With the family under the weather for just over a month, it has been hard to get ahead of much around the house. We have been saving the energy we do have for doing the dishes and cleaning things. Though not totally better still, there seems to be progress on the health front. We decided to capitalize on that a bit tonight by putting up the Christmas tree.
Ryken was only a few months old last year when we put up the Christmas tree, so he didn’t really show much interest in the festivities. This year was quite different. He is a very curious little guy, and all the ‘toys’ that were out just had to be explored:
Here he is holding a little Eskimo baby wrapped in a papoose from Amy’s great aunt. He had a lot of fun transporting them from Amy as she pulled them out of the box, to me waiting over by the tree:
He was especially fascinated with the pickle:
The pickle is associated with a German tradition of hiding a Pickle on the Christmas tree, with it’s finder receiving an extra small gift – which in our hours is typically a $5 Del Taco gift card. Upon looking into the tradition briefly online, it appears to be of unknown origin, and it sounds like most Germans know nothing of it. Regardless, the tradition will not be questioned by me as $5 at Del Taco is at stake!
One non-ornament Christmas decoration that had Ryken’s attention was a giant snow globe given to us last year by Amy’s dad. Ryken went back and forth between nonchalant affection:
and extreme interest:
Though Ryken didn’t really understand what we were doing with all these fun little toys, or why, I was able to get a shot of him putting an ornament on the tree:
though he was really just pushing it at the tree with no desire for it to stay there. I know that because when I put the ornament on a branch, he walked up to it and pulled! It has been so fun to watch Ryken show interest in so many things around him. I can’t even imagine how fun next Christmas will be, and I wonder what parts of the Christmas traditions of our house he will enjoy most.
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