Christmas

I can’t believe that Christmas is already over. So much has happened in the last month that I wanted to write about. With all the holiday baking and preparing for Christmas, time just got the best of me.

Alyssa had her first dance recital this month. She was so excited to dance on the big stage. When I saw her up there, she looked so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. She had three dances during the program. It was a real mommy moment. I have never felt so proud before. Seeing her up on that stage dancing was amazing.

Grandma took all of us to see “A Christmas Carol” at the Herberger Theatre. It was Alyssa’s first play. She thought we seeing a movie. When the curtain opened and the actors were singing and dancing, her face lit up! To our surprise, she behaved very well and enjoyed the play. The Herberger is very family friendly and we’re looking forward to seeing more plays there in the future.

We introduced Alyssa to “A Christmas Story” this year. She absolutely loves the movie! She is still asking to watch it even though Christmas is over. It’s hilarious to listen to her tell you all about Ralphie and the bully (which she calls the “Scarecrow”). She also likes the part where the kids are standing in line waiting to see Santa and one of the kids says, “I like the Wizard of Oz.” That’s one of her Grandma’s favorite parts, so Alyssa keeps saying it because it makes everyone laugh. The other night she was in bed and I found her holding her tongue saying, “Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!” I never imagined she’d like the movie so much.

We had family over for Christmas Eve. We all spent the day making our traditional lasagna. We made a great video of the entire process and it was a lot of fun!   Getting ready for Santa was so much of fun this year. We sat out carrots for the reindeer and even sprinkled powdered sugar on the patio to get his boot prints. Since we don’t have a chimney, we left Santa’s magic key outside. Then, we made chocolate chip cookies and sat out the cookies and milk. Alyssa took a bite out of one of the cookies to make sure it was okay for Santa. With all the excitement, it took her a while to get to sleep this year.

Christmas morning was magical! We woke her up and she went right to the back door to see if he came. The look on her face when she saw the chewed up carrots and Santa’s boot prints was priceless! Then, we went to the tree and saw that Santa was here. She was so excited! Santa ate almost all his cookies, drank his milk, and left his magic key on the table. Santa left the baby doll she wanted and wrapped all her gifts in special Disney Princess paper. She knew exactly which ones were hers. After we looked through our stockings, she opened her Santa gifts one after the other. It didn’t take us very long this year to get through the gifts. I’m still amazed at how quickly a child’s mind switches from one toy to the next. It’s like they are so excited that they don’t know what to play with first. Of course, every toy is bound in the box and it takes scissors, wire cutters, and a screwdriver just to get them out.

The day after Christmas, we went to the movies to see “Marley & Me.” Alyssa and I watched the movie trailers for two movies and she wanted to see the one with the puppy. Little did I know that the puppy was only in a small part of the movie. The movie ended up being very sad and she ended up getting bored. So much for a fun day at the movies!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We have almost two weeks at home, so we are looking forward to spending time together.