December Daily 15

Today we went out to Victoria Gardens for Santa pictures with our good friends Roxanne, Reagan and Riley. While there, I hit up the Pottery Barn store. Love that place, but have learned my lesson. Do NOT take children in there. It ruins the experience. PB is definitely a place I like to stroll through and there is no strolling at Christmas time with a 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old in a stroller. The girls got to pick out their 2009 ornaments. Both got snowflakes. Hannah picked hers and I grabbed Makaela's because it was something I could hand to her in the stroller that she couldn't break.

Here's Hannahs:


Here's Makaela's (that center piece that says 2009 on it spins):

So here's the Santa pictures from earlier today. Hannah was pleased as punch to sit with him, but Makaela was clearly having none of Santa. Poor guy. He truly is the nicest, most lovable Santa ever. {sigh}



Then we tried for some group pictures in front of Victoria Gardens tree and my Christmas spirit dashed off. I even mentioned to my friend with me that this is why I hate taking my kids in public. Because I feel all I do is yell at them. They would not sit still, hold a smile, look at the camera, or stay in front of the tree. At one point I caught Hannah pulling up the netting in the grass that used when they plant sod. I am sure I looked like a wonderfully attentive parent, there in the middle of the square with my kid ripping up the grass and me not noticing until she'd gotten about 5 patches pulled up. I told her "Santa is NOT happy, and neither is mommy!"

This picture here does crack me up though ... a range of all expressions. One screaming, one forcing a smile, one not sure if she should smile, and the other purely enjoying the whole thing. Where was she when it was time to sit on Santa's lap. Maybe she was enjoying watching me almost melt down.

And then these lovelies, who wouldn't sit still, decided to run off and then shout for me to snap a picture of their cute pose. Couldn't do this in FRONT of the tree huh girls?!

On the way home I decided I need a serious attitude adjustment. I have decided that each time I find myself getting frustrated, grumpy, or overwhelmed, I am going to think about what in that situation is good. For example, pulling my hair out trying to get pictures of the girls when all they want to do is run and give goofy smiles: (1) my kids are healthy enough to be running around (2) that I have a camera to take their pictures (3) that I have the luxury of not having to work every day so I can make a spur of the moment trip to see Santa (4) that I can afford pictures with Santa (5) that my kids smile -- even if they are goofy ones. So I am going to try this. As for the woes of my family and how it affects Christmas ... at least I have multiple family to gather with at Christmas.

Here's something that makes me happy each night and each morning. We don't turn it off during the night and I just think it's so pretty and festive. I bought a prelit garland from Bed Bath and Beyond for $10 (with coupon). Then I raided my stash of Christmas items and hot glued them on. The picture doesn't do it justice but I really like it.

And then, as if the day was not crazy enough, the whole family piled into the car at 6:30 and headed to Disneyland. I figured we'd get into the park at 7:30 and leave by 9:00. It was a Tuesday night and most kids are not out of school just yet so I figured the crowds would be manageable. Once we got into Main Street, everything backed up and I thought for sure we had gotten stuck at the begininng of a parade. And I depserately tried to hold onto that fleeting Christmas spirit once again. Much to my surprise, we arrived just in time for a little "show" where they animate the lights on their huge tree, a song plays, and it SNOWS!!! It was perfect! Unfortunately, my theory on the crowds was wrong. We went on Haunted Mansion and then tried to get over to Small World only to find that they had closed it for fireworks. It was now 8:30 and I thought the fireworks show must begin at 9:00 so we decided to wait. Ummmmm ... the show didn't start until 9:30, but we didn't find this out til 9:10 and after already waiting 40 minutes, we couldn't very well walk out now. So we stayed. It was a good show. I've seen better from Disneyland though. Needless to say, we didn't get to the car til 10:30 and home til 11:00. It was a quiet ride home as Joel (1) doesn't particularly like Disneyland, but sucks it up for me and the girls and (2) had to work the next morning and thought we would have been home by 10:00.