Christmas 2009

Christmas has come and gone and I can't really say that I am sad to see it go. Christmas is just such a stressful time and you do all of this preparation and work for one day- ONE! But I love to give presents. I have always been like that. I try to have something for almost everybody. But that is hard when you have as much extended family as Natalie and I have. I have always stressed to Natalie that it is better to give then to receive so she really gets into buying presents and shopping with me too. But she loves getting them too, just like any other kid. I love all the good food and time spent with family that comes along with Christmas. I especially love how excited the kids are that day. For Natalie's class Christmas party at school, they just had to bring 20 small items or pieces of wrapped candy to put into everyone's goody bags. This was really last minute (like a few hours before school started last minute) but this is what Natalie brought for her classmates' bags.

Not very original, I know. But good enough when you're pressed for time and Natalie liked that they were personalized.

About a week before Christmas, Natalie got a letter in the mail all the way from the North Pole from Santa himself. The letter mentioned one of Natalie's friends, how great she did with cheerleading, how she is doing good in Harmony Hornets and that he and Mrs. Claus were so happy she was taking good care of their little elf, Emily. He enclosed some reindeer food and a special Santa ornament.

For some reason, Natalie's eyes were a little pink and kind of swollen on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. She has never had pink eye before but I thought that must be it and was planning on taking her to the doctor the next day, but it ended up just going away the day after Christmas. But you can tell her eyes are a little pink and puffy in the pictures. She always gets to open one present on Christmas Eve- this year it was a DS game:

She put out her cookies and milk for Santa, said goodbye to her elf, and put some reindeer food outside on a plate- we were so happy it had finally stopped raining! It had rained all night but by the time Natalie went to sleep very late, it had just stopped. She likes to put her reindeer food on a plate because sometimes the reindeer leave evidence that they were there- last year they left some sparkly slobber on the plate, some reindeer fur, and there were hoof prints on the porch.

She slept late on Christmas morning- till about 10:30. She slept in my bed and she knows that she is supposed to wait on me to walk into the living room so I can take pictures- it's not like it takes a long time; all I have to do is roll out of the bed, put my hair in a ponytail and grab the camera- maybe 15 seconds. She always waits on me. But this year she caught a glimpse of something from my bedroom doorway and couldn't control herself. There was a lot of screaming and jumping up and down and then, regardless of me saying, "Wait! Wait!", she was off. I could see her debating for a split second whether to wait for me, but ultimately, I guess she decided against it. It was pretty funny really. I have never seen her that excited on a Christmas morning. So, unfortunately, I did not get her initial reaction but here is what Santa brought her:

She had more presents under the tree from me and some from her dad. Now that she is getting a little older (can you believe she'll be 9 in two months?!), we are seeing a lot less toys and more big girl stuff.

Natalie loves her keyboard. It has the light-up keys you can use when you are learning a song. Pap and Munny bought her a new "real" microphone that she can use with it- I can't tell you how many microphones this kid has gone through! She got all kinds of other great stuff like games, books, CDs, DVDs, earrings, lots of clothes, hair bows, arts and crafts stuff, and lots more! Mimi & Poppi bought her a video/MP3 player (kinda like an iPod)! One of her favorite presents was the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days book. She has read all the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and loves them. Here it is 5 days after Christmas and she has already read the whole book. Her other favorites were a Bop-It, the 20-Questions handheld game and a Yada Yada Yada voice recorder.

When she went outside to check on the plate she left for the reindeer, she found the plate had sparkly reindeer slobber, a hoof print and reindeer fur on it. She also noticed something red in the leaves. When she pulled it out, it looked like something one of the reindeer had accidentally left behind. She figures it was something that was maybe tied around Rudolph's neck and it got wet and muddy from the bad weather and fell off: