Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

So much to tell! First, here are the little crazies in their holiday jammas.

So this year I was totally on it - at first. The tree's up & stockings are hung, but that's about it. Last year I went all out, but now that Christmas is in a week & a half, I don't even care. I am proud about the tree though. Many times in past years I've wanted to put up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving or even the first weekend in December, but it ends up being halfway through December. So this year I got the tree out on Sunday after Thanksgiving. Of course it did me no good since our crappy pre-lit tree was not lighting! After about 1/2 an hour of checking bulbs I said forget it & decided to wait till after my walk the next morning to run into WalMart & grab some new lights. I don't know if all pre-lits are so crappy, but we've had problems with ours for the past 3 years! In the past though I've been able to find the problem bulb before a 1/2 hour was up! In the tree's defence, it was only like $60 the day after Thanksgiving 5 years ago, so maybe cheap tree = stupid lights. Anyway, Callie was going nuts Monday afternoon waiting for me to finish putting on the lights & garland & ribbon so that we could get down to business. She was a very good little decorator! At first I just had her hand me decorations. Soon she was telling me where to put them. And before long she was going to the tree to do it herself. I didn't have to rehang much of what she put on - she must have her mom's flair! :) She did at one point talk about how Grandma Darcy had made our tree (not true of course). I told her Grandma Darcy was really crafty. She said, "Yeah, Grandma Darcy's crafty. I crafty too mom." Yes she is! She's certainly not lacking confidence! The other night I said to Jack, "You're so stinkin' cute!" Callie immediately followed up with, "Yeah, I so stinkin' cute too!"

We went to our ward Christmas Party 2 weekends ago & Callie was SO excited to see Santa! Our Santa was comical. The guy who was going to wear the suit (an older man who would have been great) went to put it on & the pants wouldn't fit over his thighs, so the next several minutes were spent stalling the children & looking for someone to fit the suit. But none of the kids knew the difference. Callie had been talking all day about seeing Santa and was just so excited! Santa gave all the kids candy canes so now Callie mentions daily that she wants to see Santa & get a candy cane. We've told her about the naughty & nice thing but until very recently hadn't been using it against her! So before we even started blackmailing her with it, she was in time out one day & crying out, "I nice! I nice! I not naughty!" I love it! I think we'll be able to use the naughty & nice thing for a while past Christmas since she's still talking about trick-or-treating! Jack was very hesitant about Santa, but in the end was accepting of the Jolly Old Elf. I think he's not quite old enough to be terrified like Callie was last year, and hopefully next year he'll think he's great like Callie does this year!

So now I'm working on finishing presents, and getting everything in order so we can have a fun, stress-free last few days before Christmas. I really wanted to take Callie to the Grand Canyon Railway so that we could ride The Polar Express, but when I called in November to get tickets for this month I sadly learned that you have to buy your tickets a year in advance! That's insane! They did have 3 dates in January still available, but who wants to see Santa in January?! I called a few days ago to book our tickets for next year & my first choice was also already booked! For next year! But anyway, for anyone who wants to ride The Polar Express with us next year, call & get your tix now! We're going Friday, December 14th at 6:30pm. I can't wait! It's too bad though! Before I knew that we wouldn't be able to go this year I'd told Callie all about it so she's constantly saying she wants to ride the train & see Santa.

Well the kids are both up now & crying to be fed so I'd better go. But Callie would like to add one last thing:

edrfasdfghjkl';;p'

:)