Christmas is and always has been my favourite festive season for as far as I can remember. I just simply enjoy the christmasy mood that seems to fill the air - well, that's something that somehow only my olfactory senses can detect! I always love the days leading up to Christmas and I'd feel sad once Christmas is over coz I guess that signals to me the end of another year. Somehow the year seems to come to an end for me when Christmas does. :)
What exactly do I love about Christmas? Hmm, I can't really put my finger on it. But I guess it's the general sense of kinship and love in the air. But I'd have to admit that when I was young, I loved Christmas because of all the presents that I was showered with. Now as an adult, and more significantly, a parent, gone are the days of receiving. Giving has become and is the word of the day. It is Alicia's turn now to be on the receiving end, a concept which I think she hasn't really come to fully understand, yet. But when she does, I'm sure she'd love Christmas too, as much as I do.
Has Christmas become too commercialised? Perhaps to some extent (yes, I do notice that I can't seem to decide on the extent - something I used to penalise students for in their essays). Well, I can't deny that all the shopping centres have started their Christmas sale weeks ago and "the joy of giving" seems to be some fixed tagline - and it seems that if you're not giving something to someone (i.e. buying something off the shelves), you're missing out on something, the quintessence of Christmas. That's how Christmas seems to be portrayed. But if you do have time to attend any Christmas service at church, you may realise that Christmas is still well, very much Christmas - a time to remember that God gave us the best Christmas present ever. :)
So much for my rambling... and speaking about presents, Alicia was asked to pick her Christmas present on Sunday by my mum and aunt. So off to Kiddy Palace we went (since we were at Jurong Point). She picked a BIG plush Tigger - she spotted a Tigger sitting on the carousel on display and started exclaiming "tat! tat! tat!", and when we walked past a Tigger that was just minding his own business on the shelf, she lunged towards it and hugged it. And so, I had to carry two babies of almost the same size around Kiddy Palace after that. I offered her other plush toys like Pooh, Piglet and Stitch. But she wanted only Tigger and refused to let go of him. When I put her down on the ground to walk about on her own, she continued to hold on tightly to Tigger. And so, Tigger it was. She wasn't going to compromise on that. :D Other Christmas presents we picked up alongside Tigger were a motorised toy, a new Piyo Piyo water bottle (her pigeon magmag's spoilt and we decided that it's time she had a toddler-like (i.e. cool) water bottle to bring out) and a new Strawberry Shortcake soup spoon (which she refuses to trade with me for any other spoon now). Well, amazingly, she loves her new waterbottle so much that she hasn't thrown it about at all - she threw her Pigeon magmag around till it was spoilt!
We brought home all the Christmas toys in advance except for the motorised toy which my mum wants to wrap and put under the Christmas tree so that Alicia will receive something during the family gathering on Christmas eve.
Here're some videos of Alicia with a couple of her newfound loves.
Alicia with her new waterbottle!
Playing with Tigger!
Alicia trying to tie Tigger's "hair" :D
