Dec 11 2011
An Early Orlando Christmas
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.”