Live in the Moment

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year, celebrating togetherness and the spirit of giving. It's also a time of the year that brings back memories of Teddy's very first seizures on New Year's Day and seizures that landed us in the ICU right before Christmas another year. So we enjoy the season, but we're a bit skittish as well. We made it through Christmas relatively healthy, although Dave was under the weather, which dampened his fun (or maybe that was my family visiting ... just kidding).

Although Teddy enjoys playing with toys, he truly lives for the moments spent playing with others. He tried to unwrap a few presents from under the tree, but he spent most of his time bouncing around from person to person, ecstatic to have my entire family (plus 4 dogs) here. I spent much of my time watching him appreciating how much he lives in the moment and enjoys what's right in front of him rather than worrying about what will happen next.

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

When he opened his stocking, he found a peanut butter cup and immediately tried to open it. I lent a helping hand, and he shoved it in his mouth. Then he dug out an apple and headed toward the kitchen table to eat that, ignoring the rest of his stocking. Teddy loved that we had snacks on our counter for a couple days straight, helping himself to giant handfuls of cheese curds, nuts at random intervals and hey look there's cookies here for the taking!

It was unseasonably warm, so we got to spend some time outdoors for a few walks, even one Christmas night through the dense fog to enjoy the Christmas lights in the local park. I think I preferred the daytime Christmas Eve walk in the sunshine to the brewery, where it was warm enough to enjoy a beer and popcorn outside.

Enjoying a Christmas Eve stroll.

It felt weird to leave Teddy home with my mom while the rest of the family went to church, but it truly isn't worth the fight to have our entire family at church, even for Christmas mass. (Don't worry, my brother and sister-in-law and I accompanied Mom to Mass the next day, even if we went for a run while she went to church.)

Teddy enjoyed his gifts, and it's nice that simple things can entertain him (for as long as his attention span lasts). Even though we have oodles of magnets, we now have more. Same goes for giant waffle blocks, so they'll be able to build incredible creations. Teddy and AJ will get hours of fun with a gift certificate to the children's museum in Appleton.

I love, though, that the greatest part of Christmas in Teddy's mind is spending time with all the people. That's what Christmas is meant to be, and for now at least, he gets that.