Christmas 2018 through the eyes of a child

What a month this has been. It’s hard to have a good Christmas when your spouse HATES the holiday.

My seven-year-old Anabela started out the month beyond excited. Every day she would ask when are we decorating the tree. But the tree was locked in a garage that only Dad could get into. So this Mom bugged him to the point that he made a tree out of lights on the wall. My seven-year-old thought it was great!

This Mom likes things to be perfectly Christmas at Christmas. You know, a nice full tree with ornaments spaced and color coordinated just so. I am the Mom who will let the kids put the ornaments on the tree but then go right behind and fix it. So when my fantastic boss gave me a bonus to spend on myself, I hit the senior thrift store for a 50 percent off sale and the Dollar Tree to get everything I needed to give her a real tree.

Then it was COOKIE TIME! I got everything we needed to make gingerbread cookies, that should’ve hung on the tree. My sweet Anabela would decorate one and then eat one, as she decorated the next to eat.

My husband and I argued, as he truly felt that what I call my princess was not good enough to get gifts. It took everything I had to convince him she wasn’t too bad to receive gifts. Each child got two gifts one from Santa and one from us.

Grandpa Deering came by to spoil the kids Christmas Eve. He brought Anabela two gifts and a gift card. She spent her gift card yesterday and Grandpa’s gifts were the first ones opened. She got Doctor Barbie and Musician Barbie from Grandpa. Santa got her a pet that lights up with different colors (Li’l Gleemerz) and we bought her a purse she can color that has sequins that sparkle.

I was worried because everyone else has trees filled with gifts, all of the latest gadgets, and I feel like I should have the same for her. She’s going to feel sad because others got so much more than she did. Then she looks at me and her Dad with loving eyes and says to us, “This is the best Christmas ever!” Wow, snapped back into the real world by the words of a seven-year old. She doesn’t care about all of that stuff. It’s getting to see her Grandpa, spending time with her Mom, Dad and sister. She doesn’t need a lot, just the love of her family.