A Different Kind of Christmas

Christmas looked a lot different for us this year, but keeping my mind focused on making it the best possible Christmas for Anna Claire helped make sure it was a good one.

I would be lying if I said there wasn't a moment my heart didn't ache, missing my dad and having Christmas at my parents' house, seeing my mom mobile and having my siblings and nieces around us. It is hard.

But having kids is such a blessing and such a wonderful, heart-warming distraction from myself. I put my whole heart into making Christmas the best I possibly could for my little girl. And for my mom, knowing that she would probably experience some inevitable depression spending her first Christmas away from her home of 50+ years and having few if any visitors.

I have to say, we had a great Christmas with Larry's family last night. Anna Claire loves her cousins on her daddy's side (and by cousins, I include Marie and Sean, for sure!) and we had such a special dinner and time together. It was needed and a welcome escape from what otherwise could easily have become a pity party of one, nostalgic for what Christmas used to be.

Christmas morning was something I've planned for and dreamed about for months, imagining the precious smile and reaction from Anna Claire with every present opened. I am sure, like many parents, I went overboard, but she is far from spoiled during the year. For Christmas, by golly, we spoil this child. If it was her heart's desire and Clarksville, TN didn't offer it, I was researching every night in search for "that" special item. My effort and care was rewarded this morning, with such sweet smiles and genuine excitement. My favorite moment was when she said, "This is the best Christmas ever!"

Santa came!

This was the #1 thing she asked Santa for: Gymnastics Dora :)

She racked up!

This was either the 4th or 5th wardrobe change of the morning...Santa brought AC a Disney princess costume trunk!

Today we didn't plan to do presents and have lunch with my sweet Momma, but that is exactly what we did. Anna Claire said this morning, "I wish Meme could be with us at our house for Christmas." Me too, I thought. So we headed to Signature and let Anna Claire open some Santa presents there for Momma to see. It was the best thing we could have done. She loved, as we did, seeing Anna Claire's genuine excitement and joy with each package she opened.

Larry also went down to dietary to see if we could have lunch with her, and they fed us for free in the fine dining room. The food was amazing, and beautifully decorated for Christmas with holiday linens on the tables and holiday place settings and glasses. It felt really special.

Anna Claire's Video from Santa 2012

 Love Portable North Pole!
 http://www.portablenorthpole.com/watch/gqSq7g4glLChDrb23RczWFQ

Our Christmas Card 2012

Sending out Christmas cards was one of those things I was going to let myself off the hook for this year. With all three of us being sick, and caring for Meme, and training to be somewhat professional at work while missing many days, I just decided it would be fine this year not to. But Anna Claire has talked me into it as she has seen cards come in from family and friends, "Mommy can we do picture card too for Christmas?" How can I say no. Here is our card for this year. Hope you like it!

Anna Claire's Letter to Santa, 2012

A few weeks ago, I helped Anna Claire draft her letter to Santa. Since then, we've added and deleted a few things, "Mommy I don't want that anymore. I want ____ instead." ;)

Items in bold have already been secured by Santa and will be under the tree for her Christmas morning. I'm also pasted a link to an Amazon wishlist I started for her that might give some other ideas for friends and family:

http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3QAI6V8DCRMZ9/ref=cm_sw_r_pi_ws_Qy.Xqb00NXRNX

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good girl this year. Please bring me a gymnastics Dora, a ladybug that does a light show, Team Umizoomi counting book, new PlayDoh (lots of them), Barbie that lights up (just like Amy), Babar books, pink puppy Stompeez, chalk paint for the sidewalk (lots of colors, hopefully rainbow). I hope I get lots of pink leotards and clothes. I would really like a Mickey Mouse ball. Disney princess dresses and The Little Mermaid DVD. Big Cinderella and big Aurora doll. Lalaloopsy, the one with the blue hair.

I really would like a camera that takes real pictures and a pony.

We will make a cake for you Santa. I think you like chocolate cookie cake.

Thank you, Santa. I love you, Santa.

Love,

Anna Claire Averitt

Funnies

Anna Claire on what to wear to Ellie's birthday: "All my girls are gonna wear tutus."

Anna Claire on Mommy coughing too much: "Mommy I don't want you coughing on this day."

Anna Claire on eating: "I'm eating my meal of lunch."

Dance Performances at Nursing Homes

Anna Claire had her first dance performances today. To participate, parents had to purchase a $50 sweatsuit. It is a very nice sweatsuit, with her dance studio's logo on the shirt and pants, and yes, we are encouraging her to wear it often to justify the purchase price!

The two performances were at Spring Meadows and Signature Health, both within 10 minutes of our house so that was convenient. The first performance unfortunately coincided with her friend Ellie's birthday party. I, along with a couple other parents, had already promised Anna Claire she could attend the birthday party prior to committing to the performances, and being a parent who keeps promises to her child, I let her do both.

