The Big Day

Well, the long-anticipated day has come and gone, the wreckage was strewn all over the living room and is now partially contained. The kid's enthusiasm for the season seems to be continuing unabated, only now it has nowhere to direct itself, kind of like a hurricane on a bender with no logical path.

Maybe other parents can relate. Today, the day after Christmas, we've had hours full of perpetual motion, a small person pretending to run into walls, rude variations on Christmas carols ("'Come,' they told me, bum bum bum bum bum," followed by hysterical giggles), and any number of characters, ranging from a mysterious guy named "Teasy the Germ," to a variety of princess/evil stepmother figures. We haven't had tears--yet. But we had the most annoying dinner ever, watching small hands try to make sushi rolls out of stuffing and green beans and then show them to people.

I guess this is our first taste of the post-Christmas burnout. Last year she was too young to anticipate it all; she knew it was coming because we kept telling her, but she didn't particularly have anything to compare it to and didn't miss it much when it was gone. She liked the gifts though. This year, she has been on a slow build since around Remembrance Day, and she's all dressed up today (literally, in a whole slew of fine creations) but with nowhere to go.

On Christmas Eve, I got the first big sign that it was going to be different this year. At bedtime, I think she began to consider the spookiness of the idea that a kind of elemental wood-fairy was going to come down the chimney and invade her home. She got quite quiet about it all, and a little nervous, and went to bed with very little argument. I think, honestly, she didn't want to come face-to-face with the Claus, didn't quite want to know what was out there in the dark. The flipside of Santa is the Boogieman. And that was the sign that she was weighing it all, taking it all in. (Made me love her quite a lot, my sensitive and thoughtful girl.)

Christmas morning continued the trend. She was quite tentative, taking it all in, clearly awed that He Had Come and had even brought her a rescue pet. But she rallied, oh yes indeed she did. By the end of the first hour, she was a pro. And knew she liked it. And wanted it to Go On and On and On and On and On.

Only, today is the day after Christmas. I wonder when the hurricane will blow itself out??