas Eve breakfast, we watched bow making videos on Youtube because he planned to wrap my gifts right after. Meanwhile, I just tie my bows willy nilly and do not care.

Dada and Luna watched the Muppets Christmas Carol together. The Hoovers all do this together every Christmas Eve. I’ve still never watched the entire thing because I believe Satan created all puppets for our nightmares, but Luna was pretty thrilled with her movie and popcorn with Dada.

Luna slept with us for Christmas Eve and woke me up at 4:30am with a little soft hand on my arm and “Mama? Dada? Hello?”. Just so happy to wake up next to us even tho she kicked me and snored in my ear for hours before. So we had a pretty early Christmas morning. And it was a white Christmas!!

Luna had hands down the best reaction over everything. She exceeded all my expectations. Every toy, every book, every snack, every decoration- she loved it all with all of her might. I always set out all of my gifts on my bed or the couch at the end of the day. Just to check them all out. I was happy to see Luna doing the exact thing without me teaching her. She loved all of her presents and tried to take them to bed with her. We lined them up on the twin bed across from her crib so she could talk to them as she fell asleep.

Only one more year until Christmas again. With TWO daughters!