Naughty or Nice

I've been really busy today, and I really need to get to bed soon, so I'm just going to leave you with this cute little video.

A Visit with Santa (Times Two!)

This morning, my church had a little Christmas party for the children in the CCD classes. Toward the end of the party, the children were treated with a visit from Santa Claus. One of the elders of our church dresses up as Santa for the children every year. Since he knows most of the children, he calls them by name, which is really impressive to the innocent child.

Katie is still in her being shy around Santa phase. She was totally in awe of him, but timid about getting too close. She did eventually sit on his lap, but was very quiet about telling him what she wanted for Christmas.


After we left church, Phil had the great idea to go visit Santa and Mrs. Claus at the mall. I thought it was a bad idea because of it still being the weekend, but since Phil had agreed to be the one to stand in line while the rest of us went to get lunch, I agreed to do it.

Even though there was a very long line when we got there, it moved amazingly fast, and the girls and I just barely made it back to the line in time to see Santa. Once again, Katie was being a little shy, and was much more comfortable sitting on Mrs. Claus's lap. When Santa asked Katie what she wanted for Christmas, she replied, "Presents!"


Compare that to last year. Boy, has she grown!

A Special Thanks

I just wanted to say, "Thank You," from the bottom of my heart to those of you who have made donations to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life through Sarah's personal webpage. You are wonderful, generous people!

Don't worry, though. Sarah will be sending a personal thanks to each of you herself. I just wanted to thank you all, too.

Visit with Santa

We took Katie to see Santa at the mall yesterday. I know, I know... I shouldn't have waited so long to do it, but I really didn't want to take her all by myself, so I had to wait until Phil could come with me. And since he started his vacation yesterday, that was really our first chance to do it. When we got to the Santa place (I can't really think of the right word here... Land? Exhibit? Habitat?) it was just about 3:30 and they had just closed the line so that Santa could go to dinner at 5:00. They told us they would reopen at 6:00 when Santa got back from dinner. Phil and I decided that it would be best to just go ahead and get in line so that we would be the first ones in line when Santa got back from dinner a mere 2 1/2 hours later.

Phil and Sarah kept our place in line while I took Emily and Katie with me to go rent a stroller (because I forgot to take mine out of my trunk when I took my car in to the shop). Of course, the mall was so crowded, and apparently no four-year-old child in this town has the ability to walk through the mall on his own two feet, that they were all out of strollers. So, I had to carry my 20 1/2 pound daughter through the mall to Children's Place to shop for a couple of last minute Christmas gifts for my cousin's live-in boyfriend's daughters who will be joining the family for Christmas this year.

Anyhow, on my way back to the Santa place, I stopped by the stroller place to see if they had any yet, and they did. And my tired arms thanked them. When we finally got back to the line, I found that Phil and a couple of people in line behind him had been let into the "before dinner" line, so we only had about another 30-45 minutes left to wait in line. Here is how Katie's picture turned out:
Katie wasn't quite sure about Santa. We had been trying to get her used to him by showing her pictures and letting her play with a Santa stuffed doll so she wouldn't be terrified and screaming like a lot of children this age are. And she wasn't terrified and screaming, but she did get very shy. Maybe she was just in awe of him. Sort of like when you finally meet your favorite rock star and you lose your ability to speak and just stand there staring at them. Just look at the cute little face she made. This was as much of a smile as she was willing to give us.
So, anyway, now we have that all taken care of, it's starting to feel a little more like Christmas. But I still have so much to do, and there are only 2 1/2 more shopping days left before the big day. And the gifts that I have already gotten all still need to be wrapped. Yay!

The Truth About Santa

I've been debating whether or not to finally tell Emily that there is no Santa Claus. She's ten years old, and most of her friends already know the truth, so I figured that maybe she was ready to know the truth, too. This morning, I decided to go ahead and tell her. Here's how it went...

ME: Emily, I need to talk to you about something.

EMILY: Yes, Mom?

ME: Emily, there's no Santa.

EMILY: Yes there is. There's no Santa at Mema and Grandaddy's house, but there is a Santa here.

ME: Emily, Santa's not REAL.

EMILY: You're lying to me, Mom.

Can you believe it? I finally get the nerve to break my child's heart and tell her the truth about Santa, and she refuses to believe me. I guess all of those great, logical explanations of how and why Santa was real that I gave her over the course of her life have really stuck. She's completely convinced that Santa is real and that I was just trying to mess with her by telling her differently.