Rat Poison and a Trip to See Santa (7QT)

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Amy

If you are a pet owner and are ever so unfortunate as to see chewed open, and empty, mouse poison bait boxes at the opening to your garage right when you have just gotten your children into the car for a promised and eagerly anticipated trip to see Santa, have no fear. Here is your step-by-step guide for how to handle such a situation:

These dogs are awesome, but they chew everything.

Go ahead and let your kids get in their car seats. Put Christmas movies on their car DVD players. Don’t tell them about the possible deadly poisoning of their beloved pets yet. This will keep them contained and un-hysterical while you proceed to dealing with potential poisoning.
Call your vet. Get a little freaked out when they tell you that knowing the type of poison and its active ingredient is essential for correct treatment of your dogs (because of course you don’t know this information). Get a little more freaked out when they tell you that you have to induce vomiting in your dogs, as you imagine the horror of sticking your finger down poor dogs’ throats… Get relieved a little bit when they tell you that you just have to give them peroxide.
Get bottle of peroxide. Thank God that you have peroxide. Wander around for a few minutes trying to find something that will work well for administering peroxide to dogs. Thank God again when one of the men at your house working on your kitchen backsplash (who overheard your conversation with the vet) mentions that he had to do the same thing with his dog and that it worked well to put the peroxide in ice cream.
Put leashes on your dogs and take them outside with bottle of peroxide and a spoon. Realize you need bowls and ice cream. Start to take the dogs back inside to mix up a concoction for them. Answer questions of your now-starting-to-get-a-little-impatient children with a (mostly) cheerful, “Please be patient girls. Mom just has to take care of something with the puppies before we can go.” Get bowls and ice cream and mix the prescribed amount of peroxide into each. Take dogs outside on leashes again with bowls of peroxide-laced ice cream. Feel a little guilty as the dogs eagerly lap up the ice cream. Walk around with them until the desired result starts happening. Smile and nod at the roofing guys working on your house when they look at you like you’re nuts as you’re holding your retching dogs on leashes.
When the purging is completed, go inside again and put dogs into their kennel (just in case they aren’t quite done vomiting). Go back out to put in a new movie for youngest daughter who has informed you that she needs a new DVD (Christmas movies are so short!). Realize that her DVD player has stopped working. Bite the inside of your cheek to keep from swearing. Try to fix DVD player and fail. Continue to resist the urge to swear. Again plead with children to be patient as you go back inside and call exterminator who placed the bait boxes in your garage many months ago. Thank God again that he answers his phone and provides the information you need.
Call vet’s office with the active ingredient of the poison. Wait for receptionist to speak to vet. When she says the vet is with a patient and will have to call you back, use the time to Google the probable course of action and go out and address the DVD situation. Explain to children that you might have to postpone the visit to Santa because the dogs ate some mouse poison and you will probably have to take them to the vet. Deal (mostly) calmly with the wails and protests and cries of “Are the dogs going to be okay???”
When the vet’s office calls back and tells you you will have to bring the dogs in to be weighed so they can get some medication, put them back on leashes, load them in the car, drive 25 minutes to the vet’s office, get said medication, drive 25 minutes home, leave kids in car, take dogs inside, give them medication, and go back out to car to take kids to see Santa, even though it is now over two hours after your intended time for leaving to do so. Offer up the fact that your kids (and you) will again be skipping nap/quiet time (for the fourth time that week). Take a snack out for kids since it’s now lunch time and you have a 30 minute drive to the mall. Relish the cheers that come from your back seat when you tell the kids they’ll be going to see Santa after all. Thank God that your dogs will be okay. Then enjoy the heck out of the rest of your day.

I’m linking up with Kelly at This Ain’t the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes Friday. Even though it’s Saturday.

7QT Why I Don’t Threaten my Kids with the “Naughty List” at Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2014December 19, 2014 by Amy

A few years ago I heard a story about a friend who said to her daughter, who was about 4 or 5 at the time, “If you’re not good, Santa won’t bring you presents!” The little girl replied with something like, “Yes he will. I wasn’t good last year and he still did anyway.”

