Christmas 2009

This year we decided to not travel with Garret being so little. This was a first for us. We haven’t been home for Christmas in 9 years. The furthest we went was Milwaukee to spend Christmas Eve day at my Aunt’s house. We enjoyed spending time at home with just our family of 4 and cherished the excitement Em had about the holiday. The candle light service at church was wonderful and brought peace to me. It wasn’t the easiest decision for us to stay home but it was the right one. Em is getting older and needs to experience Christmas at home. Santa was able to come on the “right” night for a change. It’s been next to impossible to get her to leave the house since he did. She just wants to stay in her jammies all day and play.

Garret’s first Christmas went as boring as it possible could for a 2 month old. He slept through Christmas eve day with my family, slept through candle light service, slept through Christmas morning and slept through Christmas afternoon/evening at Grandpa Kildahl’s house. It wasn’t until this week when our good friends came over that he finally had a “Christmas” awake. (I think it was because he was spending it with his big buddy Aiden : )

Here is her new dollhouse that John and I got her. I knew/ thought she would go crazy over it but to my surprise she actually said (or should I say yelled) “this is not the one I wanted!” and ran away. Come to find out she wanted the one I have in my classroom. Not sure why she would want that one over the one I picked out because it has NO color at all. Not on the house or the furniture. It’s quite boring in fact. Her’s is awesome. It even has a car and a garage. How much better can it get? Every accessory you can think of it has, all but the baby and that’s what she keeps reminding me of….. So maybe sometime soon we’ll have to go look for one.

Em also got a whole bunch of Littlest Pet Shops. I can’t believe how much she’s been playing with them! She loves them. Oh, and her “Little My Ponies” as she calls them. She got a double so we went to exchange it. Come to find out, she has every My Little Pony on the market. Are you serious???

And then there’s the princess things. And lots of it! She loves all the little figurines to play with. She added to her collection, The Princess and the Frog set and Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. Oh, and 2 new costumes, TinkerBell and Sleeping Beauty. Oh, My little princess…… (edited to add: not sure why the fonts are different, for some reason it's not letting me fix it :( )

1st movie

Yesterday I took Em to see her first movie in a theater, The Princess and the Frog. She was so excited. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot she couldn't stop smiling. Then once I got her our of the car she was practically running to the door while pulling me along. It was a great movie and she LOVED it! When we got home John asked her what her favorite part was and she said, "spending time with mommy." How sweet!

Tree trimming

The tree is up and finally decorated. Em and I had a good time doing it together this morning. There were some issues with our prelit this year and I had to decide what we were going to do (after spending 3 hours trying to replace bulbs and fuses and still not being able to fix the sections that weren't lighting up). I really love our tree and just can't justify buying a new one. John and I went to look at Menards yesterday and I really didn't see anything that was "just right". And not sure what happened in the last 6 years, but man, have they gone up in price! I don't remember what we paid but there is NO WAY I paid nearly $200 for one, or even $100 if it was 50% off! That's just CRAZY!!!!

So with that I decided to buy two boxes of 100 lights that were less than $2 a box! And our tree looks just fine. Actually, beautiful now that it's full of ornaments and bows. Unless you look super close you can't even notice all the unlit bulbs. Honestly, I'm not even sure I will buy a new one after the holiday even with the sales.

The Feeling of Giving

So this year I decided that instead of picking a name off of a tree for a needy child we would donate some to the homeless shelter, HALO, which isn't too far from our house. HALO sets up a little shopping village where the moms can go and pick out a gift for their child and wrap it so that they have something to give their little ones for Christmas. Then the part I love so much is that on a different day the "village" becomes a place where the children can come and pick something out for their moms and do the same. Teaching kindergarten, I know how much it means for the kids to have a present for their mommas. My student's are always full of smiles when they have a gift to give to someone they love.

So we did a little shopping and picked up a few things for some little girls (a baby doll, Snow White Barbie, and another Barbie w/extra clothes). And for the moms we got a few bath sets (lotions, bath gel etc.) and slippers.

The joy of giving it was when Em and I sat down and talked about how there are children who do not have any homes and their mommies don't have the money to buy presents and food. I told her that we were going to the shelter (which then led to a conversation about what the shelter was) to bring these gifts there so that the mommies could pick a toy for their little girls. The smile that lit up her face is one that will always be embedded in my head. (as I'm recapping this tears are flowing thinking about how she responded to the whole thing) She had become so excited that we were giving these things. Once we arrived at HALO, we went in to drop off the bags and she told the lady at the desk that we were bringing these toys so that the little girls would have a special present for Christmas from their mommy.

The experience was priceless. For Em only being 3 1/2, I really do believe she understands it to a degree. May the reason for the holiday season be in your heart as we have it in ours. ~Tammy