Getting older

I'm a little sad as we put away Christmas, this year.  Not that I'm sad about getting a corner of the living room back, or sad about being done with the over-commercialized present-fest that the celebration of Christ's birth has become, these days.  But I'm sad, because Christmas makes me realize how fast time flies.  You only celebrate it once a year.  That means I only get 18 Christmases with each child until they are considered adults!  And even less than that if you consider that at some point, they will probably start with the attitude thing, and thinking they're too good for their mom's silly traditions and such.  Last Christmas, I had a 9 month old baby and a 3 year old.  This Christmas, I have a brand new baby that wasn't even a thought on my mind last year, a 21 month old, and a 4 year old!
It seems like yesterday when Jubilee was two, and we made gingerbread men for Christmas.  She didn't want to eat hers, because it looked so cute!  Instead, she held it, and rocked it back and forth in her arms.  Now, she doesn't hesitate a second before devouring that cute little cookie man!  She used to decorate the tree by clumping all the ornaments in the same spot.  Now, she is very particular about spreading them all out equally, and she can even get them hooked onto a tree branch without help!  Last year, I could still trick Jubilee into thinking Christmas was on a different day, that way I could celebrate with my family, and not miss Christmas morning, if I were called into work.  That would not have flown, this year.  She had a countdown going to the day!
I think about all the memories from this year, and how next year at Christmas, Agape will most likely have mastered saying 'Christmas tree', and will no longer call them 'ma-tree's.  The girls might not dance around 'nakie' to 'Rockin' around the Christmas Tree' as they wiggle excitedly across the living room floor.  They might not use an entire carton of sprinkles on one batch of cookies, while I'm busy pulling the next dozen out of the oven. Jubilee might not wrap random objects she finds around the house, and add them to the pile under the tree.  She may be beyond making ornaments out of construction paper and ribbon.  And they're not going to fit into the same adorable Christmas jammies or dresses.  Oh there will be some positives, like not having any more shepherds from the nativity scene get decapitated, and not having countless ornaments strewn about the house, as the lower portion of the tree looks less and less decorated the closer we get to Christmas.  But even those parts, I will miss! 
The girls are still young enough to not be completely sucked in to the materialism that Christmas brings.  The only item Jubilee expressed the desire to have for Christmas were some cat stickers!  And the other things she wanted to do to celebrate the day included eating spinach custard, having a dance party, and eating the piece of candy she had gotten from a birthday party, and had been saving all month to eat on Christmas day(Although she forgot to actually eat it on Christmas).  I don't look forward to them getting old enough to want to make wishlists of all the stuff they want, or when their focus shifts to getting the coolest toy on Christmas morning.  But maybe, with the right guidance, we can avoid that!  (At least, that's what I always tell myself)
Sometimes I want to freeze them forever just like they are.  But I know I would miss out on so much.  And I know God has a plan for them that is much bigger than I can imagine.  And I hope I would never stand in the way of their potentials, even if I had the ability to stop time!