A Day Full of Holiday

Our Sunday started off in the family bed. Aidan had awoken quite early, so Jason brought him in with us in hopes that we'd all get a little more sleep before we were forced to accept that our day was going to begin with or without our permission. We talked about how we were planning to attend both Aidan's school Hanukkah party and Jason's company Christmas party all in the same day. So, then the questions start. "Are we Jewish? Are we Christian?" We talked about the differences between the two and how there are many other religions as well and then we talked about generalized similarities and differences. We talked about the various ethnicities and religions of the people we know. It was a nice conversation, one that I mentioned to his teacher at the party. Her response was, "Aidan has great questions." Yes, he does.

The Hanukkah party was a lot of fun. I was not aware that Aidan had been learning so many songs in both Hebrew and English. He belted out as loud as he could on the songs he likes the most. I was sort of shocked to hear it, as he doesn't sing like that at home. His school has hired a new music teacher who will come weekly next semester. Aidan seemed to respond well to him. The latkes and applesauce were good too.

And then we attended the Christmas party. It's a dinner party with both kids and adults, but otherwise very formal. Aidan wore his dinner jacket, which he liked wearing very much (which is weird, since he's violently objected in the past). The CEO's wife told Aidan early in the evening that Santa will come right after dinner (probably around dessert time) and that he sometimes comes from the top of the stairs and looks over the landing before descending to the dining room.

Aidan strategically positioned himself at the table to have a great view of the stairwell. As soon as he started to eat his ice cream, a very loud, "Ho, Ho, Ho" came from above. Aidan shot up to his feet on his chair and turned to get a great view of Santa. He then shot out of his chair and ran to greet Santa at the bottom of the stairs, then followed him to the chair next to the fireplace, where Aidan sat quietly until Santa was ready to greet him. He happily sat on Santa's lap to get his gift when his name was called but he wouldn't open his gift because I had told him that he couldn't open any gifts until Christmas. I then had to explain that if Santa gives you a gift early, you can go ahead and open it.

Later Santa gave out huge Hershey's kisses sort of like this one, only Christmas themed. I was talking to someone behind me and was trying to appease Aidan by cutting off a chunk for him, when he took the huge chunk of chocolate out of my hand and started eating it like it was an apple! After which he got incredibly hyper and started running full speed around the room. Jason just ignored it as I was racing after Aidan trying to slow him down. See pics.