When Christmas gets close, I don’t tell my girls that they need to be good or Santa won’t come. I don’t tell them than an elf is watching them and reporting back to the big guy so they’d better behave. We do have an elf. Ours is Christopher Pop-In-Kins, who was recommended to me by Super Friend (he isn’t as popular as “Elf on the Shelf,” but he was actually the original, coming out in 1985, 20 years before the more commonly seen elf).

Our tradition is that we decorate our tree on the day after Thanksgiving. Then my girls put their letters to Santa into our, appropriately named, “Letters to Santa” ornament that my mom got for them when Miss was really little. In the morning, the letters are gone, the Christopher Pop-In-Kins book is under the tree, and Christopher (Lass always calls him “Mary Poppins”) is hiding somewhere in the house. He moves every night, but doesn’t get up to goofy shenanigans, because I don’t have the energy or desire to create elf messes and then clean them up again.

The Christopher Pop-In-Kins book does mention that he is a helper for Santa, and that he keeps and eye on kids and reports back to Santa before Christmas Eve. It doesn’t make a big issue out of it though, focusing more on how much Christopher likes little children and wants to be able to visit them. The book doesn’t say that Santa won’t come if Christopher tells him the kids were naughty.

I try to make our elf more of a fun little tradition and less of a “He’s watching you and telling Santa everything, so you better be good” kind of behavioral control. I don’t talk to my kids about being on Santa’s “naughty list,” and I don’t tell them that if they don’t behave, Santa won’t come. I’m not judging people who do do this. I get why they do. Before thinking about it a bit more in recent years, I used to occasionally make comments like, “I wonder what Santa would think about that behavior.” But it never quite felt right for me, so I don’t do it anymore. Here’s why:

I don’t really like the idea of Santa having a punitive role. He’s a happy, jolly fellow. No need to make him the bad guy.
I think it can be a little harder for kids to be on their best behavior at this time of year. Often they’re getting less sleep, or schedules are disrupted by activities. There’s so much excitement and hype (and sugar!) around them. That’s not to say I don’t still expect my kids to behave, but I try to be understanding of it being a little harder.
I try to emphasize that Christmas is about more than getting gifts. My girls write a letter to Santa every year and in it they’re allowed to ask him for one thing. Then I try to talk to them about all the more important things about Christmas. It seem that if I repeatedly remind them that they have to be good so Santa will bring them presents, that keeps the focus of the season on getting presents instead of the other things I want them to be focused on.
I prefer immediate and definite consequences for inappropriate behavior. The threat of Santa not bringing presents, because it’s mom or dad saying what Santa might do (or not do in this case), isn’t immediate or definite.
I try to make it a general rule not to threaten consequences that I’m not willing to enforce. I’m not willing to take away my kids’ Christmas presents, so I don’t threaten that “Santa” will do it, when I know he won’t (see the story above about my friend’s little girl!).
I think the admonishments to kids that they must “be good” at Christmas time to avoid being placed on the “naughty list” are too vague. It isn’t realistic to expect kids to not misbehave in any way for the whole month of December (or November too, depending when folks start talk of Santa). What is the cutoff point? How many times to they have to be “naughty” to get on the list? Can they get off it once they’re on it? How do they know? Seems kind of anxiety-producing to me, and there’s no need for added stress during the holidays, in my opinion.
I want my kids to realize that they should work on being on their best behavior all the time, not just to get something from Santa. When my kids asked me a few weeks ago, “Do we have to be good so Santa will come?” I replied, “No. You have to be good because that’s what we do. We always try to be our best all the time, not just for Santa.”

So. This are my two cents about Santa and the “naughty list.” Even still, because of the brief mention in the Christopher Pop-In-Kins book and the common theme of “be good or else…” in songs and Christmas movies, my girls have an idea in their heads that they need to be good for Santa. When we went to see him last week, Lass asked him, “How do you know who’s good and who’s bad?” He replied that his elves help him. I didn’t mind that she asked him that or that he replied in that way.

