Christmas season

Christmas was a blast this year. Makayla was so into it. She wrote her letter to Santa and was so excited to see his reply come in the mail for her. In her letter she asked for a Thomas the Train game and some cars. Once the letter was sent, she became a bit more specific in that she wanted a race car game. I wasn't entirely sure what she meant by this, but it was evident that it was important to her because that is what she told everybody when they asked what she wanted for Christmas.

The season started off with Makayla's dance class. Usually the parents are not allowed into the room to watch the kids, but we were allowed on the last class before Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them. I was impressed at how well Makayla follows the teachers. She is really interested in this class. I also took some videos of the dances and when I put them on our TV, Makayla will actually dance to them. We've struggled to get her to show us some of the things she's learned, so this was also a nice treat for us.
Later on in the week, her preschool class had their Christmas party. I wasn't aware that we were supposed to invite grandparents and such (I went alone). I just figured it would be kind of like the tap dancing thing and the parents were allowed in to see how the kids were doing. They got up on stage to perform the Christmas songs they had learned, and this is how they were positioned when they first got up on stage. Makayla has the 2 boys from the class glued to her sides. The teachers wanted to fill in the gap so they asked Hayden, the boy on the left to move into the middle. He said "No, I want to stand beside Makayla." Then they asked Connor, the boy in the middle to move down a bit. He also said no, that he wanted to stand beside Makayla. So from the audience, I ask Makayla to move down a bit.

And the boys stuck right with her. They performed their songs, or I should say, the teacher performed the songs while the kids stood and looked at her.

Here is Makayla having a snack with her best buds Connor and Hayden. Even the teachers told me that she is their little tomboy.

One of the highlights of our Christmas tradition is the trek out to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree. Unfortunately it was freezing cold this year so Makayla didn't want to stay out there long. We cut down the first nice tree we found. Clay made an attempt to look for another nice one, but with Makayla practically crying to get back in the truck, we decided to just stick with the first one. It turns out that this was a wise decision because the tree was absolutely the most beautiful one we've had in our 10 years of marriage.

Here is Makayla before she was completely frozen.

We cheat and use a chainsaw to cut our tree down.

Now we just had to load it on the truck.

On Christmas Eve, Makayla's sitter had a Christmas party for the kids. I was already off work but we did make a point to attend since I knew that she had invited Santa to come. Here are all the kids at the party.

I hesitated to take Makayla to the mall to sit on Santa's knee since I didn't think that would go very well. Once I knew that Santa was coming to this party, I decided to avoid the mall altogether. She was fine with sitting on his lap, but I really think it was because her pals Hayden and Josh jumped up on his lap without any trouble and she was going to follow suit.

The funniest part of her seeing Santa was when my mom asked Makayla if she'd seen Santa at the party. Makayla answered yes. Then Nana asked her whether Santa gave her anything. Makayla said yes. Nana asked her what he gave her. Makayla's response was "Not a race car game" which she said with a little pout. I reminded her that Santa was coming to our house that night and he may be planning to leave the race car game here.

Makayla being cute on the floor.

Makayla, Daddy and Snoopy on Christmas Eve.

Makayla and Mommy in front of the beautiful tree.

Makayla standing in front of the new electric fireplace. Cookies and chocolate milk (as Makayla requested for Santa) on the mantle.

On Christmas morning Makayla woke up to find that Santa did bring her a race car game (one of those tracks with the cars that go around using the remotes). She was ecstatic! She also loved her Leapster (which she began calling her DS) and her absolute favourite thing has to be the Candyland game my sister gave her. I can't even count how many times we've played that game since Christmas day.

We went to a pot luck party on Boxing Day for all of our close friends and their kids. It's an annual event and so much fun. This was the first year when I didn't really have to hover around the kids since Makayla was good to go on her own. The hosts' daughter is a few months younger than Makayla and totally into Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies, Littlest Pet Shop, etc. Makayla doesn't enjoy playing with these toys at all. Give Makayla a toy car and she's good to go. So the girls got out the Polly Pockets and such to play with. They handed one of the dolls to Makayla while they all played. Makayla held it for a second and then laid it down on the table and said "My girl is sleeping" and walked away. She spent most of the evening playing with the 5-year old son of one of our friends. They alternated between drawing on the Magnadoodle and playing the kids laptop.

We visited some of my extended family in Campbellton just before New Years. My grandparents still live there. My uncle and some of his family traveled from Ontario while those of us in the province drove up to see them. It is a 4-hour drive which I wasn't looking forward to but Makayla was a trooper and never complained during the whole drive up and back.

We spent New Years with our neighbours and had Chinese food. We were going to let the kids stay up until midnight, but Makayla fell asleep on the couch around 11. Our neighbours' son made it to midnight though. We had a great time.

Completed rec room

Our rec room was completed just shortly before Christmas. We are so happy with how it turned out. The two things we wanted for the room were an electric fireplace to warm it up a bit since it is in the basement, and a new TV. With the generosity of our parents who gave us money for Christmas, we were able to get both.