“For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 2:11

So I took the kids to see Santa today.  I’ve given up on the idea of capturing that magical moment of the kids whispering in his ear what they want this year, and instead, I am happy with something I consider to be passable.

Notice how Edie is on her best behavior in front of the big guy.  Her hands are folded in her lap, listening quietly while her brother has a turn.   Trust me.  That’s all for Santa.

I mentioned a while back that Edie has been very concerned this year about the Naughty/Nice list.  She decided that she was going to go straight to the source and just ask Santa himself.  As I was snapping my last shot, she came barreling towards me, “Mommy!  He said I was on the nice list!  He said I was on the nice list!”  I guess now she can rest easy on Christmas Eve night.

Dear Santa,

Have you been doing good? Are you working hard? Where you the real Santa Claus in the parade yesterday? Am I on the naughty list? I think I’ve been a good girl.

Will you please bring me a princess doll house with an elevator and rooms for the princesses? I would also like to have some more Polly Pockets that are NOT made out of paper. (Sidebar: since only one Polly Pocket doll came with the party boat she received for her birthday, she kept part of the packaging so her Polly would have some friends…those are the paper ones she is referring to.)

My brother is too young to write letters.  He would like a toy firetruck that will not break into pieces like the one he has, and my mom won’t have to fix it all the time. (Sidebar #2: A gift for everybody really). Also, my brother would like some Bob the Builder books.

How do you get down the chimney? And how do you get back up? I saw a movie where you touch your nose–is that real?

I have tried hard to be good.  I’ve painted pictures for people.  I think that’s pretty nice.  I’ve helped Mommy clean around the house.  I feed Momma Kitty, and I sometimes do my chores.  I also scratch my Mommy’s back and brush her hair when she’s tired.  Is that enough to put me on the nice list?

I hope you have fun on Christmas giving all the nice kids presents.  Merry Christmas!

Love,

Edie

Final Sidebar:  This year, she’s been very concerned about the naughty list.  I love that this comes across in her letter to the Big Guy.  I also love how quickly she goes from one thing to the next.  That’s pretty much her thought process all the time.  And even though I did help her with proper letter etiquette, I really tried hard to let it be her words.

So Christmas ‘09 is over.  After a month of decking the halls, I have spent the day packing up decorations and storing them away.  We’ve almost polished off all of our baked goodies, and pretty soon, the only hint of Christmas that will be left in the house will be the shiny new toys the kids are playing with.

I love Christmas.  I really do, and this year was a good one.  Unlike most people around this time of year, we spend a great deal of time at home, laying around in our pajamas, and eating our weight in sugar.  For whatever reason, our schedule seems to clear leading up to the holiday, and we kind of like it that way.  We rent movies and play games, and just spend some time relaxing together.

Every year we spend Christmas Eve at home.  This tradition started when Ken and I were first married and use to spend our Christmas Day going from one family member’s house to another.  We would leave our house before 8:00 on Christmas morning and then return home after 10:00 that night.  It was a fun day, but could be a bit exhausting with little time for just us to be together.  So we started saying “No” to invites for parties on Christmas Eve and left that day just for us.

So that’s how we spent our Christmas Eve this year as well.  We did hose ourselves off that evening to go to the Christmas Eve service at church where my parents met us.  It was a nice service of reflection in between waving to Edie as she sang on stage with the other children and my dad accidentally sitting on his candle and crushing the plastic holder into a thousand pieces.   Several days later, I still chuckle at the thought of him holding his little broken candle while singing Silent Night.

After church, my parents came over to our house for supper and to unwrap a present or two.  For every Christmas that I can remember, I have been given a pair of Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve.  This year being no exception.  My parents have continued this tradition with my kids, and they too received new PJs this year.  I don’t know if Edie was just caught up in the moment or what, but when she unwrapped her new jammies, she threw her arms around my mother and said, “This is the best Christmas EVER!”

I muttered under my breath, “If she gets this excited over pajamas, then why is Santa bringing her all those toys?”

