When I sat down with Rosalie to write her letter to Santa, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She said, "Candy cane!" Wow. Done. After some coaxing, she also asked for some watercolor paints (which she already has, but hey! We could always have more) and a snuggly tiger. If I only had bought her the things she asked for, her loot would have cost me less than $15. As it was, we were fairly frugal, because we don't want to overwhelm her and we also knew that there would be some grandparental gifts as well. In the end, it was a pretty good balance. But she sure loved discovering that she got a candy cane.
To mitigate the incoming riches, I asked Rosalie yesterday if she would go through her toys with me and pick out some ones that she could donate, so "Other kids could have some toys too." She did a good job! I was impressed--we took 2 boxes of toys to Goodwill. There might have been more but I admit that I back-pedaled when she tried to give away her play-kitchen. I'll be able to separate from it all in good time, I'm sure.
Last night, we went to our friends' house for a bit--they had a Christmas Eve open house and a possible Santa sighting in the neighborhood. We wound up leaving early to go look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood before Santa showed up near our friends' house, but I started to think maybe that was a good idea...
The other day when I was explaining "The Deal" about Santa to Rosalie, I told her that he'd come down the chimney when we were asleep and leave us presents. She looked mildly alarmed when I said this. As in, "He comes down the CHIMNEY?" and "He comes into our HOUSE while we're ASLEEP?" As the story was coming out of my mouth I wondered how parents all around the world dish this tale out. It actually is a little unsettling, now that I think about it. When did I get so grown-up and practical? Oh yeah, they can't fit an entire global population's worth of toys in a sleigh. To be fair, though, I think there were a lot less people on the planet when that story got started.
Anyway, I started downplaying The Big Visit to avoid scaring Cutie Pie, although we did make a plate of cookies and pour Santa a glass of milk. We also wrote him a note. Michael suggested that she thank him for coming, so she did. "What else do you want to say, Rosalie?" I asked. Here's what else she wanted to say:
"Here you go." So simple, to the point. By the way, obviously, this shot is after Santa showed up, the next morning. Rosalie said, "Santa bit the cookie!"Anyway, Rosalie had a busy day, doing puzzles, building "Lincoln Logs" houses for her little animals, painting, drawing, sending Slinky down the stairs, "cooking" with her new cooking equipment, attaching things to her Silly Putty. We even fit a walk to the Locks in there somewhere. After a nice dinner prepared by Yours Truly, Rosalie was actually talking about how she was ready to go to bed. It was a totally nice and relaxed (as relaxed as an almost-three-year-old gets) Christmas. I hope yours was great, too!
