New Addition

Our newest niece, Marta Anne, arrived yesterday up in Petoskey. Since we clearly haven't seen her yet, this has mainly only resulted in Annie changing the name of the baby she births from her tummy from "Dinah" to "Mawta." We hear all is well, and we can't wait to meet her next week.

Today was Annie's last day of school until after the new year. They had a blow-out Christmas party, complete with cookie-decorating, acting out of the nativity story, presents, and a bona fide visit from Santa himself. (This is good, because I am a bad, terrible, horrible mother and have not made time for us to shlep to the mall to "see Santa.") Here's our resulting conversation on the way home from school today.

"How was school today? Did you have fun at your Christmas party?!?"
"No, I just sleeped." (WTH?)
"Really? Because I heard that Santa was there! Did you get to see Santa!????"
"Yeah, I did!"
"Did you sit on his lap?"
"Nope, I just sat in a chair next to him."
"Wow! Did you tell him what you wanted for Christmas?"
"Yeah."
"Did you tell him you want a high chair and a swing for Dinah and Gracie?" (This is the Christmas present she's been asking for since November.)
"No, I told him I want a TV."
"What? We already have a (giant, obnoxious, ridiculous) TV at our house, Annie!"
"I just want a pretend one that isn't fragile that I can play with."

Ooooooookaaaaaaaay.

Annie also brought home the gifts she'd made for us today. At lunch, she gave me a little lecture about it:

"Now, Mom, there are two things in that bag. Yeah. They're a surprise. And I made them for you and Dad. So you can't open it now because Daddy isn't here. But you can peek in the bag. Just a little tiny bit. Cause I said it was OK, you can just peek at it after lunch. It's a candle and an angel."

And we opened it tonight, and it was a candle and an angel. We made a big deal out of them of course - hung the angel ornament on the tree and smelled the cinnamon candle with glitter all over it. I wish I could box the proud look on Annie's face when we thanked her for her adorable gifts and then peek in the box when it's hard to remember what being a parent is all about. Tonight, it's about being so incredibly awed that the tiny being you made with the person you love the most in the whole world is turning into someone you are so proud of. I hope the rest of our Christmas moments are as pure and lovely as this one was.

Now, if only I could find a pretend TV for about a dollar . . . .