I don’t necessarily want them to think that Santa has no interest in children having good behavior. I’m just not going to threaten them that he’ll leave them out on Christmas if they don’t have it all the time.

Linking up with Kelly at This Ain’t the Lyceum for Seven Quick Takes Friday!

All That I Hoped It Would Be

Posted on December 27, 2012January 11, 2023 by Amy

I have always tried my best to be a thoughtful gift-giver, and now that I have kids, my investment in giving good gifts has increased exponentially. I want them to love the gifts. I want their gifts to encourage lots of creative play. I want their gifts to be sturdy. I want their gifts to not be obnoxious. I have a lot to think about when choosing the gifts for my children for Christmas. Quality, not quantity.

More than the gifts, I really want my kids to get a lot out of the whole experience of Christmas. Putting up the Christmas tree, singing carols, going to see Santa, baking cookies, spending time with family, doing all the traditional things that bring such warm memories to my mind from my own childhood. We’ve had a great time doing these things the past few weeks.

For me Christmas morning is the culmination of all the holiday doings. It’s the time when all the build up about Santa and his magic comes to fruition.

On Christmas morning, I want my kids to be bursting with excitement and all the pure wonder that only children can express.

This year, Christmas morning was all that I hoped it would be.

It was waking up early with this little one and waiting for her sisters to come down while starting breakfast preparations.

It was finally hearing the big girls stirring upstairs and hearing their giddy anticipation as they rushed to see what Santa left for them, watching them search for the one thing they really, really wanted (The Big Snow White!), and then seeing the pure, childish joy when they found it.

It was watching and hearing them play with their Santa gifts while I finished making breakfast. What a joyful sound.

It was finally making creamed eggs (Miss called them “egg nugget” for some reason!) by myself without needing to call my mom for her “recipe.” I’ve never written down the instructions she has given me so many times over the years, though I say to myself that I will every time. I call her twice a year (on Christmas and Easter) to ask how to make creamed eggs and have been doing so since at least 2003. This year, I finally just did it myself. With Charlie Brown Christmas playing in the background, I made my roux, added my milk, salted and peppered, and stirred in my chopped hard-boiled eggs all by myself. I felt like such a big girl. My 3 year old did help, though. She told me I needed more salt.

It was the madness of opening the rest of the presents under the tree after breakfast.

It was loving watching my big girls’ different approaches to this process, with Miss tearing open every present that had her name on it, barely stopping in between to look at what she had just revealed, and Lass stopping to play for a while with each toy as she unwrapped it and leisurely making her way around to open each of her gifts.

It was seeing my older girls, surrounded by all their new toys, choosing to sit and read for a while.

It was taking a little bit of time myself to explore the wonderful new books on cooking my husband gave me – “The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen,” “Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking,” and “Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook’s Manifesto” all by Michael Ruhlman, all Awe. Some.

It was all of these things and more.

It was joyous. It was magical.

I really think I love Christmas and Santa even more through the eyes of my children than I did when I was little myself.

Christmas is Love

Posted on December 24, 2012December 24, 2012 by Amy

Our elf, Christopher Pop-In-Kins, left our house last night, leaving behind a note and the movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” I told the girls they could watch their new movie after baths, just before getting ready for Santa and going to bed.

They were anxiously awaiting baths all day!

To kill some time before naps this afternoon, they helped Daddy make sausage, while rocking out to some Christmas music.

Today we avoided Rudolph, but they love to dance to the Charlie Brown theme song (to my chagrin they like my husband’s favorite Christmas music better than my Johnny Mathis Christmas… for now anyway).

They helped their Dad start to make brats before heading up for naps, all the while asking how much longer until baths and movie.

Finally, after naps, after dinner, after baths, they got to settle in with milk and cookies on fancy plates to watch their new movie.

My favorite part of the day came after the movie. We got treats together for Santa and his reindeer.

The girls dictated a precious “Thank you” note and signed their own names.

