A Different Feel to This Season

Not everybody that usually would be was there but Thanksgiving was about as close to past years as any of us might have hoped. Covid is still a very real concern but we are vaxxed, we wear masks in public and the family is all blessed with good health at the moment. Massive amounts of turkey was consumed, football was watched. The youngest got to spend time with both her grammies and two of her cousins.

In 1621 fifty-three Pilgrims and ninety Native-Americans threw a three day feast to celebrate their first harvest in the New World and to thank the Wampanoag tribe for helping them survive the previous winter. There is no associated fairy tale or mythical gift giver. Just a bunch of people happy to be alive and appreciative of those that helped them stay that way. Our past year wasn’t as tough as that but the idea of being thankful to all be together and healthy feels pretty timely.

Now that that’s over I am willing to take down the last few remaining Halloween decorations and start thinking about Christmas. I’ll confess that I already have most of my shopping done but refuse to do anything else to acknowledge it’s approach until I’m done with all the leftovers.

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Christmas will also be different this year, different from any of the others. This is our first year post Santa Claus.

She claims to have known for several years but I don’t think I believe that. Not only because I refuse to believe that I was moving that damn elf every night for two straight years for no reason but because she’s just the kind of kid that wants to believe in magic and faeries and silly stuff like that. She’s got a whimsical side to her that I hope she never grows out of.

I’ve got nobody besides myself to blame, something that I hate but that is often the case. Last year I wrote a post about how I wasn’t sure how much she still believes and it turns out that the ten year old is actually a big fan of the blog and reads all of my nonsense. She’s mainly a big fan because sometimes we get free stuff or get to go to things that we might not otherwise go to and because she has an unrealistic idea of how many other people are reading and how famous she is, but she’s a big fan nonetheless. I appreciate the support and always try to keep in mind that one day she might be reading these but have to admit that I didn’t see that coming.

She’s old enough that I would probably start to worry a bit if she didn’t start to have doubts, but it’s still sad. It’s another part of childhood, of innocence and naivete lost. It’s another reminder that she’s not a little girl anymore and if you are one of the other people besides my father and apparently my kid that reads these you know that I hate that. It makes me sappy.

One thing they don’t tell you about raising children is that after all of the first times come all of the last times. The latter would be as melancholy as the first are exciting except that you don’t know that they are happening until after the fact.

Last year there was no sitting on stranger’s laps, something that when typed out seems pretty reasonable but has been a tradition of many families for a long time. Two years ago my daughter told a Santa Claus facsimile what she wanted for Christmas with the expectation that this would facilitate her getting these things. It was the last time that would happen and I had no idea. This year is going to have a little less magic to it and that bums me out.