As the holiday season draws to a close, I want to take a few minutes to tell you about our Christmas this year.

So what did we do for Christmas '08? Here's the super-fast version:

The majority of Christmas Eve was spent with Nathan's family, and Christmas Day was spent with mine. The day after Christmas (which, incidentally, was also our 10th wedding anniversary) was spent on the road and then celebrating Christmas with Nathan's sister & her family. The next day (which, also incidentally, is the 11th anniversary of our first official date), we came home and - surprise! - Santa Claus had actually stopped at our house (even though we weren't there) and had left Iliya a few more presents. So we had our family-of-3 Christmas on Saturday afternoon. Saturday night, we crashed, gratefully, into our own beds.

Whew! Are you as tired from reading that paragraph as I am?
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I can't remember how much I blogged about Christmas last year (I could go back and look, I'm sure, but who has the energy for that? :)) but I should mention that last year was a really awesome Christmas...the one that finally came following the Bridges' transformation into a family of three. The drawback to our first Christmas together was that my expectations were so incredibly high: I'd waited SO long to have Christmas with my very own child that I forgot to take into account that he had only been home for 5 months at the time, was still learning his place in our family, was still learning the English language, and...oh yeah, that everything did not have to be perfect or exactly as I'd imagined it should be over the previous 8 childless Christmases.

This year... well, this year was completely different. And in the best way imaginable.

First, Iliya is so cemented into our family that I occasionally have to stop and think really hard to remember what life was like before him. I can honestly say that the attachment is there - on both sides, his and mine (or maybe I should say from all sides - his and every single person within our family system). And I can easily say he is comfortable in our family, now...his attachment to - and comfort with - us makes my job a bit easier, since I don't feel like I have to be right with him at every moment. He knows I am available if he needs me, so he and I can both enjoy other people without me being as vigilant as I felt I needed to be last year.

Second, his grasp of English is amazing. I could post every day with a new sentence I've heard from him (I'm going to devote at least one post to this very soon - but suffice it to say that I'm totally amazed with the speed of his language development). Along with his language development has come the understanding of concepts such as Santa Claus. This year, Iliya - while initially afraid of Santa - understood who the man in the red suit is. In fact, I have some pictures to post, soon (gotta keep you coming back somehow!), that are evidence of his progression toward being "okay" with Santa. And his comprehension of Christmas has been the thing that just really made the whole season. There's nothing like being in the car at night, with your child excitedly pointing out all the Christmas lights he sees...or decorating the Christmas tree and then noticing that there are about 5 ornaments hanging from one branch. It's just fun.

And finally, my expectations were as non-existent as I could make them this year. I decided that nothing had to be perfect - and if Iliya wanted to take 2 hours to open up his presents, then that was fine (I had to keep reminding myself, though, that he was savoring each gift he received, and that it was not my place to rush him along on the day of all days that he should be able to take his time and enjoy himself). I mentioned my high expectations last year...and I think the problem was that I just expected him to feed off of our excitement and intutitively know that Christmas was a big day and know how to open gifts, and to appreciate the beauty of things like Christmas lights. (I'm not sure where I learned to set such high expectations of a child that had just turned 2 and had only been in the country for 5 months, but I did, nonetheless, & didn't even realize it until after Christmas was over). This year, though, I didn't even set those expectations and went with the flow. And I was pleasantly surprised with things like his excitement with the christmas lights and decorating the tree. So that no one misunderstands, I should say that last year was a wonderful Christmas...I just so wish I'd been more understanding and less hard on myself and those around me to make it absolutely perfect... live and learn, I guess (and maybe, by pointing out my own experiences, others may learn from them!).

Anyway, I have to say that this was the best Christmas, yet! I hope you all had a wonderful time and safe travels. I'm looking forward to a busy and happy New Year...almost as much as you are looking forward to seeing pictures from our week! (yes, I'll get those up before we ring in the new year...so keep checking back! :))