A Very Merry Christmas

With Marisa being older and having more of an understanding of the holidays, this year has been extra special and fun. When I first told Marisa all about Santa and his reindeer, she was of course so excited. But cute little thing, she thought Santa comes to her house to play with her and her toys. You know, like Santa was a playdate. I had to further explain to her that Santa comes and brings toys to good girls and boys, and then leaves eating the cookies and milk we leave out and carrots for the reindeer. (Such a weird concept for a two year old I'm sure. And then, on top of that, I was trying to also explain it was Jesus' birthday.) So, sorry big girl, Santa doesn't come to play.

Throughout the whole month of December, Marisa would wake up every morning, turn on the Christmas tree, open a door on our advent calendar to receive two Hershey kisses (one for her and one for Daddy), and jump up and down counting down the days until Christmas. She loved singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and reading lots of Christmas stories. Marisa also loved how all the stores and the mall were decorated with Christmas. We saw Santa at the mall for the third time in her life and she was still scared. She was fine until she had to walk up to him and say what she wanted. She never told Santa what she wanted, but she did tell me while we were waiting in line that she wanted a big bear. =o)

We spent Christmas in LA this year with Tim's family. Marisa and Natalie enjoyed all the attention from Grandpa and Grandma to themselves. Grandma made a gingerbread house with Marisa where she snuck in candy into her mouth instead of pasting them onto the house. =o)







Grandma also took Marisa to Disneyland on Christmas Eve to meet up with her cousins, and according to Aunt Kari and Grandma, she would just cover eyes during every ride. When she came home she told us, "I don't want to go to Disneyland. It's too scary." haha Grandma bought her a baby Minnie doll as a reward for being such a trooper at Disney. Thanks Grandma!

Later that night we had a beautiful Christmas Eve dinner and program with me playing the piano (right hand only and playing from the Hymns Made Easy book) and Tim busting out his trombone after 10 years with Marisa dancing around to his music. haha It was hilarious. The girls of course got Christmas jammies. Matching jammies. I was probably more excited for them to open it than they were. =o) I mean, how cute is that??







Christmas morning we all opened up gifts and had a big breakfast. Marisa and Natalie must have been good little girls this year because they got a lot of fun presents! We then headed back down home to Orange County to the Call's house for more cousin fun! It was a very Merry Christmas!