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!
We put up our Christmas tree with the girls' "help" and it wasn't as nerve wracking as I thought it would be.
A day filled with playing with every toy received, some piano playing, great food, laughter and best of all, naps!
Ian and I were laying in bed that night and we both said that we couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. We are very blessed.