Around 7:00 a.m. Christmas morning, I woke up to Edie standing in my face whispering, “It’s Christmas, Mommy! Get up!”  The entire month had been leading up to this moment for her, and she could barely contain herself.  Once we gave her the go ahead, she ran down the hall to see what Santa had left for her and her brother.  She stood there for a minute inventorying the toys in front of her.  It was all there.  Everything she asked for: the Flippin’ Frogs board game, an Ariel doll whose hair changes color when it gets wet, and Bendaroos…even the piggy bank she had asked Santa for on Roark’s behalf (you know because every one year old needs a piggy bank).  On a side note, I am fully aware that we got lucky this year that all her requests were $20 and under.  I’m sure this won’t be the case the older she gets.

We spent the rest of the day at my parent’s house unwrapping presents and chasing kids around.  Then we came back home for our Christmas nap and more sugar eating.   That evening, we just laid around,  played with new toys, and eventually curled up on the couch to watch Polar Express.  Another good holiday…

A couple of weeks ago, Edie wrote a letter to Santa, or rather dictated a letter to me that I then wrote for her.  We put it in the mail and several days later, he responded saying that he knew she’d been a good girl this year.  However, he did have one request tacked onto the very end of his letter:  Please leave some milk and cookies out before you go to bed.

Every day since then, Edie has asked if we could make some cookies for Santa.  She’s been very concerned that we won’t have the proper refreshments to offer our guest when he arrives Christmas Eve night.  Well we eased her mind, and finally did some holiday baking today.  And I am happy to report that Santa will have an assortment of sugary treats to choose from:  chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, fudge, and maybe even some chocolate pretzels if we get around to it after nap time.

So I am pretty sure I’m on the naughty list this year, and if I am, then Santa ought to be there right along with me.  It all began with the brilliant idea to go to the Galleria this year for our annual visit with Santa instead of the mall that we normally visit.  I was looking for a different experience, and well, I got one!

While we waited in line, I asked one of Santa’s elves if I could take pictures of my children as they talked with the big guy.  She said that I could, but there was a limit as to how many.  I assumed it was because they didn’t want parents taking too long and hogging the lap.  But I didn’t want to be up in the middle of things anyway.  I wanted to be off to the side and trying to capture the moment.   I wanted a picture of Edie telling Santa about the Flippin’ Frogs game that she’s been asking for and Roarkie nestled in the crook of his arm, mesmerized by the twinkle in Santa’s eye (or more than likely, pulling at his beard).   But now I know that this Santa didn’t have  twinkle at all.  In fact, his tinsel was wound so tight that he wasn’t even the least bit jolly.

As we approached the front of the line, I stepped outside the roped off area to get ready while my mom and sister-in-law, Jenny, wrangled in the kids.  Edie was to be first.  She walked over and climbed into St. Nick’s lap.  As I snapped the first picture, ole’ Kris Kringle himself told his little cashier elf to stand in front of my camera and block the shot.  I kindly asked her to move.  I assured her that I would be purchasing a package of pictures from them as well, but that I would like to take pictures of my children with Santa too.  But she continued to stand in my way and said that she was just following direct orders from the big guy himself.

To top it off, Santa wasn’t the least bit interested in what my daughter was saying to him.  He was just sitting there giving me the stink eye.  My mother had to prompt Edie, “Tell Santa what you want.”  He called for my nieces and Roark to join Edie on his lap, and the whole time I’m asking the cashier elf to get out of my way…at this point, I’m using my serious voice, “Are you kidding me?!  These are MY kids, and my son’s FIRST Christmas!  And I am missing it because of YOU!  YOU said I could snap some pictures!  I GOT PERMISSION!”

For a moment towards the end, she must have been filled with a bit of Christmas compassion or maybe she bent down to straighten a jingle bell on her shoe. Whatever the reason, I seized the opportunity and managed to snap off this crummy shot of the kids:

Don’t they all look happy to be there?

As my mom went in to remove the kids, Santa told her that he was distracted by “that lady over there” taking pictures.  My mother said, “That LADY is my daughter, and the mother of these children, Santa.”  I’m not sure what other words followed, but I feel pretty sure that Mother will be joining me on the Naughty List this year.  She also gave the Elf Cashier a piece of her mind as well.

