I took these first three pics the night we put up our Christmas tree. We got it at Costco for under $50. Not bad for a huge, beautiful, fresh douglas fir... my favorite kind of Christmas tree. They sold out of them quick at the Costco near us, so we had to go to another Costco to get this tree. That particular Costco had two shipments of trees, whereas the Costco near us only had one shipment of trees.
See moi in the ornament? I take this kind of pic every year.
We put the fence around the tree this year to keep Bailey away from the ornaments and to keep her from climbing it, which I'm sure she would have done given the chance; that girl climbs everything!
I took the next twelve pics the night of Caitie's Kindergarten class Christmas program. She did really well... she was soooo cute. :)
This pic shows all Kindgarten children at her school... somewhere between 60 and 80 kids; not sure of the exact number. Caitie is on the far right second row on the end. You can't really see her, but don't worry, I got a few close-up shots of her in some pics below...
There she is! She was looking for us when the curtain first opened, but silly us sat on the wrong side... we were told where her class was going to be, which was on the right when facing the stage, but we got inside at the last minute and most seats were taken so we found available seats which were on the left side. I kept waving, hoping she would see us... and she finally did. She smiled and probably thought to herself... "what a moronic mama i have; i wish she would stop waving frantically at me", or somethin' like that. ha Actually, I think she was relieved to see us.
Michael and I both ended up standing for the performance... Michael got it on video, and I took pictures. I headed to the other side to get pics from that angle, which shows more of Caitie. Here they're singing 'Up on the Housetop'.
More singing...
And even more singing...
Still singin'...
I was now back on the other side... Caitie noticed that I moved...
After the performance we gave Caitie the choice of getting a special treat... we thought she would pick a Blizzard at Dairy Queen, but she chose Dunkin' Donuts. She loves that place.
See that fireman there in the background... Caitie flirted with him a bit. She's crazy for firemen...in a cute way, of course. He was nice and said hi and smiled a few times.
I got her dress and the necklace she's wearing at Kohl's. She looked so pretty. I wanted to curl her hair, but didn't have time.
Here she is posing for me in her santa hat and 'shades' that she wore in the program. The first song they sung was the abc song... they did it in a sassy way... acting all cool, and such, that's what the shades were for. Caitie didn't like the moves for that song, so she just sang it; she chose not to do the moves. But she did pose in a 'sassy way' for this pic. I took this pic after we got home from Dunkin' Donuts.
I took this pic when we got home as well. So pretty.
The next day was her class Christmas/Winter party. She had lots of fun. They did lots of crafts and games, ate sweets, etc. They also did a book gift exchange. She got a lot of nice stuff.
We went to the Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo that night. Caitie loves to ride the camels whenever we go to the zoo. I usually ride with her, but she chose to go it alone this time. She saw another girl younger than her go on by herself and she said she could do so as well. Did I miss riding the camel... No! I felt I did it a favor... I don't think it would have wanted my added weight bringing its back legs down to the ground. um, yeah...
Bailey loved the Zoo Lights as well. I took more pics than what I'm showing here... including some of the girls on the carousel, but didn't include them here. Bailey enjoyed it, even though the up and down motion was a bit unsettling for her at first.
We went to a sporting goods store, The Bass Pro Shop, on the east side of town, located in Mesa, to get a free pic of the girls with Santa, but after trying two times... meaning, two trips there, we didn't end up with a pic. Both times the line to sit with Santa was closed. The only reason we went there the second time was to pick up the stroller we left there the first time. We should have known better than to go back at around the same time we did the first time, but we thought it would be okay since it was a Thursday night instead of a weekend night; the line was supposed to be lighter on a weeknight. We weren't too happy, but we did enjoy the first night we were there... the girls got build-a-pet animals, Caitie played a target game, and she wrote a letter to Santa as well. They also rode a carousel that was in the winter wonderland area, near Santa. It had wintertime animals and reindeer. The girls loved it, and rode it over and over again. The animals didn't go up and down, and it didn't go very fast, but they didn't mind. They rode it the second time we went as well; that's about the only thing we did on the second trip.
