A Christmas Post

A Homemade Christmas

Brace yourselves, this blog is going to get a bit Little House on the Prairie-like to you modern day folk with your fancy high-tech gifts. The following are a few of our "made with love" gifts this year, from a last-minute play kitchen made in Santa's workshop the night before Christmas Eve, down to the wrapping paper (I know, many of you are calling me cheap right now and I can take it).

He pretended to eat the felt cupcake and nodded his head while he said, "Mmm, MMmm". I sure am going to miss this little fella' when he grows up.


I had to take a picture of the worn out daddy on Christmas Eve. He fell asleep with the drill in hand after completing the last couple details on the kitchen. Our Christmas celebrations, which go on for a few days, were full of wonderful food, traditions, gifts, and surrounded by family and friends. Emerson was lucky to be spoiled with love and gifts by his grandparents. I always get sad after January first comes around and I take down the Christmas decorations. It feels like I'm taking down some of the magic that serves to cause us all to have hearts full of kindness and generosity. New Years comes and with that, an awareness of how to make "me" better with resolutions, new gym passes, and an entirely different focus than of the month before. I need to find a way to bottle up some of that magic that affects us all as lasting as my peach preserves and use it all year long. Anyone up for some canning? After all, people need to be taken care of and loved all throughout the year, not just at the end.

I hope you were all able to share time with loved ones, laughed at good jokes, and had bellies full of Christmas fare. May we all carry on into the new year with just as much spirit and joy.

Ho Ho Ho, Who Wouldn't Go?

I don't have any pictures to show you showcasing the Christmas decorations around my house customary to most blogs, but I do have a couple phone pics of a child freaking out with Santa Claus. We are too cheap and impatient to wait in line to sit our kid on the mall Santa's lap for a picture, so we've managed to run into him a few times around town. I was curious to see how our energetic and always outgoing one-year-old would handle the nerve-racking experience. I showed him one picture of Santa a few weeks ago and since then I hear, "Santa, ho ho ho" every time he spots him. What is it that is so intriguing and captivating, yet terrifying at the same time about the man?
After a light-viewing trip downtown last weekend, we stopped in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to warm up with hot chocolate and gave our little guy a chance to meet the famous Mr. Claus in the flesh. He walked right up to him and slowly touched the hand Santa held out, but that was as far as his comfort level would allow.

The approach:


Getting close enough for a picture was apparently TOO CLOSE!



Another try at the local rec center's "Swimming with Santa"



Again, TOO CLOSE!


The sudden panic attacks on both occasions didn't stop Emerson from smiling, waving goodbye, and then gibbering about Santa in his car seat on the way home.