Santa's Slip

Merry Christmas to all!

It's been a wonderful Christmas day.  I am now eating the delicious, leftover mushroom and zucchini quiche from last night's dinner and my little Christmas elf is sleeping.  The fire is blazing, Norte is dozing and Mama is at work so the house is quiet except for the clacking of my typing.

This year might have been my favorite Christmas yet despite Santa's slip.  Angelines and I were sure to buy each other a little something from Santa.  Do you remember last year's fiasco: Angelines running off to buy presents last minute after Emily was so devastated that Santa had apparently forgotten us?  This year we were so prepared. It turns out our subscription to Amazon Prime was a blessing!  My neighbor has been playing post woman for the past month receiving all our packages for us while we've been in Granada during the week and then delivering them over the weekend (we baked her a "healthy" tray of Christmas cookies as a thank you).  And still, with all our preparation, this years slip was worse than last year's: Emily discovered her Christmas present!!

We ordered her a huge doll house, which required about an hour's worth of assembly.  Being so on top of things, I put it together the night of the 22nd.  I left it in a closed room upstairs...but didn't think to cover it with anything.  On the 23rd Emily was calling me when I was in the patio sweeping leaves.  When she heard my distant answer, she went upstairs looking for me.  From the patio all I heard was the shout, "A giant toy house!!"  I panicked and called her downstairs after throwing down the broom and racing inside.  Meanwhile, she was running down to call me up and show me this amazing discovery of her's.

I am against outright lying to my daughter...even if it is about something fun like Santa Claus.  I prefer not to play it up and when she asks questions I usually ask them back to her as a way of avoiding the answer.  She asked who it was for and I asked her who she thought it was for.  Her answer, "Eloise and Jibril?" (my co-teacher and her son, who stayed in that room at Thanksgiving) made me laugh despite how upset I was. I told her it was a present for her from Mommy and Mama, but that it was supposed to be a surprise and I was sad she'd discovered it ahead of time.  I explained that at Christmas sometimes we hide presents for a surprise and asked if we could pretend she was still surprised.  I also told her she couldn't have it until Christmas day.  Bless her, she didn't even try to go upstairs again.  Instead, she took some of her toys and hid them  as presents from her. ;)  Hiding gifts was apparantly an attractive game to play.

This morning when she saw the doll house together with other presents from Santa, her first question was, "Did real Santa bring them?".  I asked her what she thought and she decided that he had.  Later in the day, she asked again if real Santa brings the toys or just a person dressed up.  I asked what she thought and she said it was a person dressed up.  I said maybe that was true.  Then she started trying to guess who it was...

Despite the slip and the questions, this year was still a favorite because Emily was so happy about her presents and so excited to give us the things that she had wrapped with Ga over her autumn visit. It's just so wonderful to see how truly "Christmas"-spirited she is.  She really isn't obsessed with the gifts, there's no post-unwrapping let-down, she loves watching us open ours, and truly enjoys the morning.  I know that for some kids/people, Christmas without Santa isn't fun...or loses it's magic, but I really feel as though Emily doesn't really care too much about Santa and I hope to keep it that way simply because enjoying the giving and the togetherness is really what Christmas is about and Santa can easily turn into a distractor from those true holiday values.

Last night, as is now tradition, my mother-in-law ate Christmas dinner with us.  Before dinner, she and Emily watched Frosty the Snowman (the old 1960's version--a personal favorite) and The Grinch (also the animated 1960's version).  Then we sang and danced and laughed until Emily couldn't keep her eyes open.  After she was asleep, however, Angelines and I enjoyed our meal and dessert while being regaled with the most outrageous stories of La Rodian (sp??) history/family history.  Abuelita was in a storytelling groove! Angelines didn't take her home until past midnight.

Once again, it was the togetherness and really just enjoying each other that made me feel like it really is Christmas.  Today we ate lunch over at Tita Toñi's house and after a wonderful afternoon bike ride with my girl and my dog, primo Francisco came over to watch Moana with me and Em.  Finally, we topped off the day with a quick skype call to Sierra Valley.

I hope your Christmases have been as merry and well-spent.  I'm going to get at least one more blog in before the new year.  I promise.  But for today, I just wanted to focus on our lovely Christmas celebration.

...And to all a good night!