Chirstmas Fun With My "Littles"

When Grace came home this summer, I sort of started feeling like I have two groups of kiddos...the "bigs" and the "littles." I love my bigs dearly, but lately, I seem to be having more special times celebrating the holiday season with my "littles."

We have been trying to explain Christmas to Grace ever since Thanksgiving. We made a conscious decision to NOT talk about Santa at first. We wanted to focus on God, Jesus, and the true meaning of Christmas. Well, Grace seems to have a pretty good (3 year old) grip on the true Christmas story (thanks to many story books and the Fisher Price nativity set that a sweet family sent to her). After all, Grace LOVES babies, so talking about and adoring Baby Jesus comes naturally to her. So...about a week ago we decided to talk about Santa - people kept asking her if she was excited about Santa coming and she would look at them like they were crazy...what were they talking about??? Well, thanks to more story books and lots of explaining from her brothers and sister, she figured out the basics of Santa. Our daughter Alyssa had a big Christmas dance show this past weekend. Her dance studio puts on an amazing show and donates all of the proceeds to a local homeless shelter. Last year the show raised over $17,000! Santa always stops by the show to say hello. We had mentioned to Grace that Santa likes to come to the show, so we might be seeing him the night of the performance. While driving to the show, Grace asked if she "was going to see God tonight?" Hmmm...whoops...God, Jesus, Santa was all mixed up in her little mind (or at least her vocabulary).

Since Grace is taking dance class at the same studio as Alyssa, we thought it would be nice to show Grace around the theatre before the performance started. The show takes place at a beautiful, old theatre with gorgeous architecture and very ornate fixtures, etc. Her little eyes got so big when she saw the inside of the theatre. We also showed her backstage, the stage itself, and the dressing rooms (complete with cool lights for doing make up - yes, Grace wanted to wear false eyelashes and make up like the "other" dancers...not this time sweetie).

After her backstage tour, we decided to settle into our seats and wait for the rest of our family to come and sit down. Well...what do you know??? THE Santa was sitting down a few rows ahead of us!!! He was right before our very eyes! Grace looked at me and smiled. I asked her if she would like to go talk to him, and of course she said "YES!" - no fear with this one. Santa was so sweet to Grace. I explained to him that this was the first time that Grace had every met him because she just came home from Ethiopia a few months ago. He said, "I know, and I've heard that you have been a very good girl Grace." It was PERFECT!!! Here we are, all by ourselves talking to THE Santa and he tells Grace that he knows all about her! Everyone had been telling her that she could let Santa know what she would like to receive for a gift. Santa asked her what she would like for Christmas and she said "a doll." He said, "Of course. Maybe some doll clothes too?" Then he gave her her first candy cane and we took a couple of pictures. We said good bye and started to walk away. Just then, Grace stopped walking, froze, looked at me and said "What about my doll?" She wanted the doll right then and there. I guess a few of the details about Christmas got lost in translation.

Such a sweet moment with Santa!

I also got to spend some great time with my little Bryce this past week. We were invited to a mother/SON gingerbread house party. It is an annual party and Bryce was pretty excited to tap into his creative side and make a really cool house. He had drawn out blueprints the night before the party. He was all set to carry through his vision, UNTIL the party started. Then, all the ideas were thrown out the window and he just let loose with the candy and cool spray frosting in a can.

Love this kid so much! Boys are so cute too...they decorate houses for a little while then just want to run around and PLAY!

Here we are with the finished product. The goal is to save the house until New Year's Day and then eat the whole thing!!!

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season too!