A guest post from Kayla…
I recently shared about Jasper’s first memorable Advent and I’m back to share how Christmas went.
[My husband] Spencer’s gifts to his parents was installing under-cabinet lighting in their kitchen, so he headed to the farm early on Christmas Eve to have a work day. Spencer’s mom worked an afternoon shift so I stayed home with Jasper. He helped me make Christmas gifts for his grandparents.
We made letters on the side of the stove to spell a message and then made a collage with the images to make a phone wallpaper and refrigerator magnet for each grandparent. He loved looking through pictures from the year and sat nicely on my lap while I made the collages.
Here’s the phone wallpaper we made Mom:
And the refrigerator magnet.
As a joke (but I think they actually went over well?) I made magnets of Jasper’s funniest faces from the year for his uncle. I think everyone thought I was joking when I said Jasper helped with the gifts, but he loved it.
I ordered The Star on Amazon Prime and was so impressed that Jasper watched it and seemed to understand it. I made the mistake of telling him it was about the baby, which, as we know, arrives very late in the Christmas story. Every (not exaggerating) minute, he would ask “Baby?” I told him the baby was in his mama’s belly and babies have to wait a long time to grow big enough to get out!
The Star is an animated movie of Christmas told from the perspective of the animals. It’s really wholesome but still funny so I enjoy watching it with him.
We “normally” (what is normal these days?!) would have went to Christmas Eve service but are still avoiding sitting in crowds with Jasper. So we had a simple supper and headed to Spencer’s family right at bedtime.
I put the star (that I mentioned in the Advent post) in my pocket and brought his Little People nativity set. When I got there I passed the star off to Spencer to hide and Jasper was so amazed that his star magically appeared at the farm.
He set up his Little People set close to the tree. We told him that the baby was coming when he went to sleep and asked if he thought the star would help the wise men find the baby.
Jasper is the only grandchild on that side of the family and loved being the center of attention. We all got a kick out of him dancing to his favorite songs from Polar Express. He loved passing out his envelopes with the magnets in. It was nice to see him enjoying giving gifts too.
The next morning when we…
woke up Jasper was so happy to see that the baby arrived and that the star found the “baby’s house.” (We’ll work out that detail next year.) He brought his wise men to find the baby too.
This set was a gift from a blog reader and he LOVES it. He randomly carries Jesus around and talks to me about him. (Blah blah blah BABY!! Mama! Blah blah Baby? Baby Mama? Baby Daddy?) The pieces go perfectly with The Star movie. Mom knew I wanted one and shared it with me. I’m not sure who to write a card to, so thank you!
Jasper’s “Santa” gifts were wrapped in a snowman shape. He didn’t seem to understand they were gifts at first, which was nice because it made him very patient. (Ha!)
When I was little we got three gifts like Jesus so I tried similarly. Jasper got a headlamp in the top, socks and underwear in the middle, and a Magnadoodle and puzzle in the bottom.
It was great to see him excited for gifts but I liked seeing him enjoying other people too.
His grandma put some implement catalogs in the box with some beautiful framed prints for his bedroom, and we all laughed because they were his favorite thing from the day.
We enjoyed a great meal and played a board game in the afternoon. It was a great day. I was nervous about what to expect from a [almost] two-year-old, but was pleasantly surprised.
I’m happy with how our Santa/Christian balance worked out and I’m excited for him to understand more of the Christmas story next year. I think next year he’ll be old enough to more actively pick gifts for others, which will be a lot of fun.