Santa's Here

I have to admit, I'm in love with Charlee's faces she makes when Santa is near.  She gets super quiet and focused on whats about to go down.  She doesn't talk, and moves real slow, and I always think at any moment she is going to start crying terrifying tears... but she did good and if the lady at Santa's Workshop would have been paying attention instead of answering questions from people in line, or checking out the previous visitor she would have gotten a good smile.  I asked Charlee to smile her big girl smile and we would be all done... and she smiled perfectly... and Santa's helper wasn't paying attention... so annoying.  We even waited until she got the previous person all taken care of so she could get her finger ready to pull the trigger... and she blew it... several times.  I wasn't impressed with her. And why in the world would you only have ONE lady taking care of questions, snapping pictures, checking people out, and printing pictures... ??? Really, its Christmas & Santa... get it together.

And the kicker... cheapest package $15.00... One 5X7 - Merry Christmas!!

I think she was telling him about her Elf Lucy. Gavin went all out when he was "warming" her up to him. Good thing it was up to him, last year it was up to me and she cried for the picture. Looks like daddy is in charge of Santa's pictures from now on.

Candy Making

Charlee was going with her daddy and MiMi and Papaw to a family Christmas party while I went to work a few weekends before Christmas.  I heard she had a great time when I called to check on them.  And I'm in LOVE with the shoes... thanks Nina. She looks so big in this picture I can hardly stand it.

We go to the Kost's for candy making every year before Christmas and this year was a rough one.  Mo Mo Kay hasn't been feeling her best lately and a recent infection took a toll on her mentally and physically so she needed the extra love and attention this year to "get her in the spirit".

Mackenzie and Momma went over to get her all dolled-up for the event and she looked the best she has looked in a long time. She acted like she was enjoying the day but I'm sure she was just enjoying the little ones being there.

Oh... the girls are playing with a New set of Princess barbies that Charlee discovered in Nina's room the night before.  Nina let her open them couldn't tell her no, so the girls had some new toys to play with while everyone else was hanging out making some candy.

TROUBLE..... You can see it in their little faces!

Why are the stairs so amazing to toddlers?  I don't get it.....up and down, up and down, we finally had to put the stairs to bed!

We distracted them with a singing Santa hat.

Grandpa Jack, Mo Mo Kay and their babies! Jackie, Janet, Karol, Karen, Kathy

Group shot.

When the masses left Charlee passed out from all the stair climbing and dancing (obvious from the above picture) and Mo Mo Kay snuggled up with her while she napped.  This never happens anymore (naps), so when she's out... its usually because she had a long fun filled day.  She in return was up for a while before she went to bed that night... I remember, because we were on the wrong track for Christmas Eve festivities...

The Polar Express

The day after Thanksgiving (well maybe 2) a special visitor came to visit directly from the North Pole.  The door bell rang and Charlee thought it might be Danielle, or Poppy... then she went to look and saw the box and said "Its Christmas" and that IT was.  Daddy was hiding in the bushes (who rang the doorbell) recording her reaction.  We brought the box in and started to read the story.  Charlee loved pointing out things on pages, but the story part she could care less about so we emphasized the important parts:

1. She is from the North Pole, Santa sent her.
2. You need to give her a name.
3. You cant touch her, or her magic will go away. (She reminded us every time we saw her)
4. She likes to hide in new spots when she comes back every night.
5. Oh, and you need to be good so she can tell Santa to give you lots of toys. (She didn't really care about that last part) 

So Charlee thought her name should be Dolly, or Toot... so we helped a little and came up with Tootsie.  Daddy registered her and the next morning we looked for her and she called her LUCY, we corrected her for a few days... and then we just went with Lucy.  So after a few days Lucy was no longer confused with all the names.

Here is Lucy:

I will be excited to see how she is with her next year because "using" Lucy for discipline tactics didn't work.  I hoping next year she will care if Lucy rats her out for going to time-out three times in one day.  I'm pretty sure Gavin and I liked hiding her just as much.  We couldn't get really creative because we didn't want to tempt her to touch her, then I would feel like crap.  So she stayed up high on trees and lights and ledges.  I wanted to put her in the Little People nativity scene but Gavin said no.  Next year we will start the shenanigans... I cant wait.

The Polar Express

 

 This was Charlee's outfit that she wore to the Polar Express.  She looked like a little angel and loved her twirly skirt.  She kinda likes when I straighten her hair now, she will pose a little. Its so cute.

 

 We have to go through a few shots before she will smile.  I have to get a "sad face" picture, a "mad face" picture, and then if I'm lucky she will give me "happy face" smile:

 

 This is a shy smile.

 

 Seriously don't mind the house in shambles behind her... good lord.

 She was in a smiley mood this day... it was the skirt.

Ha Ha and here is the kicker, I totally left the skirt on the floor in the living room when we left. Gavin reminded me when we were about half way there. Epic Fail as a mom.

 Warning Grandpa Walt: She still has a paci... sorry, she loves it. I'm working on it.

 We drove to Connersville 1 1/2 hrs away. Very boring drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lala got her a special snowman for the trip to the North Pole.

 

 I loved the steam...

 

 

 This is the Hobo that was on the top of the train from the movie.

 

 

 

 She is handing her ticket to the Conductor to punch it, (like the movie) he punched a 2 in Charlee's.

 

 

 

 There was music playing on the train and she was in rare-form! She likes when she has all eyes on her.

 

 All of our Christmas Jammies.

 We piled all the kids on the back seat and tried to snap a decent picture. Our party had about 50 people in it. We took up half a train car.

 Lala and Charlee

 Santa finally came to see my girl. As soon as the big guy (well he was super skinny, and probably 19 years old - a little disappointing) got on the train she darted for me and didn't take her eyes off him.  She was silent and just stared at him.  There was a few seconds where I thought she was just going to lose it and start crying, but she held it together and managed to mumble "toys" in response to his "What do you want for Christmas?"

 This look is priceless....

 relief now that he has moved on to Gaeton.

 Oh wait... he had something for mom:

 "Sad face" again...

 "Mean face"

 This is her Special Bell Santa gave her.

The Polar Express was a success, Charlee like it, so I liked it.