This year's Santa visit went alright. We talked a lot about Santa, read about him, did puzzles, colored him, practiced telling him (nicely) what we'd like him to bring for Christmas, etc. Then, the big event arrived. We went to a local mall and, luckily, the line was short and Santa was very friendly and obviously had a lot of experience with timid toddlers. She went up to him, talked to him, looked at a book she had brought about him; they had a discussion about the reindeer and the elves and she told him she wanted a 'bike and dollhouse' (there maaaay have been some help from mom and dad preparing her ahead of time). Then we suggested a seat on Santa's lap for a picture and the crocodile tears appeared. We ended up taking a picture with her on MY lap, sitting in front of Santa. Her face is not smiling, and is a face caught between sobs. (our scanner is refusing to work, I will try to post it later) Oh well. It could have been worse. Maybe next year, when she gets to show baby brother how it's done, things will go better. Or, maybe he'll show her how it's done. We'll see!!
She was in her 3rd Christmas pageant at church this year and also did very well. She had the choice to be a sheep or angel this year and had very strong opinions on being a sheep. Her buddies Oliver and Rosie were sheep too, so that determined it. She wore the costume with no problems and only needed a little assistance from mom to go to her place. She sat quietly with the other sheep and did great!
Christmas Eve was spent going to the family service, which includes a special sermon for the kids (our priest used to be a chaplain at a school, we love her!), including candy cane distribution, which she was very excited about. We then went to my parents' house afterwards to share Christmas Eve dinner, which in our house has been Italian food for the last few year. Mom made lasagna and Kalaya ate a ton! We opened presents, which for Kalaya was a new table and chairs, which Daddy put together later that night for Christmas morning:
Christmas Eve was spent putting together the gifts from 'Santa' which Nelson loves! (no sarcasm, he seriously does) This year included a tricycle ($15, new in box on Craig's List!!), the table and chairs and a new trampoline!! ($49, down from $120 on Black Friday, thank you very much!) It took 3 HOURS for poor Santa to put the trampoline together, but she loves it!
Christmas morning, we had to draaaaaag her out of bed at 9 and she did NOT want to get up! We would have let her sleep, but had plans to see Nelson' family that day and wanted to give her time to open presents. She finally warmed up after some special Christmas blueberry muffins from mommy and then decided Christmas was pretty fun! She especially loves her new tutu, toy cars, Sesame Street play set and dollhouse.
We then drove to Salem to see Nelson's family and had a delicious meal, none of which I had to cook!! Kalaya got lots of fun gifts and had a great time playing with her one year old cousin Amara. She got lots of cute clothes, which made me extra happy. : )
We rounded off the week with a trip to The Great Wolf Lodge, to enjoy one last vacation and some special time as a family of 3, but that's for another post!
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