This year I decided that I thought it would be important to teach our children that Christmas is not all about presents. I absolutely get sick to think how much people spend on presents and the fact that beyond the actual morning of Christmas kids typically forget what they got anyway. Maybe it was because we didn't get a ton at Christmas as kids but there are only a few things that really stick out in my memory. Getting the Sony playstation which was the one gift that all three of us kids got as our only present and when I got the real cabbage patch kid as I had gotten what I termed "the fake one" the year prior. But really beyond that I cannot pin point what I got for Christmas as a kid.
The only Christmas that I will NEVER forget as a kid was when my parents took us to Mexico for Christmas. Christmas morning there was not a tree of presents to be found, or the craziness of wrapping paper being torn into, no new toys to play with BUT we had our family all together for 7 days of fun in Mexico. We spent quality time together, visited places we had never been before, got to learn about a culture beyond our happy little American one and it was awesome! Why they never did it more than that time I don't know but they are memories that I will never forget.
So Bjorn and I decided that we would take the family to California in lieu of presents. It was our memories versus materials plan. I gave up my birthday gifts as well to make it possible to do this. Bjorn and I did not exchange presents and we did not buy any for the kids. Because the kids still SO believe in Santa we got them a small gift each from Santa. The kids had no idea about California as we decided to keep it a surprise. Bjorn has an Aunt and Uncle and I have cousins there that we don't get to see alot. Thus we arranged to stay with them and make it a little extended family trip as well.
We had everything packed and ready to go. Started to get the kids up, get them dressed and headed down to breakfast. The funny thing is none of them asked "Why are we getting up?". After all Torin knew that he didn't have school and that Christmas break was starting. They all just followed our lead. As we were eating breakfast, we handed them a gift. We had bought a dog toy to hint as to where we were going even though at this point they had no clue what was going on. Torin and Vaughn ripped into it and Torin says "It's a dog toy." with a puzzled look. At this point Ryan, Bjorn's brother showed up. Now Torin knew something was up.
We said that Ryan just wanted to stop by. They bought it even though Torin was still a little skeptical of that answer. So we said we were going to visit someone that had dogs and thought that they would maybe want to bring that with. They started guessing people in town. So we showed them a picture of Louise and Perry's dogs. Torin says...."That's Auntie Louise's dogs." And right after he said it out loud it clicked to where we were going "WE'RE GOING TO CALIFORNIA" he yelled. We said yep and both the boys started going crazy. They were so excited. Torin asked when and I said "Well we need to leave in about 5 minutes." He was so shocked he didn't know what to do. "Mom, I have to pack", "It's done Torin. Your bag is packed in the car.", "Did you get my Shawn White shirt? My DS, my Pokeman cards...I have to show Gavin my Pokeman cards Mom." He went on and on and thankfully I had thought of everything that he mentioned so we were good to go. The boys jumped into the van with smiles as big as I had ever seen them and we were off to the airport.
The boys did great on vacation and we got a ton of quality time in along with seeing family and making a ton of great memories. After all it is pretty rare in MN to be able to go for hike on Christmas day :) Torin had really wanted a Wii for Christmas and when we were in the airport on our way home from the trip I asked "Torin wasn't this trip better than any Wii." Torin said that was a tough question that he would have to think about and to ask him again later. About an hour later he asked me "Mom ask me that really hard question again." So I asked him and his response was "It really was better. Because we got to be together the entire time. I got to see Auntie Louise, Uncle Perry, Gavin, Dylan and their Mom and Dad. We got to go hiking, to the ocean, see the elephant seals, the aquarium, see glass being blown, geocaching, eating at that really fun restaurant, the skate park and just be together. That was better than any Wii. Thank you so much Mom for taking us on this trip!"
That response was of course the one that I was looking for but when I actually heard it, it melted my heart because I knew that this was something that he was never going to forget. These memories that were made were ones that were going to last a lifetime. To me that is priceless and something that no material thing could replace.
We decided that every other year we are going to do the memories versus materials. Bjorn and I have already starting plotting out the next SURPRISE :) The next few posts will show the pictures from the trip. I hope you enjoy them all :)
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