This year, my girls woke up at their father's house, and I brought them home at 11:30, just in time to open one gift from Santa, and then go to lunch with my Dad's side of the family. They were *mostly* well behaved, other than one incident of a tounge sticking out of a little 4 year old's mouth. Hmmmmm.....Anyway... the picture above is my favorite picture from Christmas. Molly's face is priceless. She squealed and gave Santa QUITE a wonderful compliment, which I will keep to myslf, but still beam with pride when I replay it in my head. My prayer for next year is that she still believes in Santa like this, so I can have yet another magical year of excitement and wonder with her.
As expected, both girls received several dress up costumes - all Disney princess, of course - AND some rockin' art supplies! ( Remeber, I said I *thought that might happen??? I am Soooooo Good!)
This is Molly opening her favorite gift. It was a message in a bottle from Santa (you can see the bottle to the left, beside the sofa.) The message was VERY flattering to Molly, explaining how good a child she has been. Then Santa went on to explain that Molly, Kate and I will be "special guests" at Castaway Bay at a date Mommy chooses. Santa even told Molly that he LOVES visiting her home, in spite of the fact he has to "step over Darwin" when he comes in! Molly thought that was great. She is our resident "Darwin watcher" making sure he isn't stepped on by anyone as they enter the home, since he loves to hang out by the front door.
Kate had a little bit of trouble with her snow white shoes, and that was really our only stressful moment of the day. Kate's feet have grown significantly since Santa's cobblers created these princess shoes for her in their workshop. I guess Santa (in his attempts to do advance planing for my children) didn't really think about that - since Kate's feet have essenitally been the same size for the past year! Anyway, I was awfully tired and a bit short for a few minutes as we were trying to pry the shoes on her feet. I eventually had to make small cuts in them behind the bow, to allow them to go on her feet. Now they fit perfectly. I should explain that is was because of my attempts to really keep the belief in Santa going, that I was SO tired. I always bring home boxes and leave out gift wrap for Santa on Christmas eve. THAT way, no one recognizes the wrapping paper as that which has been in our laundry room for ages. ALSO... there is a notable reason that Kate's present *might be* wrapped in Molly's shoe box on Christmas morning, with a tag from Santa.... it's because WE purposely left that box for him to use. I must thank my Aunt J and cousin L for this wonderful idea, which evolved following one traumatic Christmas morning, involving a shoe box and "Santa" tag. Anyway.... My POINT is I was very, VERY tired on Christmas day a result of my late night gift wrapping adventures. I was up until 4:00am wrapping gifts for the girls in the paper and boxes we left out! Next year, I've GOT to come up with a better plan.....
This is Molly's special dress up gown. It's "Giselle"... the newest Disney princess. She desperately wanted this gown, and so Santa really splurged on it this year. Interestingly, in the movie - Giselle has some silk worms who spin the thread for her, and her forest creatures help her create this beautiful wedding dress. As it turns out, ALL of the silk worms live in Andalasia (where Giselle is from) and so Santa was unable to have them help him with the gown. As a result, Santa had to buy this dress at the Disney store - and he accidentally left the tag on. Oops... silly Santa! I thought for a minute that Mr. Claus *might have been busted* ....but when I gave the whole "silk worm" explanation (off the top of my head, thank you VERY much) Molly just said "Oh, well that makes sense..." and moved on. *** Whew! The words of my mother kept coming back to me ..."Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive..." I don't know how much longer I can keep spinning this web of Santa lies....
This is Molly's special dress up gown. It's "Giselle"... the newest Disney princess. She desperately wanted this gown, and so Santa really splurged on it this year. Interestingly, in the movie - Giselle has some silk worms who spin the thread for her, and her forest creatures help her create this beautiful wedding dress. As it turns out, ALL of the silk worms live in Andalasia (where Giselle is from) and so Santa was unable to have them help him with the gown. As a result, Santa had to buy this dress at the Disney store - and he accidentally left the tag on. Oops... silly Santa! I thought for a minute that Mr. Claus *might have been busted* ....but when I gave the whole "silk worm" explanation (off the top of my head, thank you VERY much) Molly just said "Oh, well that makes sense..." and moved on. *** Whew! The words of my mother kept coming back to me ..."Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive..." I don't know how much longer I can keep spinning this web of Santa lies....
These are the newest members of our family. Both arrived last week, just before Thanksgiving. "Misty" whose proper name is "mist walker dreamer" is a leopard gecko, who is native to Afghanistan. She is sweet and wonderful, and a beautiful shade of yellow, blue, purple and brown and black stripes. She is striped as a juvenile, and as she grows, she will become spotted. She should not exceed 10 inches in length, and will live in captivity for approximately 20 years. The girls are VERY much looking forward to growing up with her. Especially Molly, who has really taken Misty under her wing. Molly came up with the name "mist walker" after a book she is reading about wild horses in Hawaii. I thought it fitting. Kate immediately advised she wanted to name her "dreamer" and I also thought that was fitting. He has decided now, we need to change her name to "pinkish" which makes no sense to me, since she is in no way "pinkish" - so we are not doing it. Sorry Kate. The world is tough.... best to learn that now.
