Family Alive

Whew, being Santa is HARD WORK!  Brian and I just finished up putting out the exciting presents for the kids… Josiah’s got a cute LeapFrog shopping cart with little food items that it scans and counts.  Analise is getting a HUGE bookshelf-style dollhouse that I’ve had for months from a consignment sale.  I set up all her Dora figures and play pieces inside it.  It’s pretty exciting to walk into the living room and find all this! 

We also finished a couple presents we’ve been working on for other family members and stuffed the stockings.  I’m tired but excited to enjoy the morning with my little ones! 

But this Santa thing has been quite an ordeal for Analise.  She’s scared of Santa, and she cried when he visited a neighborhood near our church on a fire truck (which she’s also scared of).  So we have not played the Santa-card much.  She knew he was bringing presents at Christmas.  But today, she started asking if he was coming. 

This afternoon, our neighborhood firetruck drove down the street with Santa waving to all (and, um, a Fox News truck following behind with a cameraman right below Santa on the firetruck getting a close shot).  Josiah stared wide-eyed out the window, while Analise burst into tears.  And when she realized he was coming tonight, while she was sleeping, she got very upset.  She wanted Brian to call him and tell him to leave the presents on the porch.  So Brian called a very long-distance number with lots of digits, and talked to Santa.  He was ok with that, and Brian told her we’d bring the presents in before she woke up so they wouldn’t be too cold in the morning.  Then she wanted us to write him a note to remind him to leave them outside and not to come in.  So Brian wrote the note, and left it on the front door (got a picture of it, but we’re too tired from all the Santa-work to get it off the camera and upload it). 

As I was tucking her in, she started crying again, telling me she didn’t want Santa to come.  Imagine that!  So I told her that I had a secret… Santa had actually already come while we were at church and dropped the presents off, but I was supposed to keep them hidden until the morning.  She sat straight up and got really excited.  Of course, she wanted to see them, but I convinced her she needed to wait.  I think that consoled her enough so she could go to sleep, except that her overactive imagination kept hearing things, resulting in a couple more bouts of tears before she finally fell asleep.  Whew! 

We had a nice Christmas dinner this afternoon with Brian’s family on my treasured antique china.  Analise was so excited because we got to light all the Advent candles, including the pretty white Christ candle.  Josiah, of course, blew and blew all through dinner.  Then we enjoyed a candlelight service at our church, Clearwater.  Again, Josiah blew, even when he saw the big screen with a picture of a bunch of candles.  So funny!  We wrapped up the evening with a great Christmas book, Santa’s Favorite Story.  Santa falls asleep in the woods on Christmas eve morning, and the animals get worried that there will be no Christmas if he doesn’t get back to the North Pole soon.  Santa tells them not to worry, that even if he’s not there, Christmas will still happen, and he shared the story of the first Christmas with the animals.  So sweet. 

Tomorrow we’re opening gifts here, having lunch at Brian’s parents, napping and packing in the afternoon, and then heading for Wisconsin sometime around 7pm to drive all night.  Not sure when you’ll hear from us again, but hope you’re having as wonderful a Christmas as we are!