The very best time tonight was story time. We snuggled in to read many, many of our Christmas books tonight. Of course we started with “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” but followed that with several more favorites.

I think I was as excited as they were when I put them to bed.

And then of course, there was this:

The bane of all parents of little girls on Christmas Eve – The Dollhouse.

Oh, but what a dollhouse!

It will be the perfect home for the “Big Snow Whites” that my girls have been asking for for over a month now. The ladies are in the stockings just waiting to bring joy to my two eldest girls in the morning. Baby Sis’s stocking holds Prince Charming 🙂

I can’t wait for the morning.

I had a hard time thinking of anything I wanted for myself this Christmas. Truly, there isn’t much that is material in nature that I want or need.

I have three beautiful, healthy children and a truly wonderful, amazing husband. Tomorrow I hope to see their faces light with joy when they open their gifts.

More than that, I hope all year to give them my love in such a way that they always know it, can see it, can feel it no matter what. To me, Christmas is about love and family. We’ve got that.

In the morning we will open plenty of presents. We will have gift wrap flying everywhere. We will have little girls oohing and aaahing and probably squealing a bit over their gifts. We will have a traditional breakfast and stay in pajamas all morning. We will play and probably watch a Christmas movie or two. We might listen to Rudolph or other Christmas music.

We will have all of these things. But most of all, we will will have lots of love. Everything else is just gravy.

May you have a Christmas filled with love.

Seeing Santa

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Amy

Today our Advent calendar activity was to go see Santa. I wasn’t sure if the girls would want to do this, but when we saw the reindeer the other day, they expressed disappointment that Santa wasn’t there too. So, though I was unsure how it would play out, we went to visit the big guy today.

I drove 30 minutes up to the mall to get to him and was surprised and pleased that there wasn’t a line to see him. The girls could have walked right up and jumped on his lap.

Except they had no interest in doing that. They were shy and wouldn’t get much closer to him than this:

I was absolutely not going to force them to sit on the lap of a strange man if they didn’t want to, Santa or not. So I let them look at the cool teddy bear display around the path leading to Santa and was just getting them to wave to him from a distance and preparing to walk away when they both said that they did in fact want to go see him.

Some other kids had arrived after us and gone ahead to sit with Santa, so maybe seeing that gave them some courage. I don’t know, but they both started waltzing right up to him after that.

Once they got close, however, Miss said, “My sister is going to go sit on his lap, not me,” as she kind of pushed Lass ahead of her toward Santa.

Lass went right up to him, though she did seem a little unsure about it. She told him she wants, “A Big Snow White” for Christmas and got down.

How authentic is this Santa, by the way?

Even after seeing her sister do it, Miss still wasn’t willing to go up to him, so Baby Sis had her turn.

After that Miss was still a bit reluctant. I told her that it was okay if she did not want to go sit on Santa’s lap or talk to him, but that if she chose to leave without talking to him we probably wouldn’t have a chance to come back again (I could foresee her saying, as we were driving home, that she had changed her mind and did want to talk to him). So she decided that she would talk to him but did not want to sit on his lap. Fair enough. I went with her, and the very nice woman working there took a few photos for me.

She told him that she wanted, “A big Snow White, just like my sister.”

Then both girls kind of hugged him and he said, “See you on Christmas Eve!” They both got a big kick out of that.

I would have been perfectly okay with it if the girls had chosen to keep their distance from Santa. I thought that might happen when I planned the trip up there, but I wanted them to at least be able to see him.

As it turned out, I am pleased with how they took their time but managed to work through their worries to go and speak to him. I’m particularly proud of Miss for asserting herself so she could have a chance to talk to him on her terms.

Santa Came to Town

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Amy

We were at the Farm over the weekend for Christmas with my husband’s family. The girls got to have tons of fun playing with their cousins.

The grown ups got to have lots of fun visiting. This is a photo of me with my also-pregnant sister-in-law. She is due about two weeks after me. The woman brought O’Doul’s. Gotta love a fake beer on Christmas Eve.

