>Christmas is a time for family lore: remembering and recounting the stories of Christmas past. One of my favorites was Amigo’s first Christmas.
Amigo was 11 months old, just shy of one year, and a very happy baby most of the time. He was also a very noisy baby, full of babble and talkative baby noises.
The day after Christmas, Baby Amigo woke early. I fed him and changed him, and then wondered what on earth I was going to do with this noisy little one. You see, Husband had just gotten home from working an overnight shift and needed to sleep. La Petite had stayed up late for the holiday and needed to sleep in, too. At the time we lived in a small duplex with tiny rooms and thin walls. Happy baby noises would wake everyone. What to do?
Well, it was December 26th, after all. I dressed the baby and dressed myself and we headed out to the post-Christmas sales.
At that time in our lives we had very little money, so we bought next to nothing. But we had all kinds of mommy-baby fun just roaming the aisles, with little Amigo perched in the shopping cart babbling at me and smiling his adorable smile for the other shoppers. I think I bought a few bows and some cards for the next year, but that was all. And that was all we needed.
When we got home, La Petite was just starting to stir. Husband was sound asleep and not likely to be awakened. I fed Baby Amigo his morning snack and settled him in to nap, content in the feeling that all was well with the world.
Now, almost 15 years later, Amigo loves Christmas shopping. He doesn’t perch in the shopping cart anymore, thank goodness, but he grabs his white cane and sprints down the main corridors of the mall. And every year he enjoys hearing the tale of the fun we had at the post-Christmas sales when he was just a baby.