Happy Holiday Recap

Isabel is finally old enough to understand Christmas and it’s great on so many fronts.  First, it’s just a really happy and fun time of year.  Second, it means that Gramma and Padre come to visit for Christmas (previously the other grandkids got priority).  Third, I get to do all the fun Santa stuff and Isabel likes the holiday spirit. 

In our 24-day Holiday advent calendar we got to eat special snacks (candy canes, chocolate santas, Chocolate gelt, etc).  We got to go to special places (The Roosevelt, a Pelicans game, etc), and we got to do fun activities (pick out & decorate a christmas tree, write letters to Santa, Paint and play dreidel, make cookies, get donuts with padre, and make ginger bread houses).

Near the start of the month, I had Isabel dictate a letter to Santa about what she wanted for Christmas and why she deserved it.  She didn’t really understand why we were doing it, but I pressed on and told her that Santa wouldn’t know what she wanted unless she told him. She asked for “More Daniel Tiger toys like O and katarina and Margaret and the teacher and daniels mom and daniels dad and miss Elena”.  She also asked for a “car like woody has” (referring to the remote control car that Woody drives in Toy Story).    She then talked about how she got connor’s pacifier and helped connor as the ways she was good (That letter went straight into the keepsake box). Gramma and Padre amped up the Santa message and sent an online video that the kids could watch.  It had pictures of the kids, of the house, said their names and city so Isabel was truly impressed. 

This year, Hanukkah and Christmas overlapped so it was a present bonanza!  Each night of Hanukkah, Jake did the prayers in Hebrew and by the end Isabel would help light the candles and knew some of the words!  CPK also had the Hanukkah spirit…

Isabel had a part in the Hanukkah concert at School this year!  It was adorable.  We practiced singing her assigned song (Hanukkah Gelt) for weeks beforehand.  Isabel was ready to go!  Then on the day of the performance, Isabel totally blanked and forgot she was supposed to sing for the first half of the song.  Instead she just stared out at the audience in wonder and smiled.  Fortunately, she didn’t seem to mind. Also…Turns out…we were practicing her song to a completely different melody than it was supposed to be (solid parenting).

Apparently, Padre has a magical sleepy spell for Connor and he fell asleep where ever they were when Padre was in charge.  I think I found a retirement calling…

Isabel had lots of playtime with Gramma and got to show off all of her toys!

Finally it was Christmas Eve!  Isabel was excited, we were excited, and we made sure Isabel knew that if she wasn’t asleep when Santa came then he would just go to the neighbors and skip our house.  Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work…Isabel was up about 2 hours past her bedtime playing in bed with Peter and singing random made up songs. 

On Christmas Morning, Isabel was very impressed with all the presents under the tree.   She helped Connor open his and opened hers with glee.  It was fun to watch.  She couldn’t believe that Santa was able to get just what she wanted!  Connor got a work bench so he could help Daddy and learn his tool names – wrench, hammer, screw driver, vice, miter saw, and Jimmy the Drill.  Overall a complete success.  To add to the excitement, Uncle Styles, Uncle Reed, Aunt Jonnie, and Uncle Ford came over for dinner and to play with Isabel’s new toys and snuggle with Connor.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah indeed!!