christmas morning

SANTA CAME TO NANA'S HOUSE! are those my CAPS or violet's? you decide.

obviously we'd been prepping her for this moment in various ways, but i think the real linchpin was a viewing of "max and ruby's christmas" in which santa comes down the chimney and leaves gifts. she'd seen this in books of course, but the animation really brought to life the narrative that the fat old man we met at disneyland, after dispatching alfie the elf to spy on her and report more nice than naughty behavior, had flown to nana's house in a sleigh with rudolph at the helm, descended our chimney while we slept, and left a bunch of presents!

we waited until the end to watch her open what she'd specifically asked santa for, and i'll never forget her reaction, from the moment of dawning on her face to the gleeful sprint around the entire house. kevin swept her up before she went careening into anything, but she could not stop smiling.

so i mean, sure, i jest, but the whole thing was irresistibly fun. we weren't sure if she'd really "get it" but man did she ever. her imaginary life has skyrocketed to the point that it probably comprises half of her waking life, so the santa experience was a perfect complement. christopher robin helps us carry our umbrella. gus gus, jacques and mary all needed their fleeces zipped this morning, and we had to hold lulu's brother's legs while he peed (seated) on the toilet before we could leave the house. last night we were driving home in the dark, glumly surveying the sea of headlights before us, and violet vehemently exclaimed that she was going to LASSO DA TAFFIC so that she could go home and drink hot cocoa with schroeder!



90% of the time, she wants to include us in her games (by which i mean demands that we play and micromanages our involvement), but i already get choked up thinking about that day in the future when the Do Not Disturb sign is scotch-taped to the bedroom door.

we spent a week at my parents' house, which may be the longest we've been able to hunker down in PQ in the almost 9 years that kevin and i have been together, and it was SO NICE. christmas day itself was a small affair this year, and the biggest disappointment for violet was that "my big kid cousins nick and noah couldn't come for kiss-mas," which is the first thing she told teacher roxana upon her return to school last week. i think i speak for everyone in my family when i say the highlight of xmas 2012 was a dancing cat:



other highlights for violet included: vanilla;

her first massage (with my mom's physical therapist esther);

hilltop park / greatest park in the world;

and the gingerbread house sent by grandma linden. we didn't want to desecrate the godliness that is the cleanliness of nana's house, but the first thing we did back in LA was dive into this baby.

 there's no symbolism here, none at all. i hope your 2013 is off to a good start.