And then of course, the Christmas festivities began. We opened gifts with the family, which is kind of crazy since my husband has five siblings. There were 14 adults and 13 kids opening and slinging wrapping paper all over.

It was fabulous.

One of the biggest gift “hits” was this “Rody” for Miss from my husband’s parents.

Daddy blew it up and away she went.

It caused a bit of friction once Little Sister noticed it.

She was pretty upset at not being able to ride it right away.

But Big Sister is such a sweet girl, she let her sis have a turn,

hovering nearby the entire time, of course.

And, time’s up!

It’s a really cool toy.

Finally, Miss got distracted and Lass got to have a bit of time on it. Oh, the holiday drama!

After family gifts, the kids all went downstairs to wait for Santa. In my husband’s family, Santa arrives on Christmas Eve before the kids go to bed. They have to wait patiently downstairs for him (while the moms put out stockings and all the Santa gifts upstairs).

When he arrives, he makes lots of noise stomping around and “Ho-Ho-Ho-ing.” The kids scream and run up the stairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of him before he gets into his sleigh and rides off.

We all got to see him as he ran out of the house and back to his sleigh waiting in the grass. Unfortunately one of the older cousins may have seen him a little too much. He said to his mom something like, “I wish we got to have the real Santa, not the one with dark hair and eyebrows.” I guess the wig wasn’t quite straight on my brother-in-law!

When we went back inside, of course the girls had a blast with all their presents.

Miss got the two Care Bears she asked Santa for, and they haven’t left her side since. Here she is reading one of her new books to Grumpy Bear.

In my last post I wrote about how Miss has been insistent about wearing her “ballerina costume” of leotard, tights, and ballet shoes. The trip to the Farm was no different. I told her she had to wear some nice clothes for Christmas dinner and family gifts, and we compromised by putting her nice clothes on over the ballerina costume (if you look at some of the pictures above you can see her little ballet shoes). After getting her Santa gifts, the “real” clothes were off and she was back in ballerina mode.

I finally got her out of the ballerina costume when we went on a treasure hunt on Christmas day. I told her she needed to wear warm clothes and that her ballerina costume really needed to be washed while we were out.

The weather was chilly but beautiful, and as always the treasure hunt was memorable.

Lass was a bit like the little brother in “A Christmas Story.” she was so bundled up she could barely move.

Miss found some shells and some acorns for her “treasures.”

She got to check out lots of interesting things, like this deer rub.

She got to examine some mushrooms growing on these trees

And look at these little berries.

Lass fell asleep during our walk in the woods.

Overall, the trip to the farm was a great time for all. And when we came home, the girls found that Santa had been to our house too while we were gone. He left some gymnastics mats, a balance beam, and a baby doll high chair (which so far has only been used to feed pizza to Care Bears).

Oh yeah, Santa left bubble wrap too.

I am still trying to get things back in order here after so much holiday traveling. Yesterday I folded six loads of laundry and I still have more to do! The toys aren’t all put away, but they’ve at least all made it into the house now. The spare room in the basement still has wrapping paper strewn all over the floor. But the traveling was absolutely worth it, and we had a magical Christmas. I hope you did too.

A Great Big Kentucky Post. Y’all.

Posted on December 21, 2011January 11, 2023 by Amy

Last week we went to Kentucky to spend the week with my parents. I have virtually no internet access there, so I couldn’t post while we were gone. Somehow we have been home for three days, and I am just now getting around to posting about our fabulous trip. I would say with all the holiday craziness I haven’t had the time to post. However, I am a firm believer that you have time for what you make time for. So. Sorry, I haven’t made time for this. But if it makes up for it, I’m posting right now during naptime instead of taking a shower…

