She actually got this one LAST Christmas but I had to slip this in there
He admits he always wanted one
It was our year to spend it with Paul's parents (we spent Thanksgiving this year with my mom and family).
The biggest hit in Christmas gifts so far for her has been the LeapFrog Sketch pad and Lite Brite. Everything else seems to be getting equal share time. The bike that Santa brought her would get more use right now if it weren't so darned cold out. That will come soon enough!
The best thing about traveling for Christmas this year was waking up right next to her, watching her eyes pop open and say, "Mama, I closed my eyes and slept so Santa came!" Strangely enough, she wasn't in much of a hurry to rush downstairs to see what he left her. We just chatted in bed a little while and got downstairs at around 8:30am.
She first saw the extra gifts, and most notably, the bike by the tree. She asked who it was for and seemed to like it as she looked it over (the very bike she picked out and texted to Santa she wanted at Toys R Us). But her gaze swung to the stockings that were stuffed with a little fake puppy dog hanging out and she forgot about the bike and presents. For some reason, she was focused on the stockings, and in fact I think she was most excited about that going into Christmas day!
She was worried about Santa when he didn't eat that last cookie. Why didn't he eat it? Will he come back to eat it?
With all of this Santa talk this year, sitting on his lap was still a no-go. At least last year she mustered up the courage and went for it at the mall out of nowhere. The year before we did it as a family. But this year, she had none of it. In fact we waited in line, while she kept saying she was excited to see him and then when it was her turn, she fled. Later she'd say she wanted to give him hugs when he came to her house.
She's so much fun at this age. It was the best Christmas yet. And while she enjoyed the gifts, nobody certainly went overboard, and she didn't expect overboard. The whole Christmas season was fun, plus my mom was here for two weeks of it too. In all I think we went to less festivities than last year (by just a few) and there seemed to be less pressure about buying gifts and wrapping them and going to all of the parties and festivals. We even had an entire weekend where we did almost nothing. Even the tree was up early, as well as the lights on the house and the ginormous inflatable snowman in the front yard. Heck we even found time to buy new tree ornaments. I'm not sure where all of the ease and extra time seemed to come from, but it was nice. Now that Christmas is over I'm having to explain to Anna why the tree will come down, as will all of the cool lights in the neighborhoods she's come to gasp at on the evening drives home. Oh well, I think at least it will be easier explaining it this year than last year when she was 2 and couldn't quite grasp why Frosty and Santa left the yards and went into the attic "until next Christmas." In fact I swear it's something she would sporadically ask about here and there, even in summer.
Anyway, hope you all had a great holiday. Whether I have mixed feelings about lying to her face about Santa, or I harbor way too many questions about what her Lutheran preschool is teaching her about the holiday, there's certainly nothing like being a mom to a 3.75 year old at Christmas.
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