Christmas Eve Merriment
pamelamyers | December 26, 2013
This Christmas Eve was so much fun at our house. Sam was near to bursting waiting for Santa to arrive. All day long she kept talking about how Santa was going to come that night and leave presents. We tried to keep her busy but it was hard. One of the things that keeps Sam occupied is looking at, and playing with, all of our many decorations. She really loves our nativity scene, which was my grandfather’s. It means a lot to me and I let her look at it, but not play with it because I am so afraid she will break something. But it doesn’t stop her from looking, and yes, sometimes touching.
I was in the family room early in the day and Sam called me in to the living room to see what she had done. I found her Cinderella doll with a pipe cleaner in her hand. I told Sam it looked just like a shepherd’s hook. She told me, yes, it was, and she ran into the nativity to show me who it was supposed to be. She then set about making her own nativity scene from her toys. She worked so hard, running back and forth between rooms to see which people and animals she was missing.
Here is my grandfather’s nativity…
…and Sam’s own version. Merida is Mary, the large cat is Joseph, the little cat is Jesus, the little orange pom pom figure is a camel. Cinderella as mentioned, is a shepherd and Peppa Pig is a wise man. The other animals she chose are, well…animals. A horse or two, a sheep, a donkey. Finally, she added her star and an angel. I thought using the barn was a nice touch as well. I was very proud of her and how hard she worked to get the scene just right.
Mark took some pictures of Sam, who insisted on wearing her tiara, to pass even more time. So pretty!
Eventually, it got to be night. My parents were expected to arrive shortly, so we set up the camera in hopes of grabbing our annual family portraits in front of our tree. Success!
Our little girl gives the best hugs!
Sam and her Daddy, two of my most favorite people in the world.
She always has time for Mommy hugs though.
Let’s get this Christmas theme rolling! Hats everyone! Even Zephyr got decked out for the holiday. She wasn’t happy about it, of course, but at least we have a true family photo!
The more Zephyr wiggled to get away, the harder Sam laughed. It made for a good picture though!
Sam’s Grandmom and Poppy showed up and we got some more pics before Sam was worn out from all the posing.
We lit a fire because it seemed the warm and cozy thing to do on Christmas Eve.
Sam wanted no part of going to bed. She will still sticking with her plan to stay up and hide behind the green chair to peek at Santa. Mark told her that Santa sends the reindeer to spy and see if she is asleep, and if she hears jingle bells, that means the reindeer are close by. Well, sure enough, there were jingle bells outside and Sam couldn’t drag me up the steps fast enough to get her pajamas on. She wasn’t taking any chances!
Once she was ready for bed, we got the cookies, cucumbers and milk ready for Santa, and the carrots for the reindeer, one for each of them. Yup. You read that right. Cucumbers. Sam is concerned that Santa have healthy snacks while he is traveling.
She put everything right by the door so he wouldn’t miss it.
Off to bed Sammy! Santa is coming! She went out like a light, in I think 10 minutes flat by around 8:15. One of the fastest bedtimes ever. Sleep tight!
