Tonight is Halloween, also known as the beginning of the "holiday" season to us. Ok so this is how it goes.....first there is Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. Each one is something of a nightmare for Aubrey and each one brings unbelievable amounts of excuses from me to our friends and family. Let's start with Halloween. Guess what? It makes absolutely no sense to her. Here is this day that everyone wants to wear all of these weird clothes, draw on something called a pumpkin and eat candy. Oh and by the way, she never even eats candy. The worst thing about Halloween is all of the "Can you say?" Can you say trick-or-treat ? Can you say thank you? Who are you dressed up as?, etc. Let's do all of that, in the cold, just to get a bunch of candy that she doesn't even want, no thank you. This year I dressed her up for approximately 20 minutes, told her what she was dressed up as and let her try some chocolate. That way she knows what the heck all of the other kids are talking about at school on Monday but she didn't have to endure the actual interactions that come with Halloween.
Next there is Thanksgiving. This is probably the least hectic of the three but still has it's frustrations. This is the day she pretty much just hides out from everybody and eats after everyone else. All of the other children in our family are not in school with her. The holidays are really the only time she is faced with other children, for long periods of time, who do not know or have a great understanding of her. She is usually quite content to hide out with her iPad for the entire day in a back bedroom somewhere. Either that or we end up leaving early so that she is not in seclusion for the entire day.
Then there is Christmas. Christmas is the mother of all holidays. The gifts, the people, the travel, the church, the dressing up, the photos. The gifting process is a lot like her birthday used to be. At home we have given up on the unwrapping of gifts for the most part. Santa is a very generous man and leaves everything unwrapped in front of the tree. He also helps mommy and daddy and leaves there gifts for Aubrey out too. Doesn't really matter though because unless it's a new season of a show or a character toy from one of her favorite shows, it's thrown to the side within 5 minutes. This year it will be a new guitar and believe me, we started talking about it last month hoping that she will at lease show a little interest in it on Christmas seeing as how there will be 4 months of discussion about it. Then there is always a Christmas dinner or lunch somewhere where she again wants to hide out and do whatever it takes to get away from the noise and commotion. If I can somehow get her through a church service, I feel like a master of mothering. Starting last year, Aubrey started having extreme sensory issues with her lower legs. Stockings under a dress must seem more like needles in her skin than warm coverings. There is not a chance in this world that I can get her in a dress with stockings anymore so now we have to consider how to avoid the cold in all events.
So this holiday season if you hear me say, "She doesn't feel well", "She is tired", "She has had a long day", "We will wait on Seth to come", "I'm not sure that's the best idea for Aubrey", what I really mean is "My daughter doesn't like loud noises, she doesn't understand why there are so many people here, she doesn't understand what a gift is, she gets unbelievably annoyed at answering the same questions over and over with her talker, she would really like to have on shorts and a tshirt right now, don't ask her what Santa brought her because she either has no idea what you are talking about or never bothered to acknowledge anything under the tree."
So please be patient with us this holiday season. It means so much for Seth and I to see everyone and to catch up with the families. We want to be included but it's just a little more complicated for us sometimes.
