The stockings were not hung by the chimney this year........hubby and I decided to skip doing stockings this year for one another since he has such a hard time finding stuff for me. (the truth is he knows he's all I want and I am all he needs)
Amanda decided she didn't like the plain red stocking she has been using since birth and wanted to buy a "real" stocking so she chose Tinker Bell. I thought I had bought a duck one for Amelia but then realized I had not, so she got to use a big, fabric Christmas bag this year instead of the ugly red stockings.
We do not tell Amanda there is a Santa Claus who climbs down the chimney and delivers the presents and flies away with 8 tiny reindeer because to put it simply........ there isn't. (I hope I didn't ruin it for ya)
I grew up with the belief in Santa and believed for a looooonnnnngggg time that he was the one bringing me all those presents. I was really devastated when I found it was all just a lie, five years ago. So we decided to just focus on the real meaning of Christmas and not start the Santa tradition. We never said he wasn't real for fear Amanda would tell other kids and ruin it for them. But we also never said he was real, we just saw him as a character at the mall like Mickey is at Disney World. Someone dressed up.
Amanda watches all of the fun Christmas shows with Santa in them and one day after watching one she told me that Santa wasn't real. She told me that there wasn't any way Santa could go to every one's house in one night! She had just turned three 6 weeks earlier. I really wrestled with not doing Santa because I thought it would take the fun out of Christmas but once she told me she had it all figured out at three and it was all about baby Jesus, I was fine and knew she wasn't missing anything!
This year, it is almost as if she wants to believe though.......she saw Santa at the mall and asked to sit on his lap. She has only done this once when she was a little over one and she screamed the minute he touched her! But this year she wanted to do it so we did. We waited in a long line and once we got up there the lady told us we had to buy pictures that we couldn't just sit on his lap. I couldn't believe that! So we took the cheapest picture and it is actually hilarious because Amanda has a smile on her face and Amelia is screaming!
Amanda kept telling me that Santa wasn't real but wanted to leave cookies and carrots for the reindeer.....I figured it was harmless and have a cute "cookies for Santa" plate that I won once at a party!
So I put the cookies out and the carrots.....I thought it would be fun to also put the reindeer the girls had made at build a bear.
I left a note for her and she told me in the morning, "I know it was you who did that!"
I guess Amelia could sense the excitement because she woke up in the middle of night totally wired and stayed up laughing with me for an hour. She ate some of the reindeer's carrots.
Amelia eventually went back to bed........I did not and stayed up the rest of the night wrapping presents, putting some stuff together and last minute stuff to make Christmas special........next year I am going to start getting ready in September because once I got sick in December, I just never got caught back up and staying up all night makes ya tired!
