Santa’s almost here!
pamelamyers | December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve is a fun time in our house. Samantha is always bouncing off the walls waiting for Santa to come and we usually have the grandparents over in the evening to visit and help pass the time! It’s hard to deal with a crazed little one on the night Santa comes!
The weather has been weirdly warm (I’m talking 70 degrees or so. In December. In Pennsylvania. Yeah, weird.) Sam had a shower and put on her Christmas Eve nightgown then wanted to go outside for some air. How could I resist on such a gorgeous day? Sam went swinging away on her swing, one of her favorite things to do.
Our last rose, surrounded by Christmas lights. This does not make sense….
After we came in, we popped some Christmas crackers. Sam has been obsessed with them since she first saw them on Peppa Pig last year. She saw them again on the Christmas episode of Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom (from the Peppa Pig folks). A very British tradition, apparently. I managed to get some on Amazon. Sam loved them!
Each cracker has a little prize, a very bad joke, and a paper crown that the winner of the cracking is supposed to wear.
Everyone had to pop crackers with Sam. We all let her keep the prizes, of course, but she made everyone wear paper hats. Somehow Mark escaped getting his photo taken. Hmmm…maybe that photo got conveniently deleted…
Samantha gave her grandparents her snowmen ornaments. Of course, they loved them!
Before long, it was time to put out snacks for Santa and the reindeer. Per her list, she put out a Fuji apple and some cranberry juice (which she still calls “Daddy Juice”) for Santa and nine carrots for the nine reindeer.
Sam reminded me that Santa would need a knife and the peeler, so we left those too. At the last minute, she added some Hershey Kisses, a Christmas cracker, instructions for how to make a toy that she found in her cracker (for the elves) and then a toy firetruck and a pipe cleaner candy cane she made (the toy and the candy cane were for the reindeer).
It was off to bed after that. It is always hard to get her to sleep on Christmas Eve, but eventually tiredness wins out and off she goes. We kept hearing weird noises and Sam was convinced it was Santa, already! I told her she’d better get off to sleep! It’s going to be a long day tomorrow!