(
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"39857","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"200","height":"267","title":"Museum Fan","alt":"Museum Fan"}}]]For a long time, I dreaded the holidays coming. Like Charlie Brown, I seemed to have lost the joy for the season. Each year I would struggle over whose houses I had to visit and feel guilty about the houses I knew I wouldn’t have time to visit. I’d scramble to find the right gift for everyone on my list but never quite achieve my goal. I’d battle the decorations, burn the food and pretend to be like everyone else, loving the holiday season.
It wasn’t until I started having children of my own that my feelings about the holiday began to change. The change started slow. When my oldest had turned one, I learned that it didn’t matter what was in the package because the paper and boxes were just as much fun. But still I struggled to find the joy. We did things at the holidays because we had to. It was what was expected of me.
When my second child was not yet one I decided it was time to stop doing what I felt was expected of me at the holiday season and start doing the things I felt were most important for my family. One of those things was time together. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis provided a place for that not only for the holiday season but for the whole year. I now have three children and it is “our” holiday tradition to visit the museum each year. The museum has been our holiday tradition for the past five years now and I can’t imagine a better place to spend time together as a family.
This December we will visit the museum and my son, Dirk, will go bananas about the horses on the Carousel, my oldest, Kat will squeal with delight about Yule slide and my shy middle child, Mia, might actually get the courage up to talk to Santa. But I,… I will be reminded again of the reason for this holiday season-my family and quality time together.
Name: Mandie Walker
It wasn’t until I started having children of my own that my feelings about the holiday began to change. The change started slow. When my oldest had turned one, I learned that it didn’t matter what was in the package because the paper and boxes were just as much fun. But still I struggled to find the joy. We did things at the holidays because we had to. It was what was expected of me.
When my second child was not yet one I decided it was time to stop doing what I felt was expected of me at the holiday season and start doing the things I felt were most important for my family. One of those things was time together. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis provided a place for that not only for the holiday season but for the whole year. I now have three children and it is “our” holiday tradition to visit the museum each year. The museum has been our holiday tradition for the past five years now and I can’t imagine a better place to spend time together as a family.
This December we will visit the museum and my son, Dirk, will go bananas about the horses on the Carousel, my oldest, Kat will squeal with delight about Yule slide and my shy middle child, Mia, might actually get the courage up to talk to Santa. But I,… I will be reminded again of the reason for this holiday season-my family and quality time together.
Name: Mandie Walker
