I took the girls to the mall on Christmas Eve to shop around and visit Santa. We had already finished up Christmas with our families, so we didn't need to run around looking for any last minute Christmas gifts or do any wrapping (whew!), so we just browsed and relaxed. It was such a nice day. The girls were so excited to see Santa. I guess I should say, Ansley was excited to see Santa. She couldn't wait to let him know what she REALLY wanted for Christmas (I was anxious to hear too! However, I did NOT want to run around looking for a last minute gift for her!). As we got up to Santa, Charli bolted. I was shocked (she acted like she couldn't wait to see him before it was our turn). I should have known though...Ansley was the same way at this age. So as I was grabbing her from taking off down the mall, Ansley sat on his lap for a few minutes (I had no chance of getting a picture while wrangling Charli). She actually talked his ear off. She wanted to tell him about her Disney trip and all the princesses and thankfully he knew about them all. They talked about Rapunzel, Snow White, Merida....he clearly had a few granddaughters at home. Thankfully at this point I had calmed Charli down enough to sneak in close to hear what she really wanted under the tree. When he asked she said..."I want a Mermaid that has hair that changes colors AND she has a seahorse friend". Wow. I was so relieved. It sounds like a tall order and it is, but I had originally bought the same little Mermaid that she was talking about for one of her friend's birthdays, BUT found a new gift for her friend when I saw how crazy excited she was about the Mermaid (it was from TJ Maxx and there was only 1!). So glad I did. She clearly hadn't forgot about it! Crisis averted. Charli had also spotted some suckers next to Santa's chair, so she stopped fussing and got really excited about the possibility of getting one.
Here are the girls after Santa...clearly Charli came only for the sucker.
After Santa and the mall, we decided to go to Marble Hill for lunch with my dad and his workers. My mom and dad do a Christmas lunch for them, give them some sort of cold winter gift (jacket, boots, etc), and then give them the week off. My whole family is usually invited to come hang out and eat too, so the Sawyers and Bollingers joined us also.
I found this on my phone later....
Later that evening, we put out some milk and cookies for Santa.
We told Charli that she couldn't eat them, so she licked them....
And then she ran. She thought it was so funny.
I'm sure our elf was supposed to go back to the North Pole Christmas morning, but ours hung out for some chocolate covered peanuts and to see the girls open their presents. :)
The girls really enjoyed their Santa gifts...a pram (you can see it in the background-otherwise known as a baby buggy) and a Mermaid with a seahorse friend! Yay!
They both loved their Santa gifts!
The girls got 3 gifts from us....both of them received a slide car (Ansley got a pink one and Charli got purple). Ansley also got a Leappad Ultra and Merida's bow and arrow. Charli got Little Mermaid's grotto and Alladin and Jasmine's magic carpet (both Little People toys). Their stockings had lots of goodies too. Ansley got some Leappad games, a case for it, headphones, and some outfits for ballet and gymnastics. Charli got the Planes dvd (her first movie seen at the theatre) and a Leapfrog dvd set that has the Letter Factory in it. Neither girl NEEDED a thing and I knew after Christmas with our families....they REALLY wouldn't need anything, so this year I buckled down and only bought things that I found a killer deal on. I found most of my items on my coupon blogs for cheap and then the slide cars came from zulily for super cheap too. Score!
Ansley was so excited to learn how to shoot like Merida. Side note: after watching the movie, Brave she's been using her seatbelt in the car as a bow. Ha!
Getting your hands correctly placed on the bow is a serious situation....
I thought this was so sweet.
The red plaid and the bow make for a perfect Scottish combo
And then it was Daddy's turn to open (me too, I guess). Funny thing was....we both got each other the same gift (an Ipad keyboard). Ha! One of my favorite gifts was a frame that he got me from Renaissance and his favorite gift by far was his Starbucks refillable tumbler. Yay!
After our little Christmas, we went to GiGi's clubhouse for lunch. Uncle Dave read the Christmas story, we sang a few hymns and then GiGi opened her gifts from all of us. After a really yummy lunch we headed to the cabin for dinner with my family.
As wonderful as this Christmas was, we still have a range of emotions weighing on us from the loss we just endured. We are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends, but we are still grieving for our little Adler. A good friend sent me a message saying...."just think, you are one Christmas closer to seeing him again". I am holding tight to that thought. As the days and months will pass, we are moving closer to him. Hoping for many more Christmases here on Earth with our girls and an infinity of glorious days with our boy in Heaven one day.