Anyway. Our trip was really wonderful, though it was unfortunately delayed for a day. Remember how I posted that we had all managed to escape the stomach bug except for Lass’s very brief encounter with it? I typed too soon. Friday night, the night before we were supposed to leave, I was up all night sick and ended up going to the emergency department for fluids around 4am, right about the time Miss woke up crying and asking for “new jammies,” meaning of course that she had thrown up all over the ones she was wearing. So, needless to say, she and I were under the weather for the day that was supposed to be our travel day, and we didn’t make it to Kentucky until Sunday. But the visit was so worth the trip. My parents rock. They are so awesome with my girls and give them so much love and attention it just makes my heart melt to watch them together. I love that my girls are the center of attention with my parents for a whole week. And they eat it up. Miss just glows with happiness when playing with my Mom, and Lass got there too, though it took her a bit longer to warm up. Little girls can just never have too much love and attention from their grandparents. I only wish my parents lived close, so my girls could have the experience of spending time with them more often.

Here’s a big, huge photo tour of our week in the south:

We went to story time at the library where my Mom is the children’s librarian. I was so proud of my girls. Both of them sat nicely and listened to the story, even though there was a good bit of chaos going on around them.

Then Santa showed up…

Miss got all shy and scrambled for my lap

where she clung to me for dear life

until Santa called her name to come up for her present.

She was so shy!

But my shy girl braved giving the big guy a hug.

Lass was surprisingly calm about the process of seeing Santa too.

Probably because I didn’t even attempt to get her any closer than this.

The story time was great. We colored and had a snack and crafted a paper chain.

All the kids got in a circle with my mom at the end to sing a song, which was very cute.

Then it was time to go.

We did stop upstairs to check out some books, which Miss had fun reading to her baby doll when we got back to my parents’ house.

The day of the story time was also my husband’s birthday. This year I let Miss pick out a few presents for him in addition to what I got for him. A couple of weeks ago I took her to the dollar store (the real one where everything costs $1), gave her a $5 bill and told her she could pick five things that she thought her Daddy would like for his birthday. She walked around the store clutching the $5 bill in her hand, selecting things at her eye level. It was so fun to watch her make her choices and then to pack them up when we got them home. In addition to the five presents, she was also allowed to pick a card and a gift bag for him.

And all on her own, she also picked this hat as a must-have for her Daddy.

So what were the gifts? A Winnie the Pooh chalkboard set,

a pink jumprope, blue safety scissors, and a pen with a bobbling dog on top, set into a suction cup base (not pictured here, but shown above).

My personal favorite? Floral foam.

Miss had no idea what it was when she saw it at the store, but she thought it was awesome and knew her Daddy would just love it. It was great to watch her getting so excited about her Daddy’s presents.

We also got to visit with my brother and his family for an afternoon. We went to their house to do our Christmas with them.

A good time was had by all, I think.

And a great holiday tradition was passed to the next generation during this visit. Every year my mom and I watch the movie “Heidi” with Shirley Temple. Some people watch, “Miracle on 34th Street,” maybe even “A Christmas Story” or some other traditional holiday movie. Our movie is “Heidi.” We know the dialog by heart. This year, my girls watched it for the first time.

Okay, so the above photos are a little misleading. They really only paid attention to the movie for about the first 10 minutes. But I didn’t expect much more for the first viewing. This movie takes time to appreciate. My husband and brother, even my Dad, still don’t quite appreciate it yet. The girls will get there. Of that I am sure.

One other movie experience we had while in Kentucky, that Miss did greatly appreciate (to the point that we watched the movie 3 times in 24 hours), was her first viewing of “Snow White.” I hadn’t seen the movie in many, many years, so I probably enjoyed watching it with her almost as much as she did.

The still photos don’t quite do justice to our enjoyment of the movie.

