The Broyles Baby Book: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Our 2021 holiday season started off in the usual fashion, with some adorable Christmas jammies:

My "deer" ones.

We love Pepper "deerly" too.

Next, we got to attend the "Golden Candlelight Walk" for the first time since moving to this town. Our first Christmas here, we didn't know about it. And it was cancelled last year due to Covid. Apparently, it's a time-honored tradition, and we immediately understood why. Pretty special to see the whole community come together, sing carols, and light up the whole downtown area.

Another time-honored tradition that many of our Colorado friends insisted we had to try was getting a permit to cut down our own Christmas tree. I waved this idea aside before because, well, Costco is just so easy. But this year, Chris worried about supply chain shortages and price hikes, so we snatched up a permit and drove up into the mountains to pick out the perfect tree.

Jill and Pepper enjoyed the ride.

In search of the perfect tree. We searched and searched. Turns out, "perfect" trees aren't particularly easy to find in the wild. So we settled for...less than perfect.

At least it was fun to chop down.

It was pretty scrawny.

I don't think it weighed more than 20 pounds.

At first we tried tying it to the top of the car, but it almost blew off.

So we just put it in the trunk instead. The one nice thing about cutting down a fresh tree is that we didn't get needles everywhere.

We got it home, propped it up, draped it with lights, and tried to find its best angle. The resemblance to Charlie Brown's little Christmas tree is, I think, quite striking.

The kids didn't mind though. They got right to work on decorating (which required creativity since the branches couldn't hold much weight).

Daddy and Pepper helped too.

Once the house was decorated and we were fully steeped in Christmas spirit, the activities started coming hard and fast. Here are some of the highlights:

We made gingerbread houses.

We went to see "A Christmas Story" at the Red Rocks drive-in with the Smiths and McKennas.

We checked out Denver zoo lights with the Scarlatas and Bailesses.

We made sandwiches to hand out at tent city with the Lathams.

We made lots and lots of batches of cookies.

Four different kinds of cookies!

We sang Christmas songs.

And we went to "Camp Christmas" with the Spichigers.

The carousel was definitely the highlight.

Camp Christmas also had a Santa Claus, but Jill was the only one who would come near him (and even then, she couldn't sit on his lap because Covid). Danny declared that this Santa wasn't the "real" Santa anyway. And Aaron had doubts that went even deeper...

In fact, this was the year that Aaron finally asked us point blank whether Santa was real. We had to answer honestly. So in true "Charlie Brown Christmas" fashion, Aaron learned that generosity and grace are the driving force behind Christmas bounty...not a fat guy in a suit. It was sad to see that chapter end, and a little bit of innocence die. But at the same time, he started to gain a better understanding of the joy of giving...not just receiving.

Walking downtown to do their Christmas shopping.

Opening gifts from friends that we found on our front doorstep.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve. We sat in front of the fire, drinking eggnog and eating our homemade cookies, and listening to Daddy read the Christmas story.

And after a (very) short night of anticipation, the big day arrived. Once again, we stuck with our "4-present rule" (although the categories keep getting tweaked): (1) something cool, (2) for sports or for school, (3) something you'll wear, and (4) something you'll share. But the gifts keep getting bigger every year, and they also get gifts from people other than Chris and me (including extended family, and "Santa"), and I go overboard on stocking stuffers, so there's still plenty of wrapping paper on the floor at the end of the day.