Here's Caitie on a reindeer on the carousel...
And here's Bailey on the carousel. You can't tell in this pic, but she was on a moose.
Here's Caitie at school on 'PJ Day' on the Friday before Winter Break. It was an early-release day. As soon as we got there Caitie noticed that all the kids had slippers or tennis shoes on... she was the only one with a sleeper with no shoes. I felt like the 'moron mom' for having let her go to school that way. I wanted her to wear PJs, but she insisted on wearing that particular sleeper. A couple of her friends were supposed to wear monkey sleepers as well, that's why I allowed her to wear it, but they didn't end up wearing them. I guess their mothers won that argument. ha Caitie had a good time anyway though, and that's what counts.
We decided to take the girls to see Santa at Arrowhead Mall. We almost didn't get to see Santa then either, but Michael and another lady that was wanting to get her kid's pic with Santa as well, worked it out with the people at the booth, and we all were allowed to get in line, even though it was closed. We were the last ones to sit with Santa that night. I took this pic while in line waiting to see Santa.
I'm glad we stuck it out and got a pic... and Caitie got to tell Santa what she wanted... He was a nice Santa. I think the pic turned out cute. Bailey wasn't too thrilled, but that was to be expected, especially since she won't let normal looking, nice people hold her; one wouldn't expect her to let a big white-bearded guy in a funky lookin' suit and hat hold her. ha They took three pics, and this was the best one out of the three.
We went to Uncle David's on Christmas Eve. Caitie enjoyed playing with this sweet little boy named Josh; he's a friend of the family. They 'played pool' for quite a while, and really enjoyed it.
Little Pool Hustlers... um, yeah...
Bailey played with Caitie's LeapPad for a bit. Pool and video games... gotta love the way the younger generation entertains themselves.
Bailey got in on the pool action too.
We didn't get home until almost midnight... we still had some wrapping to do and stockings to fill. So we got the girls to bed and got to it. I took this pic when we finished, which was around 2am, I believe. We then headed to bed.
Caitie awoke to find Santa left her a puppy in her little stocking. I started leaving a little stocking on her door last year. I, ummm, I mean Santa, put a little doll in it last year, and this year he left a puppy, which she loved. This is how we make sure she goes to sleep right away the night before so we can get the wrapping done, etc... I tell her if Santa comes and checks in on her and she's not asleep, that he might decide to leave without leaving presents. That's when I decided to leave a little something in a small stocking on the door handle. Caitie loves that part.
I took pics while they opened their gifts, but I had to take them fast, and most were blurry, so I didn't include them here. But I did want to include this one... Here's Caitie with a doll she got from Santa... can you see how it matches the girls' sleepers? I didn't notice when we bought it that it matched their sleepers... I had other sleepers I wanted them to wear, but forgot to make sure they were clean before Christmas Eve, so they wore their purple sleepers, which is Caitie's favorite anyway, and I was glad I did when I saw how they matched what the doll was wearing. I even let them wear them to the grandparents house that morning since Caitie took the doll along. Bailey was wondering what the hey was up with another baby bein' in the picture... she was a bit concerned... ha
Here's Bailey with her grandpa... he was wheelin' her around on her new little bus toy.
And here she is napping not long after... near the Christmas tree.
I took Caitie to the little park across the street from her grandparents house... Yes, I took her in her sleeper... we didn't care. It was beautiful out.
I even took her for a quick walk around the neighborhood. She's a bit big for this stroller, which I now use for Bailey, but we decided to give it a go anyway. We looked a bit silly, but we didn't care.
And that was Christmas for us... How was your Christmas? I hope you had a happy one. :) And I hope you remembered to include the real reason for the season... the birth of Jesus Christ, in your celebration. I read books to Caitie explaining what the true meaning of Christmas is... and she even made Jesus a birthday card, which I thought was really sweet.
