Christmas 09

Christmas was once again...great.  It's so cute to see Katie throughout the Holiday season and how each year her reactions and observations change.  It's amazing to see the world through the eyes of a child.  I think every year I've announced that this is my favorite age...

This was the first year where the "I want that" came in with every commercial we saw on TV.  I just kept telling her to write it down, we'll have to tell Santa  - She can't write yet though...so by the time we actually sat down to write to Santa, the list was definitly prioritized by what she could remember. 

We saw the Radio city Christmas show and there was much more questions about who baby Jesus is and why we can't put him out til Christmas in the Nativity scene.  I volunteered to pick up the "letters to Santa" from Macy's for Make a Wish and it made Kaitlyn feel very important to be in charge of helping make sure they got to Santa.

This year we had both Christmas eve and Christmas Day at our house.  Christmas eve was with the Coffey's and Christmas day was with the Soto's.  We had way too much food and Spencer outdid himself, but that's what this season is about....isn't it?  I have a new favorite stuffing recipe for Cranberry, cornbread and sausage stuffing that was delicious!!  I also got much use out of my Pineapple Salsa!!  I gues i don't need an excuse to make it, but i felt better make it for more than just me...

Avery, Casey and Katie were very quiet in Kaitlyn's room for a while, then they came out wearing Kaitlyn's Soccer uniform, ballet clothes, and a medley of random other pieces..

This was the cookies and milk we put out for santa -

This year he got Chocolate milk and had to have a few pieces of our chocolate too...

Katie and Ian on Christmas Day

Nicole - already looks like she knows hot to pose - Ian's little Sister.  Mom (Malissa) stayed home with New baby brother Kevin and Grandma Soto and Uncle Dana came out with the two older kids.

Spencer with the ham he made on Christmas day...

Christmas morning we woke up and went out to see what Santa brought and her reaction was great.  I got a video clip i'll try to post later, but it'll take a while to upload, so i won't do it now.  She was a little nervous about whether Santa would come or not since that week she decided she just couldn't go to Dance or Karate even though we told her Santa would know.  We got an "elf on the Shelf" this year and he was watching Kaitlyn very closely and reporting back to Santa every night.  Spencer and Katie read the book together and gave her elf a name -  Jimmy Oliver.  NO IDEA where it came from, but hey...this was his name.  Every morning Katie would get up to look for Jimmy Oliver to find out if he had moved, which meant he had gone back to the north pole over night to give Santa a report.  So anyway, i think the poor elf might have scared the heart out of her...not enough to make her go to dance or Karate, but enough for her to make the announcement that she didn't want to go to Christmas and when we were in the mall on Christmas eve, she went over and told Santa "It's OK, i don't want anything for Christmas" 

So on Christmas morning this year, she was a little more hesitant to get out of bed becasue i think she really thought he might have skipped our house.  On Christmas eve we had a talk with Jimmy Oliver and promised to go next time and we told him that she really had been a good girl all year and that we hoped he gave a good report to Santa.  About an hour later we got an email from Santa announcing Kaitlyn was on the "nice" list, but she was still afraid...for no reason of course!  Santa not only stopped at our house, but when we went over to Grandma and Poppa's for traditional Christmas breakfast of Waffles with bacon in them, we found out Santa had left some things for Kaitlyn there!