Hey Santa

On Saturday morning, we got to take Libby to visit Santa Claus! Our tradition before we visit Kris Kringle seems to now be to visit Chick-Fil-A for breakfast to kick off the festivities. (I think since we did it last year, Libby assumed we'd do the same thing this year - we offered her any choice for breakfast, including donuts, but she chose Chick-Fil-A like it was the most obvious thing in the world and asked if Mimi and Diddy would be joining us as well (since they did last year!).)

Anywho, we were a little later getting there than we'd planned, so the line was also a bit longer. It moved pretty rapidly, but instead of forcing Libby to stand in line for an hour I took the opportunity to take Libby to a place she thought must be Disney World - the Disney Store! I wish I'd had a camera to see her face. She spotted a giant cardboard Mickey from a ways away and got all excited. I told her that's where we were headed. As we walked in to the store, her small, nervous grin grew bigger and bigger and I just can't really imagine a better reaction at the actual Disney World. She rapidly walked from item to item to inspect, touch and talk about it. She carried around a "slinky dog" toy with tiny pieces of gum (or gobstoppers?), shaking and shaking it the whole time we were there and was also particularly excited about a dalmatian puppy stuffed animal. She was on her best behavior and gladly put the toy down and left the store when we needed to go back to the line. We also spotted her friends, Leah and Sydney, in line just a few families behind us! It brought much joy to all the girls.

Libby was a tad nervous when she first walked up to the big guy, but he helped her climb up and they took four or five photos of her to make sure we got a good one, and Libby stuck to the list she's been sharing since the first time I asked: roller skates, a helmet and a jump rope! Santa must have been pleased not to have to add an additional last-minute order for his elves!

I think we could really use this chair at our house.

Michael and I also got to attend the Brian Setzer Orchestra concert last night and had a nice date night with a delicious dinner at Ted's beforehand. The Krafts watched Libby while we were out and had a ball as usual. (Libby sure must have - she took an almost 3.5 hour nap today!) They said her bath was particularly amusing, with her making "book soup" in the tub, including her bath book, "sprinkles," peas, green beans, and other sweets.

We also took care of a Christmas gift craft during the afternoon and made some other goodies to go with the snowballs for our neighbors.

Today we had a potluck lunch at church after the service and Libby always loves the chance to eat at church like this. Kinda funny. There was also plenty of great Christmas music and carol-singing, so Libby took the opportunity to entertain everyone with some dancing and asked her Daddy to join her, too! Meeemm'ries.

So other than the sinus/cold thing going on this weekend and the fact that our fridge fritzed-out, it would have been just about perfect! Since the fridge fritzed, I didn't get to make Georgia Snowballs that I'd promised Michael, which is pretty sad - but I did wrap a bunch more Christmas gifts and have only a few more to go after they arrive. Woot!

We're watching one of Michael's all-time favorites, "Miracle on 34th Street" now and we knocked "Elf" off the movie list on Friday night.

One other tidbit I forgot to mention. Last Thursday was St. Nicholas Day in many countries, where St. Nick visits and brings gifts instead of on Christmas Day. Libby and her friends learned about this day in school and came home with a shoe-shaped pouch (since he puts his gifts in shoes or socks). The pouch came with a little piece of paper explaining St. Nicholas Day and how the gifts and candies were meant to be shared. I read the paper to Libby and was asking her about the day. My sweet girl told me that she would like to share the clementine orange in her shoe "with Mommy; cause I don't like oh-nanges." The rest of the shoe was all candy. Yep, that's the sharing spirit! I am so proud.

This week, I'm hoping to have some fun things in store - but first we have to get that fridge working!

And to see our friend, Nadine's new baby, Finn, who arrived yesterday morning, we'll also have to get better!