It turns out Santa thought I was a professional photographer and trying to sell the pictures to the parents afterward.  I could see how he might make that assumption because of the camera lens I was using was pretty big.  However, he never stopped to ask.  He immediately went into attack mode, and when he realized his mistake, he never backed down.

I guess on the bright side, the kids had no idea that any of this was going on.  In fact, as we were leaving the mall I was still blowing off steam and made some off-handed comment about how I didn’t like the Santa Claus at the Galleria and that I was mad at him.  Edie immediately stopped in her tracks and turned around, looking at me like I had just said “stupid, butt, and fart” all at the same time.

“You’re mad at Santa Claus, Mommy?” she asked dumbfounded.

I quickly realized what I had just said and the ears upon which it fell, and I recanted, “Oh, I’m just kidding!  Who could be mad at Santa Claus?”

So today was the start of the Christmas festivities at Edie’s school.  They started the season off with their annual Gingerbread House Party where all the parents come and help their kids decorate some little houses made out of graham crackers.  It’s pretty fun even though the parents do most of the work while the kids munch on the decorations.   In the beginning I told Edie to quit eating the stale Fruit Loops and chocolate chips, but as I looked around and saw other mothers fighting the same battle, I thought, “Hey, you’re only young once.  Go for it!”  So every time she put a decoration on the house, she followed it up with one in her mouth.

On the way out to the car, I saw one kid actually trying to take a bite out of his house while he followed his mom through the parking lot.  Edie saw him too and immediately started asking if she could carry her gingerbread house to the car as well.  I told her “no” because I was drawing the line at letting her eat the hot glue that held the graham crackers together.

I know it’s held together with hot glue because I went to her school last week to help her teacher glue graham crackers into little house shapes.  On a side note, I was also at her school the week before that to bring doughnuts to her class for her birthday.  All these frequent visits probably explain why when I asked,  “Is someone special going to come see you at school today?” She replied, “No…just you.”

This past week Ken and I got to experience another one of those rite of passages every parent has to endure.  And as much as we liked to complain about it, we were both there with cameras in hand documenting the occasion-Edie’s first Christmas pageant. 

She had been talking about it for two weeks leading up to it and would practice the songs daily.  I would help her with the one I knew (Jingle Bells), but she was on her own with the one I didn’t.  She would start out strong and end by shrugging her shoulders and saying, “I don’t know the rest.” 

When the big day finally arrived, she walked down the aisle with her classmates and took her place on the stage.  She quickly found us in the crowd of faces, waving and smiling, and she was ready for her debut.  There is no denying it.  The kid loves the stage.   In fact, on our way home from school that day, she started crying when I told her that she would have to wait another year before she got to do it again. 

I know it probably sounds silly to say, and I am sure the pregnancy hormones had a lot to do with it, but as I sat and watched her with my video camera in the air, I teared up at the sweetness of that moment.  I don’t even know why really, but it was just surreal to me.  This sweet little girl is mine, and  I get to be her mommy.  I know all the other parents were watching their kids and puffing up just the same as me…I mean, maybe that’s why they go to the trouble of putting on these ridiculous shows, but I walked out of that sancuary that day proud of MY girl.

In our house this year, October 31st was a very special day. It was Halloween plus Christmas morning all rolled into one. We had costumes and candy spread out on the floor, along with discarded boxes and shiny new toys.

It all began about five years ago when my sweet husband started saving his pennies to buy a home theater system that any president of an audio/video company would be proud to own. However, things happen, and life has a way of requiring money for things you didn’t plan on. So, his pennies had to go elsewhere, and his home theater system remained a dream-until last Friday.

As Edie and I trick or treated the neighborhood, Ken was out shopping, running from store to store. Something I have known him to do maybe twice in our eight years of marriage, and NEVER has he been so happy to do it. We come home to find the biggest plasma TV I have ever seen and a bunch of other electronics that come with individual remotes.

Edie and I sat on the couch stuffing our faces with NERDS and candy bars as we watched Ken and my father give themselves hernias moving things around. It was a fun way to spend an evening and is definitely going to be hard to top next Halloweeen.

Edie enjoys the wonder of Christmas.