Mondays with Mac: Boxing Day

I am a day late posting this week. But I have a good reason. Mostly, that I didn’t want to turn on the computer yesterday. Which seems like a good enough reason to me. I was far too busy watching movies, snacking, and snuggling with my family to bother checking in with the rest of the world.

I love Christmas. LOVE it. The lights, the decorations, the cookies, the stuffing of too many family members around mismatched tables pushed together, the silly coloured hats that come in Christmas crackers, the gratitude for a year passed, the hopefulness of the year to come, the excitement of that perfect gift that you can’t wait to give, the surprise of that thoughtful gift you didn’t expect to get, sneaking my dad’s Toffifee chocolates – I love it all.

My grandmother. She hates having her picture taken. I love taking her picture.

But what I love most about Christmas, my absolute most favorite-est part of the whole holiday season, is Boxing Day. Recently Mac’s dad told me that Boxing Day isn’t an American Holiday. Wikipedia tells me that it began as the day following Christmas when wealthy people in the UK gave their servants a box containing a gift. In present day Canada it’s mostly about shopping (similar to Black Friday in the US).

However, my parents live in one of the few remaining cities in Ontario that legally prohibits stores from opening on December 26^th. It’s a contentious issue for the city and I am not weighing in on whether or not the law should be changed. But, because we were always forced to stay at home instead of heading out to over-crowded malls my family started a tradition of vegging out all day. And this year Mac got to join in. Although snacking (i.e. breastfeeding on demand) and staying in pajamas all day isn’t exactly special for Mac I still like to think that he got into the spirit with the rest of us.

So, when I should have been writing this blog I was instead lying on a mattress pulled into the family room next to my wife and my sweet smelling baby who fell asleep nursing (which goes against pretty much all baby sleep advice ever and I don’t care because he just looked so darn cute). My parents were sprawled out on couches around us, cheesy movies were playing on my Dad’s ridiculously large TV (which prompted my wife to comment that it was like bringing a bed to the movie theatre), my belly was very full and so was my heart.

Mac taking a nap between his moms

Whatever you are celebrating this season - Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Festivus, Saturday - I hope that you were able to take some time out to spend some quiet time with those you love as well. And if you haven’t yet please turn off the computer and go do it now. You worked hard this year. You deserve a day off.

Happy Holidays!