Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Let the Christmas celebration COMMENSE!

What is with Ward/Church Christmas Parties and no Santa! Can I tell you how frustrated I am with wards that think that you can't have a Christ-centered Christmas and have Santa come at the end of the party!

As you can tell we had our ward Christmas party this last weekend. It was a dinner, small program and then the bishop handed out candy to the kids. I was very disappointed in the no-show of Santa for many reasons: 1) Where else can you get a FREE picture of Santa? 2) Isn't Christmas also supposed to be fun? 3) What is a Christmas celebration without mention of both Christ and Santa? (Can't they just be friends?) 4) Santa is what get kids very excited about Christmas and I had been telling Niev all day long that she would see Santa that night! I was very bummed to say the least. People should know not to disappoint a pregnant woman!

On Saturday, Ian truly took the entire day off!!! So we went Christmas tree hunting and went to see if we could find Santa. (Our real estate agency had invited Santa to their office for a few hours to take pictures.) We drove by the agency's office and there was a line that would have taken WAY too long to get through. I thought for sure I would be disappointed again in no free picture with Niev and Santa. Off we went to find a Christmas tree. We were so excited to graduate this year from a 3-4 foot tree to now a 6-7 foot tree. Niev seemed a bit confused by the process and the chainsaw definitely freaked her out, but we found a beauty of a tree!
Ian checked by the office to see if the line had died down at all and we were in luck! There were only two people left in line! I could hardly contain my excitement to see Niev totally freak out at this weird bearded guy showing no skin on his entire face, trying to hold her. I really do love the "crying on Santa's lap" pictures. I think they are just about the greatest thing around. Here it is in all its glory:
And just so you don't think that I also have a slight appreciation for the typical "I am cute on Santa's lap" picture:
She at least wasn't totally grimacing.

Back home we went with a Christmas tree on top of our car and pictures of Santa done!

We then spent the evening decorating the tree and getting out our Christmas decorations. Niev found this very exciting!
She found many uses for our advent calendar wreath: sitting on it, wearing it as a hat, throwing it like a frisbee, etc. She really did look like a post-pregnancy woman sitting on those inflatable donuts that make your bum not hurt so bad.
Daddy and Niev putting the star on top of the tree:
Oh, sad star!!!

Niev was very "helpful" in decorating the tree.She thought the balls should bounce and that if you stuff the ornaments far enough towards the middle of the tree, they wouldn't fall off. Overall it was a very fun-filled Christmas celebration!

8 comments:

Stacey said...

glad you found a santa somewhere! they are officially some of the cutest kid on the lap pics i've seen in a long time! the look of terror is great!

Lisa Christine said...

What wonderful Christmas memories! I love your 'sad star'...droopy but cute!

Jen said...

We need to find a Santa too. I showed Emma the picture of Niev on Santa's lap (the happy one)and hope that if Niev looked happy on his lap then she will be too.

Mel said...

I think your santa picture was well worth the wait! She is so cute!

Maria said...

Sounds like a fun day. Good thing Santa worked out somewhere. I never take my kids to see Santa unless he comes the ward Christmas party. So the years he doensn't come, no Santa. Yes, I feel your pain at the disappointment.

Erin said...

hilarious!

The Despain Gang said...

Lora, we truly are sisters :). I totally agree about the whole Santa at the church thing. What's the deal? Last year, I got a great, cute, FREE pic of Bos and Santa together. Great Christmas party in my point of view, but this year no! The ward is planning a "Back to Bethlehem" Christmas party with NO SANTA! What? I'm totally not going to it for multiple reason: 1) you have to dress up in biblical times--sorry I don't own any stupid, ugly robe 2) No Santa 3) how am I suppose to keep a 2 year old, quiet, reverent, and still for 2 hours--ggrrrr 4) BYU football is playing their bowl game that same night. Yeah, so not going. Anyway, I totally feel the same way and unfortunately I think if Boston is going to get a pic with Santa this year, it will unfortunately have to be the paid pic because we haven't been so lucky to have our local office have a free santa.

Anyway love the pics of Niev. She's adorable. I love her and can't wait to meet the new little one; you'd better keep working on Ian's ability to say YES to January's visit to Parma! :)

Jen said...

Lora,

My email address is thethroolins@gmail.com

I'll add you to my list if you give me your "gmail" address. It has to be gmail to make you a permanent reader as opposed to a visitor.