she's not much of a Santa baby

I started the week off feeling festive and in the best Christmas mood. I played Christmas carols all morning and made AB a felt tree to decorate. I wrapped gifts and watched a Hallmark movie.

Then Thursday rolled around. I spent all day trying to get my nativity characters to stand up instead of falling onto each other and Jesus. I was so fed up with my tree being crooked that I tried to fix it and the whole thing went crashing down. It was like a slow-motion scene in a movie. I saw it falling and my arm went out to stop it three seconds too late.

"Oh dear. Oh dear. What a mess, mama. Oh dear."

What's that they say about Christmas being all calm, merry and bright?

Saturday we went to a Christmas cottage to see Santa. Annabelle wasn't feeling her best but the celebration must go on. We waited in line for about twenty minutes while I talked up the cottage and how fun it would be. We could almost taste Annabelle's excitement.

The cottage was beautiful. It was about the size of a postage stamp and decorated from top to bottom with snowmen, reindeer, a mantle and stockings, a tree and a train chugging around a track attached to the top of the wall. Unfortunately I didn't get to take it in as much as I wished because AB, who kept telling us she was going to see "San-ta Caus", got petrified the second we walked in the cottage and wouldn't let go of me. 

I find this picture much more entertaining that I should. Poor Belle Belle is saying, "I DOE YIKE IT! I DOE YIKE IT!" Santa is looking at us like he doesn't get paid enough for this (it was a free event so he didn't get money from me) and I'm all "This is so fun, AB! Look at his beard! Look at his pretty suit! Smile for the picture!"

(Speaking of his beard, in an attempt to get her to stop crying I almost pulled Santa's beard. I was this close to reaching out and pulling at it. I don't know what came over me. Noticing that he had glittery eyeliner on to make his eyes sparkle startled me into good behavior.)

It may not have been as picture perfect an event as last year but it was memorable.