The way we handled it was to skip nap altogether (which we'd regret later). We went to the birthday, only staying for an hour, leaving right after cake. It felt rude in a way, but the mom of the birthday girl was a fellow dance mom so she realized she had scheduled it at a conflicting time and was understanding.

We were able to make it to both performances in plenty of time and got her changed into the right gear in the process.

Watching the girls prior to the performance was almost as sweet as watching the performance itself. It was very crowded in there with residents, staff, kids and parents, making it very hot, especially for the girls in those sweatsuits, but they behaved awesome and were having a ball. Amy led the girls in swaying and dancing while they waited for their turn.

The Spring Meadow performance was so sweet. As one of the other mom's put it, "You can't get much sweeter than babies singing about Jesus." Several moms and me had tears in our eyes by the end of the Away in the Manger performance.

By Signature's performance, the need for nap was evident and emotions were flaring. Amy's swaying was no longer received well by the other girls, and all the parents were cringing at our babies rolling around on that dirty floor in $50 electric white sweat suits.

By the time our girls performed, Anna Claire and Amy were tired and put out with each other. Amy decided she didn't want to stand by Anna Claire during the performance because she wasn't doing the dance moves and ran away from her during it. Anna Claire followed Amy who continued to move away. Amy finally had it and pushed Anna Claire to the floor at the end of the performance. Ta-da!

The girls are back to being best friends again. By Wednesday Anna Claire was asking to draw pictures for Amy, so that is a good sign.

I am currently having issues loading videos/pics from my phone to my computer, so once I get this straightened out I will add the dance videos to this blog post. :)

Christmas Parade 2012

Anna Claire had two choices: She could be in the parade and ride with her dance group, or she could watch all of the parade and get candy. She opted to get candy and watch the parade. And so we did.

Without realizing it, we picked the perfect location for viewing the parade. We were situated at the beginning, which was great for several reasons: the folks riding in the parade are still pumped and excited, they are very generous with candy, and we get to beat the rush when the parade is over with very little traffic. I think we will always choose the parking and standing location we picked this year!

Anna Claire was old enough this year that we let her run and grab candy, with one of us going with her to make sure she didn't go too far out into the road. We let her participate in candy grabbing at the St. Patrick's day parade, but this experience was so much better because she didn't have twenty plus big kids vying for the same candy as her. In fact there were only two other children on our block, and they were about the same age as Anna Claire. If we got a bunch and they didn't get any from a float, Anna Claire would share with them. And they did the same. Like I said, it couldn't have been any more perfect.

This marshmellow totem pole of gummy skulls wins the prize for weirdest candy thrown at the parade, and also her favorite.

One float gave out tiaras to all the little princesses! A hit! I think the biggest hit was the float that gave out mardi gras beads. Anna Claire was so proud of her "white necklace." She wanted to wear it to church the next day.  She is sporting both in this pic :)

Many people came by and handed us candy rather than throwing to make sure she got some. So sweet.

Going to See Santa

We talked to Anna Claire about going to see Santa for about a week before actually taking her. When we first mentioned the idea, she asked to see the Caillou Christmas episode where Caillou is brave and sits on Santa's lap, but Rosie is scared and is too little yet. She would say, "Mommy I'm gonna be brave like Caillou." She also asked to draw a picture for Santa just like Caillou (which we did). She requested to watch the video again several times over the course of the week. Caillou has been awesome because the episodes expose her to experiences she's not had yet, while building an enthusiasm and exciting picture in her mind of how it will be that I just couldn't paint myself with words.

The day we went to see Santa, Meme was in the hospital. We went to go visit her first, where we were able to spend time with her Aunt Cindy, cousin Connie and Andrea, and sweet 2nd baby cousin Vivian. Once Daddy arrived at the hospital, we were off to see Santa.

Not being a huge fan of the mall, I debated on whether to take her to see the Flower Lily santa next week, but something told me to go ahead and do it now while my sister and niece were able to spend time with Meme. Plus, Caillou went to the mall to see Santa, and when Anna Claire talked to me about going to see him, she would say, "I go to the mall to see Santa just like Caillou."

The line at the mall was not bad at all. We waited maybe a half an hour. Anna Claire was very patient and sweet in line.

I brought my own camera to take candids of her on his lap and read the disclaimer while in line that I may only do this with the minimum $20 purchase. So of course we got the minimum purchase.

 She was so excited to see Santa. She was very brave and not scared a bit. She proudly presented her drawing and told Santa just what she wanted. Santa asked her to tell me to please make him chocolate chip cookies.

My only disappointment with the experience is that I cannot find the 2 5x7 pics we purchased anywhere. I am thankful I had my camera because we still have the memories captured forever. Otherwise, it was a perfect first visit with Santa.