Santa

Here comes Santa Claus! This statement used to evoke shear panic and terror in Katelyn. She's always been one of those kids who screamed and freaked out when you try to sit her on his lap. This year, FINALLY, she sat willingly on his lap, went right up to him on her own. We took her to Downtown Disney (good to know: you can take your own pictures for free with Santa!) and waited in line for about half an hour. She had been practicing what she was going to say to Santa and that morning when I told her Santa would ask if she's been a good girl, she confessed "well, I haven't been napping!" Katelyn's request to santa has been changing every day since Thanksgiving...everything from another dog to a guitar (no!) to a brother. The last few weeks it's stayed consistent...a goofy toy. Luckily, being in Downtown Disney, we had quite a selection! We walked through the stores and she selected a goofy stuffed animal she really liked. We told her to ask Santa for that toy. While we were waiting in line, "santa" secured the goofy toy. The funniest thing about the whole day, was right after she got off of his lap, she ran over to me, threw her hands in the air and whispered to me, "so, where's the toy???" Had to explain you have to wait until Christmas morning. And you know how waiting goes over with three year old, but she took it well!

Catching Up

Long time, no blog! I'm so sorry I've fallen so far behind. All that comes with preparing for Christmas has kept us very busy and I've become the queen of unfinished projects (knitting my first sweater, getting caught up on K's scrapbook, organizing music on my new IPOD, and BLOGGING!). We're trying to get everything wrapped up (literally) by Thursday, when we leave for Cleveland and it's been a challenge!

Since we're celebrating Christmas in Cleveland (please have snow this year!), we celebrated an early Christmas with my side of the family in Tampa. On this side, we each draw a name and become that person's "secret santa." My sisters and I usually end up spilling the beans before we exchange gifts, so there isn't much of a secret, but it's still fun. We had dinner together (with our traditional Christmas Crackers and paper hats), then opened our gifts. Katelyn opened her presents before dinner and went crazy for a cleaning cart my parents bought for her. This cart contains a working vaccum, mop, bucket, and broom. I wish they were real...my house would be spotless! She is still playing with it every single day (2 wks. later).

Bryan, Katelyn, and I will exchange gifts on Wednesday at our house, then pack up for Ohio. The great thing about Christmas in Cleveland is we actually several days of Christmas!

We hope you are doing well and I'll try to get blogging more often!

Disney

Bryan was awarded two free park hopper tickets to Disney World for raising so much money for the heartwalk last fall. We had to use the tickets quickly so we could still pass off Katelyn as "almost 3." We decided to go on Saturday, that way we could see the parks decorated for Christmas and we beat the Christmas tourist rush, plus the weather is just awesome. Bryan hasn't been to the Magic Kingdom since 2001, so it has been a while. Katelyn and I have been very fortunate and have been together several times, but I was looking forward to have another adult! We arrived around 10am and Main Street was packed!! Turns out, ABC was filming the Christmas Day Parade (will be shown on Christmas morning). Regis and Kelly host, but we didn't see them. In fact, we didn't see a thing and were directed a back way into the park. It was pretty crowded! Katelyn LOVES to walk through Mickey and Minnie's house, so we did that and Bryan took her on her very first roller coaster ride (Goofy's Barnyard Coaster...a kiddie coaster). They got the first row and she loved it! As soon as she got off, she said she wanted to do it again! They also rode the race cars together, Bryan let her steer (although he said she needed some help with the steering!). We grabbed some lunch (okay, that took a long time, crowds were nuts) and rode some more rides, then left for MGM. MGM has a Christmas light show like you've never seen. It's amazing...3 million lights and they dance to music, plus the pump out fake snow and it looks so real. It's pretty awesome! Again, it was really crowded, so once we saw the lights, we were ready to go home. Problem was our car was at Magic Kingdom. We saw the line for the bus to MK was VERY long, so we thought we were taking a shortcut by hoping on a bus to hote, then grab a MK bus from there. Great in theory, but the bus took forever to come to the hotel, then dropped us off at the front gate of MK, not the parking lot, so we had to take the ferry boat back to the parking lot. It took an hour and half to get back to our car...all of us starving and tired. Katelyn held it together quite well, I must say. It was an exhausting day, but so much fun to be together.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

On Friday evening, we decorated our Christmas Tree and home. This is the first year Katelyn had any interest or opinion on where things should go. Every tree we've seen so far has a star on top, but we have a Santa tree topper and she didn't understand why we don't have a star as well. She's been very good about staying off the tree (although she did tell me she wants to climb to the top. When I told her no and the tree would fall over, she said, "so, we'll just pick it up."). While we were decorating the tree, Bryan and I asked her what Christmas was about. To our suprise, she mumbled something about Jesus. We talked about baby Jesus being born on Christmas and tried to get her to understand that it's not just about the presents she gets. In school, she made "a donkey." It's a picture of Mary riding a donkey, but all she got out of it was there's a donkey. We talked a bit about Mary, but she is still struggling to understand. I have a nativity book I'll read to her and we'll keep talking.