Christmas Eve cookie making for Santa
Her new apron
Thank you Santa!
She wrapped this present all by herself for Daddy. She was very proud.
Thank you Cousin Maddie for feeding the Raiders fire in this house. :)
Firley, our Elf on the Shelf, visited each day and every morning she woke up early just to look for him. We enjoyed a lot of Christmas movies, times with friends and families and a lot of time discussing Santa and his trip to our house. Lots of holiday crafts and far too many yummy holiday treats.
Adriana is definitely beginning to understand and buy into the commercialism and marketing of Christmas.. I am not sure how to truly combat that as it is everywhere. And Rob and I are big gift givers and love to buy for the holidays. We talked a lot about what Christmas really means and I am thankful for preschool for teaching the story of baby Jesus as it kept her asking questions and kept the true meaning of the season in our discussions and minds. We also had many discussions about giving at holiday time and that it isn't just about presents. It is about time with family and giving to others. There was a lot of talk about her brother and where he lives and how we are very fortunate to have the house we have and able to have the things we do. Did it all sink in? I am not sure but we shall see and won't stop trying. Hopefully we planted a seed.
This year Adriana asked Santa for a pet hair salon. Not a dollhouse, a truck or even a Wii like a normal child. She went with pet hair salon. Very random and kind of a hard order to fill as I am not sure they have ever built one in Santa's workshop (nor found one on amazon.com which is what I am sure modern day elves do). But Santa is pretty resourceful and brought Adriana a toy vanity and while at first she was not sure of it, she quickly learned that she can not only do her pet's hair with it, but her own and her dolls. It was a success!
We truly did have a great Christmas this year. We had a hard time as Hugo is not yet home with us and we feel that huge piece missing. We feel it daily but the holidays seem so much harder. Time with family and making memories just feels off when one of the biggest pieces of us is missing. We hope it is the last Christmas we have to endure this. But are thankful that Adriana had a great holiday and we were able to give that to her.
