Story Time at B&N

It was a fabulously snow morning in Indiana this morning ..!  Just the day I've been dreaming of ... snow on the ground and more floating down from the heavens, and me, peacefully sipping hot coffee, no hurry to go brush the car off, warm it up, chip ice off the windshield, digging out boots, hat gloves ... just peacefully enjoying the snowy morning ... made better only by the dark chocolate crinkle cookie I swiped from the "Cookies for St. Monica's Cookie Walk Do Not Touch!!" bag ... hahah ... appropriately labeled to keep the Cookie Monster away (secretly I pretend that is Ryan, knowing in fact I am the beast that cannot stop eating cookies in this house ... MMmmMmM!!).

... so it was pajama day at our house, until Thomas & I got ready for our first "Christmas Tradition" as a little family!  We invited some of our Mom's group friends to join us for story time at Barnes & Noble!  I heard about it via e-mail on Monday ... cookies, cocoa and The Polar Express.  When we arrived there were local middle school students reading various Christmas/winter themed stories in the children's section.  At 7 p.m. they began to read The Polar Express, followed by a drawing/writing engagement - letters to Santa, of course ;-)  It sounded like a fine Christmas Tradition to start with my tiny infant on a snowy day like today, so we met with 2 of our mom friends and enjoyed visiting more than listening to the story this time around, before picking out some books as gifts and our very own copy of The Polar Express.  This book will be the corner stone of this "Christmas Tradition" of ours, even if we share the story at home as a family or with friends, sipping hot cocoa and munching cookies together =)

A facebook group I am a member of - WTE: Real Women Have Bumps June 2011 - has been a great resource to me throughout my pregnancy and Mommy-hood.  It's wild to think we've all been in touch via the internet for over a year, sharing in our pregnancy trials and tribulations, and celebrating the births and now milestones of our babies.  We met courtesy of the What to Expect website, all coordinated together by their message boards divided by month baby is due.  I only bring up this group because I feel like I talk about it a lot in my daily conversation, and we had an interesting post a few weeks back about when we stopped believing in Santa and how it happened ... which correlates well with the story of the Polar Express.  I think I captured my feelings about believing in Santa best when I responded:

"I still believe ;-)  It's about spirit, excitement, sharing and tradition for me ... if you can wrap it up in a jolly fat man wearing a red suit with a great beard, terrific! hahah I love Christmas. Call me a nut if you want!"

It's not about who can buy the BEST gift ... or how much money you can spend ... it's really about tradition, spirit, excitement ... and all of those things come from within ... intentionality (i think i just made up a word?) to set up a tradition, to build the excitement, to carry the spirit along inside of you ... doing nice things for one another, for people who need their spirit lifted ... and I can't wait to build holiday traditions with my son and husband, and to introduce him to some of the traditions that we grew up with as children ... because let's face it, nothing beats seeing the excitement on a child's face when they truly believe in Santa ... ;-)

Cheesey line incoming:  Do you hear the silver bell ringing at Christmas?