Holiday Rush!

The hectic pace of the approaching holidays, combined with the vagaries of a new job (the second new job in the last month, so perhaps it should be termed "the new new job") have combined to run this particular Dad Chronicler into the ground (hence the unforgivable lack of posts. I can only hope that all of you have interesting enough lives that you haven't been bothered by the recent bout of invisibility).

The question of what happens when you combine the crowded Christmas "rush" shopping malls, a five-year old boy and a dazed father who generally hates shopping in crowds at the best of times, is a loaded one indeed....but due to a combination of luck, a free weekday off and some actual Xmas shopping foresight, I've actually managed to finish earlier than December 24th for once. Shocking though it might seem, this particular Dad actually seems to have things under control this year...except for my annual spectacular incompetence at baking edible Christmas cookies (they generally end up hard enough that even the squirrels on our back deck ignore them in favor of..well, almost anything).

Zachery is (as usual) tremendously excited about the approach of Christmas, but is loudly insisting this year that "I really don't want anything for Christmas Daddy." but carefully circling most of the toys in the catalogue with his markers, just in case. You can however, see the excitement building day-to-day, creeping into his voice at odd times, and manifesting in increasing difficulty in getting him to sleep at night. As more and more Christmas cartoons make their appearance, he has started to count down the days until Christmas. Last year it was the only night of the year when he willingly dove into bed before 8 pm and fell asleep fast, thinking that Santa wouldn't come until after he was asleep.

Christmas is possibly the holiday with the strongest association with family for me, and I am truly grateful for the life I have and the people who share it with me, in particular my Zachery. My wife was musing the other day as she was wrapping gifts for Zack's cousins about what our Christmas's were like before Zachery arrived in our lives and, in truth, in memory they seem pale and empty, bereft of meaning, importance and excitement...even though I know that they were, at the time, fun and joyous in their own way.

Parenting is like that. The world divides swiftly into before and after, and Christmas in particular is never quite the same again.

Given the short time until Christmas arrives, this post will probably be the last for the next week, so from all of us to all of you, I wish you all the joy of the season to you and yours. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and stay well.

Comments are always welcome. You can reach me at dadchronicles(at)hotmail.com.