Annada Marie Vergo

We will be traveling during Christmas, so Marc and I decided to declare Saturday Christmas Eve and today Christmas.

Baking Christmas cookies with our neighbors.

Annada and I have been getting ready all week – baking cookies, finding plates and napkins, buying gifts and wrapping them. Annada is the queen of sprinkles. I’ve been sweeping the floor a couple of times a day, but it is well worth it.

The stocking has been hanging for two weeks, slowly getting bigger.

We started by opening stockings. This is when Annada told us we celebrate Christmas and Easter because God gives us candy. She’s been asking all week if there was candy in her stocking. There was plenty – although some of it was from Halloween. I finally found her missing bag waaaay back in the pantry. She really did hide it and forget.

Annada helped us open our stocking and presents. She called it being on our team. She even offered to help eat our candy!

After stockings we let her open one present. She picked the biggest box – her train set. I’ve already got a post about that below.

We told her to close her eyes as we brought in the bike.

Annada’s big present this year was a bike. We let her open presents throughout the day so she could enjoy each one. She is so cute and kind, saying things like, “Sweet! I like it! This is my favorite! Oh yay, oh yay!” After each present she would give us a kiss and hug.

Riding her new bike for the first time.

Annada and Daddy played with the bike and cooked steaks while I made dinner. We had our family’s favorite foods: good bread, roasted cauliflower and carrots, mashed potatoes and steak. Plus sparkling grape juice, or Omaha kid wine, as Annada calls it. She says, “Orlando kid wine is water. Omaha kid wine is soda.”

Annada’s new chore is setting the table. We “aren’t sure she’s old enough” (wink) so she is showing us she can do it. She does a great job. It was even more fun with paper plates and cups because she set the whole table herself and had even picked out the settings at Target.

After we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus for our prayer I told Annada the table cloth we were eating on was her Great-great-grandma’s. She seemed slightly impressed and Marc and I started trying to figure out how old it was. We told her it was 33 times her age and she made a noise. I turned, expecting to see awe on her face.

Pretty impressive.

Instead she had just learned that she could stick her whole hand in her mouth and was trying to get my attention to let me know.

Then we watched the Jesus Film. Followed by opening the rest of the gifts. I got a tablet!!! (Happy dance.) Way to go Marc. Annada is excited she can watch movies on it when we fly. I can use it to make calls overseas too.

The cake survives to be eaten.

We finished up by decorating Jesus’ birthday cake, singing happy birthday and eating it. Annada put all of her new toys to bed and Daddy read to her from a new magazine he ordered for her called High Five.

As I was singing to Annada I asked her what her favorite part of Christmas was. “Eating candy,” she said. I asked what her second favorite part was. “Being with Daddy and Mommy… and opening presents.”

When it was time for bed, Annada cooked her trains dinner, set the table for them, read them books, put toys around them so they would not be bored if they woke up before her and asked me to sing them to sleep. Then she put cheese sticks and water by them so they could have a bedtime snack.

The trains are sleeping to rest their rusty wheels.

This morning the trains sat in her chair with her to eat breakfast :).

Tonight as I was singing Annada to bed (and completely unprompted) Annada said, “I sin. Meme and Pepe sin too. Everyone sins. When did I sin, Mommy?

She paused, but before I knew how to answer she told me, “I sinned when I put the book in my bed after you said enough. When else did I sin?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “You sin when you do something you know is wrong or don’t do something you know you should. But you don’t have to try to figure out each time you may have sinned in the past. When you sin, just ask God to forgive you.”

“But what happens?” She asked.

“God promises to forgive you,” I said. “It is in the Bible. God said that when you ask Him to forgive your sins he will wash you white as snow.”

“Please wash my sins white as snow, God!” Annada called out.

Then she asked, “Will I change colors, Mommy?

“No, God washes the sin out of your heart. It is a story way of saying He totally forgives you. The Bible has other story ways of saying it too. God says your sin is as far as the East is from the West – further than anyone can go. In another picture way of saying it, God says your sin is buried below the ocean.”

“God squeezed my sin down under the sea,” Annada said confidently.

Playing at the park with Debra.

Annada explains that Christmas and Easter are about Jesus… because he gave us candy.

A few days ago, I was walking with Annada and talking with a friend. Suddenly Annada let out a frustrated scream. At that moment I realized Annada had been talking for quite some time and I was ignoring her.

I looked over and she had tears in her eyes and her hands were in fists. I decided to silently give her my attention for a moment to give her a chance to calm down (and I did feel sorry I’d ignored her so long).

