Voice of Will: Holidays

2006-12-31 - 1:00 p.m.
I love this time of year, and I also loathe it at the same time. I remember how important christmas was to me as a kid. Seeing family, visiting with friends, and of course getting presents.

As an adult, it has changed some, and having kids it has changed a lot. And yet, it hasn't changed too much. I look forward to hearing from family members, being with the kids, and now giving presents. In fact, I gain more pleasure from seeing the kids faces light up, and having crissy smile when I have given a good present.
This year it was a christmas tree that brought the smile.

You see in our family we have a tradition of having a "little tree" that we get, and it magically transforms into a full sized tree on christmas eve. Now the tradition started when the kids were all really little. In fact it started when Will Jr. was 3. (so zeb was 18 months, and rae was newborn). We had a little fake tree in the house. We were living in family housing at NAU and absolutely broke. (college, three kids you do the math). On christmas eve I went to walmart to pick up some kids cold medicine, and they were giving away their last few quasi charilie brown christmas trees that they couldn't sell. I picked one up, and brought it home. That night Criss and I set it up. It wasn't a big deal. That morning brought Will jr running into our room yelling that "Santa made the tree grow!" It was precious, and adorable.

And since that time we have made our tree grow ever christmas eve. The kids all still get up early and have wonder in their eyes and voices. I don't expect this tradition will remain much longer though. Will Jr is actively questioning the idea of Santa (good boy to question it, but it does kind of remove some of the fun). Zeb is on the border of whether he believes in santa, and Rae still does and argues with Will jr about it.

So we were trying to make the tree grow here. Finding a christmas tree was an adventure. And it isn't a real tree. But we did find really nice fake trees that come fully decorated. The japanese do know how to do it. They sell the tree, with all of the decorations in the box. So after the kids were asleep, criss and I opened the box and built the tree. It is about 2 meters high (6 feet). It came with plastic glossy balls, 2 beaded strings, a sting of colored lights, a large ribbon. When we were out we picked up some decorations for our little tree, and they got put on the new one, and it was topped with our christmas star. It is beautiful. In fact it is the prettiest tree we have ever had. It made criss cry, and smile, and cuddle me. So I guess it was a success.

Tomorrow is Zeb's birthday, so last night we let him choose where we would go for dinner. he could choose Coco's, Denny's, or sushi. He chose sushi. Our kids are amazing. They have adapted so well to Japan, it is scary at times. Sushi was a fun blast.

What I thought was fascinating was the shinto priests were out last night. They were walking through the neighborhoods, beating wooden sticks that make a tremendous CLACK noise. this is apparently in advance of new years. The shinto priests go through the neighborhoods, clacking and chanting to drive away evil spirits. Well as we walked to sushi, the priests turned a corner behind us, and their route followed our exactly. IN fact they were about 10 meters behind us, chanting and clacking all the way to sushi almost from our house. So for a nice 10 minute walk we were being driven out! It was too funny, the idea that the shinto priests were driving us out, cuz we are evil spirits. well they drove us to sushi anyways.