Christmas experiences

So today you got to meet Santa at your Pediatricians office. I'm mentally able to call him Santa now. See back in Zim and other countries across the pond he's called Father Christmas. Cool right? We were in line for almost 45mins and the whole time you were playing smiley baby and coo games with mama while you were in your stroller and social baby when you weren't as you smiled at everyone who said hello to you. I was a super proud and happy mama. 

I was more excited than I thought i would be. I am trying to make sure you experience things more organically and not checking off the expected baby milestones just because. But I figured you need at least a memory of meeting Santa. I have some of meeting Father Christmas a couple of times, so why should you not. It wasn't a yearly ritual for our family. You see until i was in my early teens we more often than not went to mama's grandparents homestead in the village grandpa grew up in for a week or two. Sometimes we'd go to grandma's parents but their village was only an hour away so it was more of a day visit. The "long" 5hr trip to grandpa's parents was more exciting when I was younger as we ( my siblings, cousins and an uncle/aunt or two) were packed like sardines in canopy covered pick up trucks while the older adults rode in the sedans. We'd often make a gobble stop at a layaway to devour the goodies all the moms made in their respective homes. Before reaching the homestead and turn into the dirt road that led to it we'd stop and stock up on goodies that were to most of our cousins in the village more luxuries than staples. Think sugar, tubs of butter( not too much since there was no electricity therefore no fridge), tea, bags of a dozen loaves of bread, cans of jam spread, biscuits( cookies in America), potato chips ...yes we  literally got enough food to feed a village. On top of that they'd always be a fattened cow that was picked from the krall to feed the masses expected. Not all of our village neighbors had city relatives like our family did so they'd stop by, most of them  on Christmas day to join in devouring the Christmas luxuries. I remember the overwhelming feeling of family and community,  and it didn't matter who lived in the city or the village we were all just people celebrating family. Obviously as I got older I preferred the Christmas at home with your grandparents because they felt more normal. Yiu know the tree the gifts ( that we shopped for that week) under the tree Christmas morning etc. But now I'm glad I experienced Christmas time so colorfully. My hope is that you have your own unique experiences in life especially during times like the Christmas season. That you'll one day have your own unique stories to tell. 

Yay Santa or Father Christmas.