“You are NOT being obedient, Mommy!” Annada yelled. Then she put her hands over my mouth. “I do not want any more words coming out of your mouth. I am trying to tell you about Peter Pan and it is your time to listen!”

Now I was trying really hard not to laugh, so I still didn’t say anything. Plus I felt like I was having a mirror held up to my parenting.

“Listening means you are not talking, Mommy,” Annada followed up.

(In case you are curious, I decided to tell her I was sorry for ignoring her and then told her if I was ignoring her again to say excuse me. And if I still didn’t respond, she should pull on my arm or hand in case I didn’t realize she was trying to get my attention. She smiled, gave me a hug and then began telling me about how the Peter Pan ride is scary because you fly and feel like you will never come down or may fall.)

Annada loves Christmas lights. Before bed she likes to walk around our neighborhood and look at the decorations. While a few neighbors have lights, most do not. Living close to the largest Christmas light display in America, I decided Annada needed to see a real light display.

Cuddling with Christine during the American Idol show.

Our neighbors, Brett and Christine Butcher came with us. Annada loves both of them and it was fun to do something together. We headed to Hollywood Studios.

Entering the lights. Yes, we are excited.

I knew there had to be a lot of lights, but whoa! There were a lot of lights. Over 100 angels alone. It was impressive almost to the point of seizure inducing.

And there was “snow.” Disney makes the most amazing fake snow out of bubbles. It looks so real I caught myself shivering a couple of times. It is a really strange sensation – my head was telling me to bundle up, but my body knew it was 70-something degrees.

Annada immediately started trying to eat the snow, of course.

The lights were set to music. As we walked out, we watched the fireworks at Epcot go off. It was really beautiful.

After lunch with Cinderella we walked around Magic Kingdom. When we saw the tea cups, Annada asked me if she could ride them. I looked and thought there was no way she is strong enough to spin the cups so I would be fine.

Ride #1.

Wrong. Annada not only can spin the cup she has Aunt Erica’s love of trying to spin really fast.

Ride #2.

As soon as the ride stopped, Annada wanted to do it again. The line was small so we got on the next turn.

Ride #3.

When she begged to do it again after the 2nd ride I thought about saying no. I was feeling sick. But she was so happy I jumped on again. This time Annada spun the tea cup once then put her head down. Whew! I out lasted her. She just sort of swayed through the third but didn’t try to spin the cup. She said she wanted to go a 4th time, but even her request was said softly. We moved on.

Annada has discovered the tea cups. My plan is to let Daddy ride them next!

We ended the night by watching the lighting of the castle.

For Annada’s 3rd birthday, I decided to take her to eat lunch in Cinderella’s castle. I had to reserve it months ago and I’ve been excited ever since. I even had a hard time sleeping the night before we went.

I started the day by mistakingly thinking we could take the monorail to Magic Kingdom from Hollywood Studios, so we ended up walking, catching a bus and then the monorail. But we still made it in time to talk to the ugly step sisters before heading into the castle.

Annada connected with Anastasia and kept talking to her even as we were taking the picture.

We walked into the castle and stood in a small lobby. Cinderella was there and there were no other guests, so she talked to Annada for at least 5 minutes – maybe 10. Annada was awe struck and shy. Cinderella was very kind.

The castle lobby

After we took a picture with Cinderella and a few more guests came in, we sat down to wait to be called up stairs.

This was my favorite moment: Annada cuddled up next to me on the bench, threw her hands above her head by circling them and said, “Coming here is a wish come true!”

I love this picture because it shows how Annada shows the number 2. She has always done it like that. She is telling Snow White that she is two-years-old.

Then they called us upstairs. We walked into the dinning room and were seated near the door. They were just announcing the princesses by telling their stories and then having them make a grand entrance to their theme song. Annada was having a hard time staying in her seat and not running to great them.

As we ate “our servant” brought us a wishing star and magic wand. Later we had a wishing star ceremony complete with music and twinkling lights. I was impressed – it was really fun. Annada ate sitting backward in her chair so she could see everything.

Soon the princesses came to see us. Annada was too star struck to talk much except to Ariel who asked Annada who she was. Annada told her she is Princess Lavender. I explained that all the women in our family have secret princess names and Ariel said, “I want to be a princess too! I mean, um, a secret princess.”

Ariel and I laughed but Annada was very serious and suddenly confident. They talked it through and came up with the name Princess Rose Petal (she couldn’t be Princess Rose because I am Princess Rosebud).

