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I think we're mostly done with our Christmas shopping. Whew. I confess that I wasn't really feeling it this year. I think we've done wonderfully well for Alex, but for most of the other people on my list I have felt much less inspired than usual.
Alex is getting ( cut in case you'd rather be surprised on Christmas morning )
We went to the mall today to get the last things on our list. I had casually mentioned to Alex that sometimes one of Santa's helpers is at the mall and that kids can sit on his lap and talk to him. She's shy enough that I didn't want to give it a lot of build-up or put pressure on her to sit on his lap, but she was enthusiastic about the idea. And despite my carefully-laid groundwork about "Santa's helpers," as soon as she caught a glimpse of him she absolutely, positively believed that he was the real Santa.
He was a nice guy. The whole setup was designed to sell expensive photo packages, and I wasn't sure what kind of reception we would get when we said Alex just wanted to meet Santa. But he held her on his lap and chatted with her for two or three minutes. He told her that the last time he saw her she was fast asleep, thanked her for the cookies we'd left out, asked if she wanted anything in particular for Christmas, and (when she was tongue-tied) promised to pick out a special surprise just for her. He was really sweet. And the beard was real, which is not a feature I remember from my own childhood visits to Santa. I was very pleased, and so was Alex.
While we were at the mall, we bought her a little Nativity set. With the Christmas pageant and all, she's been deeply interested in the story of Baby Jesus. She's had an endless appetite for Christmas carols, and she has frequently suggested, "Let's put on a play. Mom can be Mary, Dad can be Joseph, Niblet can be baby Jesus, and I can be an angel!" So when we saw this little ceramic Nativity set on sale for $2.99, we had to buy it.
She played and played with it. She started by acting out the Christmas story in a fairly traditional way, but a while later we heard a shout from the playroom: "Mary to the rescue!!" When Michael went in, he saw this:
That's Mary at the wheel of the fire truck. Perched high on the ladder, still in the manger, is Baby Jesus. What do you suppose the religious significance of this is?
Today was also our second Christmas pageant rehearsal. ( Read more... )
Alex is getting ( cut in case you'd rather be surprised on Christmas morning )
We went to the mall today to get the last things on our list. I had casually mentioned to Alex that sometimes one of Santa's helpers is at the mall and that kids can sit on his lap and talk to him. She's shy enough that I didn't want to give it a lot of build-up or put pressure on her to sit on his lap, but she was enthusiastic about the idea. And despite my carefully-laid groundwork about "Santa's helpers," as soon as she caught a glimpse of him she absolutely, positively believed that he was the real Santa.
He was a nice guy. The whole setup was designed to sell expensive photo packages, and I wasn't sure what kind of reception we would get when we said Alex just wanted to meet Santa. But he held her on his lap and chatted with her for two or three minutes. He told her that the last time he saw her she was fast asleep, thanked her for the cookies we'd left out, asked if she wanted anything in particular for Christmas, and (when she was tongue-tied) promised to pick out a special surprise just for her. He was really sweet. And the beard was real, which is not a feature I remember from my own childhood visits to Santa. I was very pleased, and so was Alex.
While we were at the mall, we bought her a little Nativity set. With the Christmas pageant and all, she's been deeply interested in the story of Baby Jesus. She's had an endless appetite for Christmas carols, and she has frequently suggested, "Let's put on a play. Mom can be Mary, Dad can be Joseph, Niblet can be baby Jesus, and I can be an angel!" So when we saw this little ceramic Nativity set on sale for $2.99, we had to buy it.
She played and played with it. She started by acting out the Christmas story in a fairly traditional way, but a while later we heard a shout from the playroom: "Mary to the rescue!!" When Michael went in, he saw this:
That's Mary at the wheel of the fire truck. Perched high on the ladder, still in the manger, is Baby Jesus. What do you suppose the religious significance of this is?
Today was also our second Christmas pageant rehearsal. ( Read more... )
