2009 Holidays

Christmas was really fun this year because Kate seemed to really understand what was going on for the first time and even spent lots of time carefully selecting her desired presents from the Toys R Us catalogue. However, she was not at all thrilled about Santa Claus himself. This picture is from the Santa Claus visit at our neighbor's house. Notice you do not see Kate in this picture. That's because she was clinging to me for dear life and screaming hysterically.

However, she was more than happy to take the coloring book and candy cane that Santa left :)

We stayed at my parent's house in Michigan over the actual holidays. When we stay there, we stay in the basement (which is, incidentally, much more spacious than our entire Silver Spring house :) Anyway, Kate made us leave a note for Santa Claus instructing him "not to come downstairs, but to just leave the presents and leave." :) Here she is opening one of her desired four presents - a Pillow Pet. She learned about the Pillow Pet from an Informercial. I wish I was joking here - the first time I saw the Infomercial, my first thought was "Who buys these things?" A couple weeks later, it was me. The other items on her wish list were, in this order:

1) A piano you can step on;
2) A Pillow Pet;
3) Hungry, Hungry Hippos; and
4) A Christmas candle (yes, this also seems to me to be an unusual request from a preschooler..)

Anyway, in the end, I wish we had only gotten her those four things, because as she was opening all her gifts on Christmas, her first comment was "I only asked for four things." Somehow, I think this similar sentiment will not be repeated in future Christmases.