I’m glad to be home, though I miss my family. I can’t believe Christmas is already almost here. Tomorrow is Miss’s school party. I have way too much gift-wrapping left to do. This weekend we’ll go to the Farm to “do Christmas” with my husband’s family. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

A Letter to Santa and a Little Elf

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Amy

A few years ago, my mom and dad gave us an ornament for our Christmas tree. It’s a hollow tube with one end that comes off. It says, “Letters to Santa” on the side. This was the first year Miss was old enough to have an understanding of the idea of writing a letter to Santa to tell him what she’d like for Christmas. So yesterday we wrote a letter. Really, I wrote a letter and prodded her for the things she’d like to ask Santa for. She initially said, “A teddy bear.” When I asked what kind of teddy bear, she said, “A pink one.” This was news to me. Every other time I’ve asked her what she would like from Santa, she has said, “Care Bears,” even going so far as to specify a few specific Care Bears. I have since purchased said Care Bears. These will be gifts from Santa. So, I must admit I kind of prompted her to include Care Bears and a few other things that “Santa” has already gotten her in her list to him. We also added a section to ask for things for Lass.

Then we rolled up the letter, put it in the tube, and hung it back on the tree. I told Miss Santa would come to get it while she slept.

This morning we got up and went to see if Santa had taken the letter.

He did, of course. Miss thought this was quite fun. I also used this exercise in sending a letter to Santa to introduce the “Elf on the Shelf” concept to our house. I had gone back and forth with myself about whether we were going to have an Elf this year. Once I learned about it, it seemed like a cute concept. Folks seem to have lots of fun with their elves. Miss’s school has an elf they have named “Jingle.” By the time I finally decided to go ahead and get an elf, I missed the “late November” time period when these elves are supposed to arrive. Oh well. Miss doesn’t yet understand what “late November” means anyway. So, I decided to coordinate the arrival of the Elf with the disappearance of the letter to Santa. As in “Santa came last night and took your letter and, wow look!, he left an elf for us.” Cool, eh? The book and box for the elf (we got “Christopher Pop-In-Kins” instead of the other Elf on the Shelf that lots of other folks get) were left under the Christmas tree where the ornament was hanging. We read the book together this morning. Then I pointed out to Miss that the box was empty, so the elf must be hiding! She found him pretty quickly (see the little elf below on the mantle in front of the white-framed photo of the girls). She was a little excited to find the elf and tell him “Hello,” though I’m not entirely sure she understands the whole thing. It’s okay. If nothing else it will be fun to hide the Elf each night and let her find him each morning.

And speaking of Elves… This little elf’s sweet personality has just been blossoming! She is such a funny and feisty and loving little girl! Her big thing lately is giving kisses. A LOT of kisses. She’ll just walk up and kiss me wherever she can reach me. On my knee if I’m standing. On my big belly if I’m sitting. On my arm if I’m changing her diaper.

She gives kisses just as much to her daddy and sister. She gives kisses to the dog. It makes me melt to see the girls giving each other hugs and kisses. Big sister seems to enjoy the lovins and there is a lot of hugging and kissing between those two these days.

Talk about holiday spirit!

Christmas – Take 2

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Amy

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at the Farm with my in-laws. It was a very fun time. Miss got dressed up for Christmas Eve.

She had a blast playing with all of her cousins (Lass missed out on this photo as she had gone to bed).

And of course, she loved opening her presents.

She loved her new Yo Gabba Gabba backpack.

She took a break to read one of her new books.

She stayed focused on her task in spite of all the commotion around her with 25 other people also opening gifts.

Then it was time for Santa. We took the stockings down from the mantle and spread them around the living room upstairs while the kids were playing downstairs. Here are Miss’s and Lass’s.

Then Santa stomped around, yelled, “Ho Ho Ho!” and all the kids ran up the stairs and out onto the snowy deck to catch a glimpse of him running away down the driveway. One of my brothers-in-law also had a flashlight with a red light that he made look like Rudolph taking off. Miss went out with her Daddy to see, but she was cold and I don’t think she actually saw anything since she didn’t really get what she was looking for. But she did enjoy digging into her pretty stocking (all the members of my husband’s family have gorgeous stockings made by his aunt, the kids’ are all personalized).

Then my husband found an item that was not put there by me. Could it have been Santa?

