Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday!

Here is Dude, on Christmas Eve, age 364 days.

In my dad's Danish family, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve--the main events that I remember from celebrations at my grandmother's house when I was a little girl were dinner (and, mostly, walking around the table and studying each of the hand-painted flowers on her china, deciding which plate I wanted to eat from), dessert (a rice pudding with raspberry sauce, with one blanched almond hiding inside one person's pudding.  Whoever finds the almond in his/her pudding gets the "almond present," which is traditionally a marzipan pig), and "dancing around the Christmas tree" (we would pull the tree into the center of the room, make a circle around the tree, hold hands, and walk around the tree while singing Christmas carols).   This year, we had an early dinner so that dude could eat with us, hid the almond inside of a gingersnap, and skipped the Christmas carol singing to avoid waking the baby--but some day, I hope he gets a taste of those Danish traditions.  My favorite of the Christmas carols is "Nu har vi jul igen" -- the song has only one line (which translates roughly to "Now it's time for Christmas again, and Christmas lasts until Easter), sung faster and faster and faster each time you sing it, and also "danced" faster and faster and faster, until everyone collapses, laughing, unable to go any faster.  We teach newbies to sing "You are a hooligan, oh you are a hooligan, and you're about to get a postcard," which kinda sorta captures the basic sounds of the Danish words.

In our family, in addition to celebrating Christmas Eve, we always celebrated Christmas morning -- and in Patrick's family, Christmas is always celebrated with a dinner on Christmas Day.  So, in the morning, we celebrated Christmas... as well as Dude's first birthday.  Wowza!  One year!  My Christmas wish came true: I did not go into labor this Christmas.  Woo to the hoo!  We tried to make all the wishes Shay didn't even know he had come true: there were Christmas presents, and birthday presents; Christmas jammies, and a birthday t-shirt.  Here he is, on Christmas morning, age 365 days.  Doesn't he look taller?  And more mature?

As you can see, I was at times more excited than the baby about the presents.   He seemed to think it was mainly a cruel joke: somebody gives you a box, then they take it back to get the paper off it, then they give you this cool new toy, and then they take it back to get it out of all the plastic and tape and twistie ties.

Seriously, toy makers, you are ruining Christmas with your kryptonite packaging.

There were some happier moments, once the packaging was removed and the new loot stayed in his possession for a while.  And then, after dinner, there was cake!

Here he is with his first bite of chocolate; he is clapping, though you can't really tell from the photo.

All in all, it was a fun set of celebrations, but a bit overwhelming for the poor little man.  This whole "having a birthday on Christmas" thing is something we're going to have to work on.  We're thinking of doing a half-birthday party for him in the future, instead of a birthday party.  Thoughts?  Do you know anyone who has a birthday on Christmas?  What are some things we could do to make sure he doesn't feel cheated out of having his own special day?

Hope your day was merry and bright.  You are a hooligan!  And you're about to get a postcard!