The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas has been my favorite holiday as far back as I can remember.  And just like a lot of things so far this year, Christmas has taken on a new and more significant meaning this time around.

For starters, we were faced with an unexpectedly difficult question – what do you get a 7-month-old for Christmas? She’s too young to understand exactly what is going on.  We spent an entire long nap on Black Friday scouring the internet, eventually settling on an assortment of toys both big and small.

It was also a little more difficult to decorate this year.  Gone are the days of getting lost in some activity for an hour or two.  Now, at least one of us needs to be within eyeshot at all times, to make sure she hasn’t rolled herself into danger (which can happen more and more quickly the older she gets).  Fortunately, she’s only interested in the tree when we hold her up to it, she hasn’t been trying to roll into it or the pile of presents at the bottom.  She also hasn’t been too interested in the outdoor or indoor Christmas lights.  She much prefers anything that makes noise or that she can put in her mouth, and the lights are neither of those things.  Her favorite holiday-related activity so far might be raking her hand through our bowl of wrapped Christmas chocolate.

Even though she may not know it’s Christmas, she will enjoy things.  There will be lots of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins around to entertain her. She’ll enjoy noisily unwrapping her things (though we’ll have to keep a close eye to make sure no wrapping paper ends up being eaten).  Though as wonderful as this year will be, I must admit that I’m looking forward to the much more magical Christmases we’ll have when she’s a little bit older.
 

The author of this article is Tom Lally, Wealth Manager Assistant at U.S. Wealth Management.

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