Last came Belle – Annada’s favorite. Belle took a long time with Annada and let Annada hold her hand as they talked. Then Belle kissed her and Annada covered her cheek with both hands with glee. She continued to cradle her cheek until dessert came.

Then I saw…

Belle's kiss!

It was hard to convince Annada to take a bath the next day and wash it off.

Make your own cupcake and ice cream. Annada was a happy girl.

Then we went downstairs and talked with Cinderella again. We retook the picture because the first one didn’t turn out. I’m glad it didn’t because Annada was happy to see Cinderella again. I had told Annada we would have lunch with Cinderella, so she was concerned that Cinderella wasn’t actually at the lunch. Getting to see her again seemed to satisfy her.

Annada told me that after that Cinderella was tired and went to take a nap. We ate dessert then left.

Resting where Cinderella had been.

On the way out we stopped where Cinderella had been. Annada wanted to sit where Cinderella had been, but I think she was really tired because she laid down for about 10 minutes. She was awake, just resting. She seemed very content.

It really was a wish come true. Happy birthday, Annada!

It’s almost Jesus’ birthday, so in my neighborhood it is time to party. We have 6 parties to go to just related to our job! And that doesn’t count the ones I declined for sanity’s sake. I love it – God among us. What better reason is there to celebrate?

Our team proposed going to WDW and having dinner together for our Christmas party. We put aside a little money each month to have a social and never found time to do it. So they voted to combine it all. WDW does most of the work and we enjoy our team? I was a huge fan of the idea.

We ate at the German Bier Garden. I will admit being a little skeptical, but it was awesome. Yes there was pickled herring (no, I did not eat any) but the food was good. And there was a band and dance floor. It was perfect. Annada and the William’s kids danced (and me, but shhhhh) while we talked.

Annada found a little girl who was also wearing a Belle dress. Annada walked up and started holding her hand. The little girl pulled away twice, but then gave in. They held hands for the rest of the night and I think Annada really made a friend.

The two Belles - they are holding hands in the picture.

And the show was good. I am always surprised at how clearly Disney talks about Christmas. In the show they told the story of how Silent Night was written, complete with encouraging kids to yell “Jesus!” throughout it. Then they encouraged us to sing the song with them.

After the show we went to the Candle Light Processional. Again, I felt like I was in church. Michael W. Smith read the incarnation story from the gospel of Luke and even talked about betting his life that Jesus is the answer we are all looking for. It was a hour of scripture and hymns and incredible music that ended when everyone stood for the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

The only bummer is that we were rained on the whole time. But it was that good – it was worth getting soaked.

Then we watched the fireworks which was great. I always choke up when they say “Peace on earth, goodwill to men” in each language represented in Epcot while lighting up that area. It hit me twice as hard this year as we heard the languages of places we had been this year.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'” Luke 2:13-14

At Epcot. While Annada wanted to see Santa, she is also leaving nail prints in my arm. There is no way she was going to touch Mrs. Claus.

This year Annada understands Christmas = presents. She walked in on me tonight looking at a Cinderella play set. The look on her face was priceless and she ran in with awe. She cuddled up next to me and said,

“You can get me all the princesses for Christmas! I will be patient.”

A few days ago she saw a Princess Tiana pez dispenser she really wanted. I told her it was Christmas time so she had to be patient and wait and see if it would be in her stocking (of course, I bought it). Since then she thinks the key is patience.

Every once in a while she starts telling me about how on Christmas she will get presents “of trains and princesses.” Then she will throw her hands up, “Because it is Jesus’ birthday!”

Tonight when it was time to go to bed she ran down the stairs and away from her bedroom. I called for her and was surprised to see she had made it all the way downstairs in the time it took me to look for her. She started calling excitedly, “I’m coming Mommy! I’m coming!”

I could tell she had some very serious Annada business to do and wasn’t just running away, so I let her come back up the stairs on her own. She had a pen and a piece of paper. I asked her what she was doing.

“I am making a list of what to get you for Christmas, Mommy. You can have a Little People play set. It will look like this (Annada draws a picture). You have to be patient though.”

(You know, it just dawned on me that she said that because I was trying to convince her she wanted a Little People playhouse instead of a princess castle. I told her I thought the play set would be really fun. That sweet girl!)

Marc came over so I asked, “What are you going to get Daddy?”

“I am going to get Daddy a little iPad.”

Marc yelled/laughed “Score!”