Christmas Morning '05

Well, the big day finally came. The scary, fat, bearded man came to our house, filled our stockings and left presents under the tree. Of course, Hannah really didn't understand at first. Her reaction to the huge pile of presents that had majically appeared overnight: "Doggie." She wanted to watch her doggie movie, Madeline.

Once she realized what all the wrapping paper came off the boxes - she got more excited. She wanted to help everyone open their gifts. The big ones were all hers, though.




The next revelation was that the boxes contained new clothes and toys. Now, she was starting to understand.




Then, she wanted to play with each one instead of opening the rest. This was fine with us as it kept her occupied longer. Opening presents with the family in Pittsburgh a later that week took almost two days.

She never made the realization that they were gifts from loved ones - maybe next year. Still, it was enough for everyone to see that their gifts made her happy.

Christmas Party

Cutout cookies, icing and sprinkles. What else could a kid ask for? While Hannah prefers to just lick off the icing and sprinkles like last time, we made her eat the whole cookie.

After the cookies, we watched her class perform songs they had been working on. We figured Hannah wouldn't know them since they mainly practiced in the mornings before Hannah got there. To our surprise, Hannah knew all of the motions for all of the songs. We were so proud.

Also, we figured out where she's been getting some of the seemingly random stuff she's been doing.

Christmas Traditions

It's that time of year. I know Hannah doesn't quite understand what is going on, but we're trying to get her excited about Christmas anyway. I guess when you think about it, many Christmas traditions are rather odd.

1) We display an evergreen tree inside the house, decorated with lights, ornaments and candy canes. On a deeper level, the evergreen tree is supposed to symbolize eternal life - so we cut it down and kill it?



2) We take big socks with our names on them and hang them by the fireplace. Where is the matching sock? Did it get lost in the laundry?



3) Who is the old fat guy in the red suit and why is everyone waiting to see him. I don't like him.




Anyway, we're hoping to make this a magical Christmas for her; and if she wakes up Christmas morning and isn't excited about the living room full of gifts, then we're sending them back to Santa.