Special Days

Julia's first grade class has children who celebrate a variety of holidays this time of year, from Diwali to Hanukkah to Christmas.  Therefore, there are no specific holiday-themed projects done by the class, but instead, the kids in class are invited to share special family traditions that are part of their particular holidays. 

Part of this sharing occurred in the making of individual "Special Days" books.  Each member of the class got to answer questions about special days celebrated in December with his or her family.  Julia brought hers home a few days ago.

"Lots of families celebrate special days in December.  My family celebrates: Christmas."

"Some of the things we do during this holiday are: I get a wreeth and go to Kinadikit."

It's an interesting choice of things she decided to share.  We generally get our wreeth early in December, and we're typically in Kinadikit for Boxing Day.  There's a wide range of time in between the two events, in which we do a lot of things that are more celebratory and more Christmassy.  I'm a little surprised that things like, say, performing in the church Christmas pageant, or decorating our tree, or, I don't know, OPENING PRESENTS, didn't take precedence.  But, hey, as I posted yesterday, the girls sure enjoy getting (and decorating) our wreeth!

"Some of the foods we eat are: terky stufing bred gingerbred men and eat cookies."

I think she might be getting Christmas mixed up with Thanksgiving in the beginning of her food list here.  But, yes, cookies are definitely a big part of our Christmas celebration.  Even though I don't actually make gingerbread men.  But sometimes an auntie does.

"This holiday is important because: it's about God and Jesis."

Well, Julia certainly has a better sense of what Christmas is about than Madeleine does.  Madeleine doesn't seem to actually understand that Christmas is a holiday, and appears to believe "Christmas" is synonymous with winter.  Here are just a few of the discussions we've had on the topic lately.

MADELEINE: Mama?  When, oh when is it going to be CHRISTMAS?
ME: On December 25.  Why?  What do you love so much about Christmas?
MADELEINE: Um...playing in the SNOW!  And going SLEDDING!


Or:

ME: Madeleine, do you know what Christmas is?
MADELEINE: Yes.  Christmas is a SEASON!


Or:

ME: So, Madeleine, can you tell me what we celebrate on Christmas?
MADELEINE: Um...we celebrate PRESENTS!


Anyway...Julia apparently does not find the celebrating presents part to be the most exciting aspect of Christmas, as you will see here:

"The thing I like best about this holiday is: staring at the Christmas tree."

Um.  Okay.  I like her zombie-like expression and her spiky hands that look like they're shooting magic lights out of them.  But really??  Staring at the Christmas tree??  I do admit, however, that Julia certainly DOES spend a lot of time staring at the Christmas tree.  She will literally notice ANY new ornament that gets hung, and will notice anytime an ornament has changed branches.  This makes it particularly inconvenient for me to "re-decorate" after the kids have gotten a chance to clump a bunch of non-special ornaments all in the front lower branches of the tree.  But even with all the staring she does, I NEVER would have guessed that staring at the tree is the thing Julia likes best about Christmas.

See, even *I*  learned something new about our holiday traditions from reading Julia's "Special Days" book!