So This Is Christmas

I started to do a big Christmas recap the other day, then got sidetracked when I saw Stanford Blatch from SATC on Disney's Imagination Movers. For some reason, I felt compelled to write a post about how bizarre that seemed to me, but when I got to the end of it, I realized I really had no point other than: it was bizarre to see Stanford Blatch on Imagination Movers.

So. I scratched that one and will now commence with the Christms Story of '09 (in pictures, because I have a sore throat and cough and am not feeling the Christmas spirit so much now).

Christmas Eve at Nana and Grandad's House







Christmas Eve--Getting Ready for Santa
Jason put out reindeer food in the freezing rain. The next morning, Claire really really REALLY wanted to see if the food was gone but it was unfortunately covered in four inches of snow (lucky for us because who would've thought to actually remove the reindeer food?).

Cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Claire realized the next day that we neglected to leave milk for Santa. You have no idea how much this troubled her, but I assured that other kids with more thoughtful moms left him some.

Claire's letter to Santa.

The tree with a few presents under it (not all ours--also Grandma's and Ashley's loot too).

Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. Claire later admitted that she came down in the middle of the night "just to make sure Santa came".

Hello, Elmo. I think I love you.


Arden with her Barbie dress. The only thing she asked for this year.


Claire with her Just Like Me American Girl doll (who would look a lot more like Claire if she were from Latin America).


Sweet Samuel Cade. My girls couldn't keep their hands off of him.


The cousins.


A white Christmas meant that as soon as the presents were open, these crazy girls were ready to head outside. In their pajama pants. They only lasted about 30 seconds before they came back in and put on some warmer gear.





This girl was smart--she stayed inside where it was warm.

Arden and the Huly Hoop

Ladies and Gentleman, This is Reindeer # 4

We got the good news several weeks ago that Claire had landed both a speaking part and a singing part in the kindergarten rendition of "Holiday Moosical". I was much more excited about the news than Claire, who felt more than a little slighted that she had been passed over for the role of Sugar Plum Fairy. Despite my best efforts to convince her that a reindeer was waaaay cooler than a Sugar Plum Fairy (who drives Santa's sleigh? Who? That's right. Reindeer. NOT fairies.), she remained skeptical about wearing antlers and singing in front of an audience.

I can't say that I blame her, especially since I had to be an elf in my own kindergarten musical when what I really wanted to be one of the presents. Because when you're five, wearing a box covered in wrapping paper trumps pointy-toed shoes any day.

But even though I understood where Claire was coming from, I did my best to psyche her up for her musical theatre debut. Because, I'll be honest with you, I've never had a singing part OR a speaking part in any kind of on-stage production and this was kind of exciting to me. Not that I'm living vicariously through my five year old. Because that would be weird.

I guess all my pep-talking worked, because by the time the night of the musical rolled around, Claire was full of nervous energy and couldn't wait to hit the stage. There was no more talk of Sugar Plum Fairies. Reindeer #4 was in the house.



I played the part of the proud mama, simultaneously filming and snapping pictures as Claire said her line (Flying is our job alone. Flying is our gig.) and sang her song. The other moms and I congratulated each other on how good our children were doing. Wait a minute. Is Claire grabbing the microphone? Like a rock star? Perhaps she's watched one to many Hannah Montana episodes. Oh, look. They're done. Here they go, marching sweetly off the stage. Wait a minute. Is Claire dancing? Where did she learn that Beyonce-esqe "Single Ladies" move? I swear she gets this from her dad.



After the show, Claire was on some kind of post-performance high. "I love the stage!" she proclaimed. "Yeah," I said, "I kind of noticed that."