Christmas can be a bit of a dart throw, even when we’re at home in our own space. It’s been a learning experience for years now. It’s always a lot of chaos, but that’s just kind of the nature of our life. We live up to the name, that’s for sure. Always a Hurricane.
Well, that Hurricane tends to make bub pretty anxious; and that anxiety causes him some pretty significant discomfort.
So, we’ve learned to dial back our approach to the holidays, and we now take things at David’s pace. He loves Christmas, and that is apparent in him wanting the festivities to last. All. Day. Long.
He loves presents. Seeing presents, handing presents out, and especially opening them. But we’ve learned that the suspense of present after present, unknown after unknown, surprise after surprise tends to ramp up his anxiety; and trust me when I say, we’ve learned it the hard way.
So, we planned on an all-day love affair. Present, open, play, chill. Present, open, play, chill. His pace, his comfort. We knew his anxiety was already ramped up some from the 7 hour road trip the day before, so we figured it might take a little longer than usual.
Boy. Were we ever wrong.
This year, David decided that Christmas was about efficiency.
When it came time to open presents, we sat down, and asked David which one he wanted to open first.
“Big one first.”
Ssoooo, he’s been planning. Excellent.
He opened it, loved it, immediately asked Grampa for it to be assembled. We figured it would be an hour or so before another one got opened.
“Open present?”
Okay… no one panic. He wants to open another one right away. He grabbed one, opened it, handed it to dad. “Help open”.
Okay but THIS is where he slows down…
Nope.
David sat down and RIFLED through his gifts, opening them with a reckless abandon, stimming and flapping with excitement with each one, then immediately wanting to open the next. He ended up in a sea of toys, and slime, and moon sand, and more toys.
Absolutely enamored with his new haul.
We were stunned. Amazed, actually. The boy just tore up Christmas. Something we never thought we’d see, when left to his decision, went more smoothly – actually more happily – than we ever could have imagined it would.
This is why you never give up. Why you never force your hand, and why you never let your expectations influence your trust in your kids’ abilities. David shattered our preconceptions of how today would go, and we are so proud of this kid we can’t even express it.
Now, on to a big ole’ Christmas dinner!
Merry Christmas, everyone! Love you all!
🎄-Hurricane Heffners-🎄
Hurricane Heffners 