I’m more excited about Christmas this year than I have been the past couple of years.  It’s hard not to be excited when a 2 1/2-year-old is running around like a tiny madman, acting as though the lights on the Christmas tree are the most incredible thing ever.

Even more exciting, he’s old enough to get that Santa will bring him a special present this year if he behaves well, which means we get to see that look on his face when he comes into the living room to find out just what he got.  It’s an absolutely incredible feeling.  It makes my heart melt.

Best of all, he’s young enough not to be asking for massively expensive presents.  He enjoys the unwrapping almost as much as anything else, and the smallest things sometimes make him act as though he just received a million dollars.  So when he comes in to find his “good Spiderman present” under the tree, it doesn’t have to be something specific or complicated.  It can be as simple as a lawn chair with Spiderman on it or a Spiderman hula hoop or one of those inflatable bop-it bags, and he’s going to love it.

No matter what we do, I know that with time, that will fade.  He’ll develop much stronger opinions about what he likes and dislikes, and he’ll learn how to express those likes and dislikes more easily and completely.  He’ll start wondering if it’s cool to let his excitement show.  And then gift-giving will get harder.

Until then, though, I plan on thoroughly enjoying every moment of Christmas morning and all these evenings when he starts asking about our Christmas lights as soon as I pick him up from day orphanage, I mean day care.