Every Age and No Age: Max's Christmas

December, 1998. Max did not want to grow past this point!

  Before we get too far from Chritsmas, you might want to know about one special young man and his holiday.

Expectations

   Between school, TV, and generally the world around us, November and December are an endless buildup to to the magical Christmas all of us want and few of us get.

Family Time

  The good news is we had no meltdowns, though there was a lot of tenseness.  And there was less togetherness of extended family than we may have liked, trying to keep things not too far out of Max's comfort zone.
  Actually, MyGuy & i saw a bit less of each other, dividing to take Max home early.  But each of us got time with our own family, and we spend time with each other's separately & together on other occasions.  We are very blessed to have our family local.

Dinner is over; Max calmly but impatiently awaits the rest of the family to com for the next Big Event.  This is De-stressing Time.

Presents - Adjusting Expectations

  When Max opened his gifts this year, usually he said,, "Oh well."
  Boom told him that this age is the age for readjusting expectations. 
   It's hard to know what gifts to buy him.   The only things he really wants are Thomas engines and movies, which he collects fanatically, regardless of whether he already owns the item in question. (And yes, he has a complete inventory in his head.  i don't.)  We don't really want to encourage the Thomas interest, at age 22, but nothing else pleases him.    Oh well.

Max as Gift Giver

  The gifts he chooses to give are inexpensive, surprising, and pretty nice.  At Santa's Secret Shop, he chose a measuring tape for Dad that fills a need he didn't know he had.  Max chose for me a lovely vase which now holds pens and pencils on our new desk.  It's my favorite color, blue, and just what i needed.  Though i'm sure the helper raised an eyebrow when he chose the Grandma vase for Mom.  No one sees Grandma on it, just the beautiful design and perfect color.

The Reason for the Season

  Max enjoys decorating for Christmas and celebrating Jesus' birth.  We didn't get much into the decorating this year, but he loved what we did. We aren't much for playing music but we played Nativity carols and talked.  We looked on Matthew 1 & 2 as a comprehension lesson, and he did well with it.  And there were a few crafts that we both enjoyed. 

Vacation Structure

  Well, unfortunately, we couldn't muster much.  He was very glad to go back to school.