Christmas 2010

Every year on Christmas Eve we head to my parent's church for mass and then back to their house for some good food and great company and a visit from Santa Claus.  The kids love spending time with each other and opening a few (ahem....a LOT) presents before heading home to bed in hopes that Santa did indeed have them on his GOOD list.  And, of course they all were on the good list :-)

By the time Chris and I get home it is quite late with quite a bit to do that includes getting our breakfast casserole ready for the morning and helping Santa arrange all his presents "just so" under the tree.  Then, we kick back with a drink, some Christmas carols and only the tree lighting up the house.  It's a brief bit of quiet bliss before the morning starts the festivities again and it's a favorite of our Christmas traditions.

This year Santa had the girls on the VERY GOOD list.  Did you know he had a very good list?  I didn't, but he explained to me that I had never made it past the GOOD list so he wasn't surprised to find out that I didn't know about the VERY GOOD one.  Hmm.....I wonder if this has anything to do with how much he liked Julia's cookies?  They were very tasty and decorative! 

This year was a bit of a magical year for Julia.  I think at the age of 5 you are so filled with wonder and excitement that everyone around you can't help but be filled with eager anticipation for Jesus' Birthday and everything that comes along with His birthday!  She loved every one of her gifts and has been playing with each and every one of them every day and I think the joy of playing with the new toys will take a long time to wear off.  Santa brought her the cash register, walking kitty and tea set that she wanted and he also thought to include Cinderella's Wedding Gown and a play school set.  When it was time to get dressed Julia donned the wedding gown and wore it all day!  She told me that when she was on Santa's lap she told him that we are going to Disneyworld next year and that is the reason he brought the Cinderella dresses for her and Emma.  Thank you Santa for being so thoughtful!

Finnegan meets the walking cat while lounging on the blanket and playing with the sock puppet Santa left for her.

  

Emma was sound asleep not a bit worried about Santa's arrival but her slumber was cut a bit short when Julia decided to wake up early.  We managed to coax her to wake up enough for us to venture out into the living room as a family, but she really started to wake up when Julia helped her look at all her new toys.  She received a Barbie and Pony and the Pony walks when you press the button on his back.  The pony caught me off guard with how quickly he walks and Barbie took quite a few spills on her Pony!  I'm glad to say that Emma has not seen any similar falls during her weekly pony rides at The Center - thank goodness!  She also was thrilled with her Penguin Race game that I added a battery interrupt switch to so she can activate it with her switch.  I am hoping this will help us teach her stop and go better since she doesn't seem to want to ever stop on her Cooper Car that we are using to get her ready for a power wheelchair.  So far she is a bigger fan of go than stop with the Penguins, too, but I think it is just a matter of time before she starts to play the Stop/Go game with me and the Penguins.  A remote control puppy was also a big present for her.  It is so cute!  He is a yellow lab and will walk, sit and bark based on the buttons you push on his bone shaped remote control.  I plan to add these commands to her iPad so she can see very quickly that when she pushes a command on the iPad that something happens.  I hope she has fun with this one as I am always looking for more ways to motivate Emma to communicate other than her smile, cry and eye gaze.  She also received Cinderella's Wedding Dress and a big girl tray table that will go over her ChildRite chair when it is set on some wood to elevate her feet a bit.  Julia loves the tray table and has already made a request that Santa puts another one of them in his bag for her next year.  Oh, how I got a laugh out of that one - with Santa scarcely out of our house we are already thinking up things for next year!

Two other presents that were instant hits came from the grandparents.  Julia received a pink microphone and immediately put on a show for us after dinner that would have rivaled Hannah Montana (and yes, she received that movie which she loves and will likely use as inspiration for more of her performances).  She started out a little shy since this was the first time she wasn't using a baby bottle as a microphone, but eventually started dancing around, taking the microphone out of the holder, rocking the stand back and forth and doing turns.  I captured some of the performance on video and will post a bit at another time.  Emma received a pink hippo tent and when she realized what it was when I opened it she squealed out loud and gave such a happy reaction.  She didn't react much to the rest of the presents other than interest, so I was more than thrilled to see her reaction to the tent.  She has been playing in it quite a bit and it usually rocks back and forth from all her laughter in it.  The tent folds flat when not in use which makes me super duper happy, and it is large enough when opened  up that Julia can wheel her tea set right into the tent and have a tea party with Emma while Emma watches Beauty and the Beast on the DVD player which is something they did on Christmas morning.  

Christmas day was spent playing with the new toys and eating some yummy food.  Both sets of parents were able to join us for dinner at our house and I was so pleased to use the plates I inherited from my Nan.  It was a lovely meal filled with laughter and love and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate a delicious cake made for Him for dessert.  This really was a magical Christmas.  

I know that many people that read this blog are always on the lookout for good presents for children like Emma, so I've included the links to some of the items she received (note:  The item was not necessarily purchased where the link leads you to because I just included a link to the first item that popped up in my google search!) in case you were wondering.