I have never assembled a Christmas tree before. I remember a couple of times when I was very young, my parents decorated the house for Christmas. Then they just stopped doing it and only the tree went up. In fact, I think they still have that same tree from the 80s :)Since I was such a newbie, I had to read the instructions when I assembled our artificial tree. It took awhile too because I wanted it to be perfect and I was videotaping the moment. So many things were new out of the box. The tree, each ornament, and other decorations we put up in our house were brand new. We were doing this for Tristan. Last year, he was too young to notice or care much. He is also more teachable now so he has learned to be gentle with the tree and glass ornaments. So far so good :)
Putting up the decorations were fun. I am getting more into the Christmas spirit because of it. The house looks more festive and I am looking forward to creating a tradition out of the holidays so that Tristan will remember it fondly. This year I will be baking Christmas cookies. I'm starting to get the hang of decorating with royal icing so I'm really excited to do it again and give cookies out as gifts.
Just like for Halloween and autumn, we are also getting out more and trying to participate in more holiday events. The past weekend, we went downtown to look at the Woodwards Window Display. They were all spaced out around downtown and it was a bit disappointing :( We went into the Hyatt hotel on Burrard and they had their gingerbread house contest up so that was nice. We walk into that hotel every year to see it! We were hoping to see the window displays at the Hudson Bay but they weren't up this year. That was weird. We accidentally went down during the Santa Claus parade so it was very busy. We don't like crowds so we tried to avoid it most of the day. We did get a glimpse of Santa and his sleigh at the end though :)
In the past years, we didn't celebrate Christmas much. There would be a couple of decorations and we would bake turkey and eat a traditional meal, many times alone at home. It already feels so much more Christmasy this year because we have a Christmas tree and we will actually be wrapping up gifts for Tristan. We didn't do that last year. We buy things for Tristan all the time and he didn't care much about opening up anything. Jean-Louis and I have stopped buying each other gifts, shortly after we got married. He is very Scrooge-like and over the years, it didn't feel like a big deal to me either. I just wanted my Christmas meal :) But then on boxing day or during the sales period, we would shop and treat ourselves to pretty much anything we really wanted.
This year, I'm sort of buying us gifts. It's no surprise so I guess that doesn't count. In fact, I was going to get it anyway, Christmas or not. They are photo books I have already assembled but have not purchased yet. When I told Jean-Louis, he wasn't too enthusiastic. I also bought us some Purdy's hedgehogs so that counts as a gift too! I could wrap all these things and put them under the tree too but since no one cares, I probably won't :) I know, it's lame. Christmas is for the children really. As long as Tristan is excited and happy, then so are we!
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