Welcome, Santa Baby!
Amy Detweiler is a mother, nurse, blogger at Sarasota Moms Blog and former client of Buddha Belly Birth doulas. She graciously contributed this post about her special Santa baby, born in 2015. - Amy
Christmas means different things to different people depending on who you ask. We all know at least one Christmas fanatic who has their tree up the day before thanksgiving and listens to Christmas music all year long. Others will say it's not Christmas time until they've watched their favorite movie whether it be miracle on 34th street or my personal favorite, Elf. No matter who you ask though everyone can agree that the holiday season is all about family.
This was especially true for our family last year. We put up our tree like normal. We watched all of our favorite movies. We even went to see a holiday light show for date night.
But last year we skipped the holiday gift giving madness because we were giving everyone a baby for Christmas!
Just like any other year we spent the holiday season surrounded by our family and friends but we spent it preparing for our new baby together. A normally busy time of year seemed to drag by as we were counting down the days until we could meet our son. The madness of the holidays melted away as I spent a lot of time catching up on sleep, getting mani pedis with my sister, and lounging around with my big baby belly. No hectic trips to the mall to search for the perfect gift. I even had an excuse to skip the holiday work party!
Then on Christmas Eve at 12:27 PM we received the ultimate Christmas gift. Do you remember being a little kid, opening the gift you were asking for all year, and then playing with it all day? That's exactly what we did.
We spent the following days snuggled up in our hospital room as a family of three.
No rushing around to 3 houses on Christmas Day. No cooking a huge holiday meal and best of all no cleaning up. Our friends and families came to visit us. They brought us Chinese food, wings and plenty of love. Not a single person missed the absence of wrapping paper or the lack of gifts. Reflecting on it now it was the most peaceful, beautiful Christmas of our lives.
Flash forward a year later and the scene at our house is much different.
Time is definitely not dragging by like last year! The calendar seems to go by in fast forward mode. We are running around in twelve different directions with about a million and a half things on our to-do list. There's still a tree to put up and lights to hang. This year we're back to buying gifts for the whole family plus a 1 year old. With no excuses to avoid holiday functions this year we're doing something every weekend including meeting Santa (twice). On top of the holiday madness we have the task of planning a first birthday. An extra get together to throw, an extra menu to plan, finding another perfect gift and trying to make it all special for our little guy. This year no one is offering to clean my house top to bottom either. Man do I miss being pregnant and spoiled!
But at the heart of it this year is still the same. So far our holiday season has been filled with friends, family and love. Our closest loved ones will be with us again to celebrate our son's birthday. I'm sure we will sit around reminiscing about the past year in a moment of peace amidst the Christmas chaos.