December

Think I’ll just roll the whole month into one post. Whew.

We wanted to make December magical for Norah this year since it the first Christmas she understood what was going on. She immediately fell in love with Santa Claus, lights and Christmas trees. Here are some of the highlights of our month:

She first saw Santa at the mall a few days after Thanksgiving. A group of teenage girls were standing in front of him asking him various questions. (I heard one girl say, “Okay, seriously, you can tell me, are you the real Santa?” Classic.) Norah had no thought for any of the girls. The moment she saw Santa she started running, arms open wide, through a mess of legs, right into Santa’s lap. This Santa was amazing, real white beard, rosy cheeks, plump in the middle and a jolly chuckle.  He picked her up, gave her a squeeze, an elf hat and a candy cane.  She couldn’t have been more excited. 

We went to another (deserted, half-abandoned) mall a few weeks later and found a Santa there who let us take a picture with our camera. This Santa was probably in this thirties but talked like he was still in high school.  Norah was a little apprehensive… Note to self: don’t go see Santa in malls that are about to close down, even if there is no line on a Saturday in December.

Some of the other festivities included:

• A trip to Santa’s Magical Kingdom. (A campground turned into a Christmas wonderland with lights and characters of all kinds. We drove through it.)
• Picking out our Christmas tree. Norah was not happy about this when she realized all it involved was driving to a parking lot filled with boring, undecorated trees and walking through them in the cold rain. She did love getting it home and decorating it though.
• Opening packages from our friends and family.  One of her favorite times of day was when the mail came.
• Making Nativity puppets with mom and watching the Christmas Day puppet show.
• Playing and sleeping with Trixie the elf.
• Reading stories about baby Jesus.
• Driving down Candy Cane Lane. Another Christmas light drive. She LOVED the lights. Any time we were in the car and she would see them she would yell “Ahh! Christmas lights!”
• Decorating Christmas cookies.
• Christmas Eve with the Reagan’s. Feliz Navidad- yummy mexican food and a piñata!
• New Christmas PJs.
• And of course, waking on Christmas morning to see that Santa had actually come! Even if our basement did flood on Christmas Eve…

He came! Every night in December she slept with her “baby elf” and “mommy elf”. They have since gone back to the North Pole.

Ezra woke up just as we were finishing up the opening of presents. Happy first Christmas little boy!

  Watching the Nativity puppet show put on by mom and dad.

I love December and all that it means. Happy Christmas.