He misplaced this ancient and much-loved sweatshirt a year and a half ago and has been pining for it since. He has asked everyone he could think of if he might have left it at their house. And now he has it back. We have no idea who brought it back to him (well, we have a good idea, but no one’s ‘fessing up) and it doesn’t really matter anyway. He’s just happy to have it back. He’s thrilled. In fact, I think I heard him say something like, “This is one of the best Christmas presents ever.”

Miss really loved her new placemat with animals on it.

She loved counting the different animals.

On Christmas day it was time for playing in the snow.

She and her daddy went out with all the kids to sled on the big hill. She requested to make a snowman.

She had really enjoyed being out the previous day, but on this day it was much colder and windier. She didn’t stay out long at all and didn’t get a chance to make her snowman.

We’re going to have a warm-up later this week, so maybe we’ll get out to make a snowman then. This morning, Miss finally got the kitchen that Santa left for her and Lass. She loves it. As I type this, she is checking on her “pizza” in the oven. Time to go eat!

Traditions

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Amy

I love holiday traditions. Love them. Every year I decorate my tree on the day after Thanksgiving. While doing it, I listen to Johnny Mathis Christmas music, which is what my mom and I listened to always at Christmas time when I was a kid, particularly when we were making no-bake cookies (her specialty back then). I allow my hubby to put on some Charlie Brown Christmas too, since that’s his traditional holiday music, and we rock around the Christmas tree. We eat creamed eggs on my family’s Christmas morning and my mom and I watch “Heidi.”

Last night we opened our home gifts, since we’re leaving for the Farm tonight. My hubby and I opened our gifts for each other and Miss opened the gifts for her and Lass that are too big to take with us to be from Santa tomorrow night, like her easel for her learning tower and the big paper pads and box of art supplies that go with it. We also opened the traditional gifts for the girls.

Last year, I started the tradition of giving Miss an ornament every year. I gave her a silver rocking horse ornament with a plaque signifying her first christmas. I got a matching one for Lass this year. Miss’s ornament this year is a little snow-baby-type thing, holding a baby that says “I’m the Big Sister.” I will continue to get the girls each an ornament every year, relating to something we did during the year.

I got the idea for a new tradition I started this year from my dearest Auntie (she also does the ornament tradition for my cousins, so maybe I got that idea from her too?). My mom told me about it and I thought it was the coolest idea. My Auntie gets each of my cousins a children’s book every year for Christmas that relates to something significant that happened in their life that year. So, not only do my cousins have all these cool books from her that commemorate their lives and contain a note from my aunt, when they have kids they will have a great start on a fabulous library for their little ones! I love this idea so much I had to start it with my girls, and I even gave Miss a book for last year. For last year I got her the beautiful book “On the Night You Were Born.”

Her book for this year is “Big Sister.”

And she opened Lass’s book, “On the Day You Were Born.”

I am so excited about the idea of getting an ornament and a book for my girls for each year. My favorite part of it is the note I wrote inside each of the books. I hope they will love these books always. This year I also started two other traditions. I will give the girls new jammies to wear on Christmas Eve (you can see these in my last post) and also will try to get a picture of them with Santa. This year, I was not terribly successful with this second tradition, despite trying twice. On my first attempt, I took the girls to a craft show where they had a Santa. Miss was very interested in Santa, but did not want to get close to him. She was so timid, I didn’t try to push her too much to sit on his lap by herself, so I just sat next to Santa with both of the girls on my lap.

Then when we were visiting my parents last week I took Miss and Lass to the story time at the library (my mom is the children’s librarian). They had a Santa come to story time and give gifts to the kids.

Miss was still kind of shy, but I thought I’d let her try to sit on his lap. Okay, I didn’t really let her try, I picked her up and plunked her on his lap just long enough to get this photo.

That Santa sure does look enthused! Tonight we leave for the farm. Some traditions for my husband’s family include having oyster stew and chili on Christmas Eve and having Santa come, as described in my last post. Tradition makes me feel nostalgic and warm and fuzzy. I’m sure my girls and I will continue to add other traditions in years to come. Perhaps making and decorating Christmas cookies will be one. That’s my project with Miss for today!