Christmas stuff

Okay, I'm totally cheating, but I used free software to Grab these photos off the website from our recent photo session at One Of Those Places In The Mall.
Shhh. Don't turn me in.
(don't get too bent out of shape; I did purchase some prints from the company, so I'm not completely without morals)







We're busy gearing up for our every-other-year trip to Merrimac for Christmas. I always over pack and I always stress about having enough warm clothes for everyone. I'm sure we'll be fine. Actually, this year our biggest challenge might be the plane ride, as Lilah is really close to crawling and will probably want to be put down on the floor. Yeah, that's not happening. The problem is, she's got lungs and she knows how to use them. I might buy a few boxes of earplugs and pass them out if she gets loud. I have heard of parents doing that, and there have been times when I would have appreciated that myself, so I figure it's worth it - even if just for the gesture of goodwill.

Sadie is all about Santa and Rudolph this year. Our dear friends in Colorado sent their Elf on A Shelf, Pipsqueak's, best friend to us, whom Sadie named Pippy - such originality. Each morning she finds him somewhere different in the house, as he has gone to the North pole during the night to report to Santa about Sadie's ranking on the Naughty or Nice scale.

She's learned all of the lyrics to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and sings it a lot. She received the movie as a surprise direct from the North Pole and I think she's watched it at least once a day for about 5 days now. We sang Christmas songs at Music Together class this week, and she hung onto "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from that. Just today she asked me "Mom, what does 'pout' mean?" - presumably because she has now learned that she'd better not!

We've got a beautiful little tree and some wonderful ornaments, which endlessly fascinate Lilah.

We play Christmas music in the car and we keep our eyes peeled for special decorations everywhere we go. We're receiving lots of great Christmas cards and I'm almost done with all of ours. We've been reading all of our Christmas books and we'll be having an early Christmas at my parents' house this weekend, since we'll be away this year.

Last but not least, here is Sadie's letter to Santa, which of course I helped her to write: