Tonight, like almost every night for the past few weeks, Julia and I danced together to Christmas music. Dancing is a loose term. Usually she sits on my shoulders, sometimes she lays in my arms like a baby, and others, seated in my arms. I don't really remember how it started...one night I streamed my iPad to the stereo (on which I'm typing this blog in bed with my bluetooth keyboard) and I guess we started dancing.
Now, after dinner every night she asks to dance to Christmas music. After we finish eating Stacey has to take Jonathan upstairs to nurse him and to put him down for the night. That's when the after-dinner entertainment begins. It usually lasts anywhere from 20-30 minutes and leaves my back, arms, and/or neck sore...but we have fun. I've created two custom playlists on Pandora, Freddy Martin (Holiday) and Bing Crosby (Holiday). Bottom line: songs that they play on the radio these days like "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" are lame, annoying, and down right insulting to anyone trying to get into the Christmas spirit. You can't beat Christmas music from around WWII, so that's what was played in our home this year.
Julia obviously liked it. Sometimes she wanted us to "be silly". That meant she wanted me to swing her around the room until she almost fell off my shoulders or backwards out of my arms. Other times, she'd dance. We have mirrors on our living room wall, so I could see what she was doing. The funniest dance in her repertoire involved sitting on my shoulders, closing her eyes, and pumping her arms back and forth and slightly side to side like she was running. The look on her face was hilarious.
It only dawned on me a few days ago what kind of lasting impression this unofficial Christmas tradition will make on Jules. After a few times listening to the same songs over and over she started to pick up most of the words and sing along. We were having fun at the time and I guess after the first night or two I kind of forgot that she was singing along with me and the music. A few days ago I realized that during this time together I had been teaching her Christmas carols. The rest of her life she'll sing these songs and I helped her learn them. I didn't plan on teaching her Christmas carols, it just kind of happened.