Continuing tradition

This was my first Christmas without my mom — always a difficult milestone. We have our Christmas traditions with my parents (in addition to our own family traditions with The Husband and The Girls, of course), but I was curious how much would change this year, as my mom was typically the one to lead such traditions.

My dad decided not to put up a tree this year, and I can’t blame him, really. That does seem like a lot of work when you’re the only one who will see it. He did, however, use his sense of humor and taped a gift bag that had a picture of a Christmas tree on it — and called that his Christmas tree. 🙂 On the bricks below, he set out the “stockings,” which really ended up being plastic grocery bags for everyone.

Actually, it was the stockings that I was most curious about. My mom loved shopping to fill the stockings, and she always found the neatest things, so I was going to be a little sad if my dad didn’t continue that tradition, but I also understood if he just wasn’t up to taking over the task. I considered asking him if he was going to do it, but then I didn’t want him to feel pressured to do it if he hadn’t planned on it. I considered asking if he wanted suggestions on stocking stuffers for all of us, but I didn’t want him to feel offended and think I didn’t think he could do it on his own. So I mentioned in passing that I’d be buying stuff to fill his stocking, and I prepared myself beforehand for either outcome.

I was very pleased when I walked in the house and saw the grocery bag “stockings” sitting in front of the fireplace. While certainly not the same without my mom, it was so nice to sit together and open these little goodies with each other. For me, it helped me feel like a part of her remains with us.

Without further adieu, my dad’s Christmas tree and stockings:

Shapes!

The Little Sis very quickly got the hang of pulling items out of her stocking on Christmas morning, opening the wrapped gifts from Santa, and proclaiming to the rest of us what she’d received.

The best reaction all day was when she opened a package of ponytail holders. Excitedly, she declared: “YAY! I got circles!”

Santa time

Last weekend we took the girls for their annual visit to Santa. Not surprisingly, The Little Sis did NOT want anything to do with the jolly ol’ elf, so no picture of them together. The Big Sis, however, was very happy to have a chance to share her wish list with him, and we were able to pick a picture of her that shows her recently missing top front tooth!

Wordless Wednesday: School pics

Wordless Wednesday: Tooth pulling

This ‘n’ that

I found out that our dollar movie theater was playing The Wizard of Oz this past weekend, so I offered to take The Big Sis to see it. I gave her two choices: We could get popcorn and candy and call that dinner (the movie was at 5 p.m.), or we could get something small at the movie and grab a quick dinner after the movie. I thought for sure she’d go for the popcorn and candy option, but she did not. As she told me, “Because popcorn just isn’t a very healthy choice for dinner.” What the heck, kid?! I mean, yay for her! But what the heck?

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The Big Sis lost her third tooth last night, her top right central incisor. This one has been very wiggly for weeks, and despite trying to pull with string on two different occasions, she had no real luck with it until last night. She’d tried for a good 45 minutes before bed but we eventually had to give up. Around 9:45 p.m., she called out for me, and I went in and she said she was pretty sure it was almost out. I let her get up, and within a couple of pulls, she finally had it out!

I was sort of sad at her first two teeth being gone since it changed her look so much, but this one hasn’t bothered me for some reason.

Her top left central incisor is also wiggly, though I don’t think that one is coming out for a while. All she wants for Christmas (at the moment) is just one of her front teeth.

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The next time I get the idea to make Chex Mix and Christmas cookies, please — someone stop me!

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A couple weeks ago, The Big Sis read a story in school about Sarah Hale, who led a letter-writing campaign to get Thanksgiving recognized as an official holiday. For one question, she had to answer, “Who was the hero of Thanksgiving?” Her answer: “Sarah Hale was a Thanksgiving hore.” Cracked me up.

Also, she had to answer which president made Thanksgiving a national holiday. Her answer: “aper hand linkens” (translation: Abraham Lincoln)

Fizzled fo-shizzle

Well, I fizzled at the end of Noblopomo, as my sister and her family were in town, but we were at my dad’s house basically the whole time, so not much downtime at home. Oh well — I did pretty well during the month, especially since the blog has taken a lower priority over the past year or so.

Some random thoughts and tidbits:

*We’re still not in what I would consider an active potty training stage with The Little Sis, but she took a huge leap forward over the weekend, staying dry all day on Saturday and Sunday and wearing training undies for most of that time. We’re considering sending some extra undies and extra clothes to daycare tomorrow to see how it goes there. I find it hard to believe that she’d be potty trained THAT easily, but I think it’s probably worth taking a chance.

*My apologies if this offends anyone, but it’s frustrating when people travel with their dogs, then it creates a problem for others. My sister and her family drove 11 hours with their 1-year-old (read: full of energy) German shepherd. I will say that he IS a good dog — and will be even better when he chills out in a few years. However, The Little Sis happens to be going through a stage where she’s scared of big dogs getting in her face (despite being fine with our golden at home), so needless to say, it was quite stressful when the dog would come her way (or heck, even look at her), and she’d completely freak out. On a good day she wants to be near me all the time, so she was super clingy to me when the dog was around — not so great when I’m trying to make a big meal in the kitchen. In fairness, they did send the dog outside a lot of the time when she was screaming, but they couldn’t keep him out all the time, so it was incredibly stressful for both her and me. All I could think is that I could’ve enjoyed the weekend so much more if they had just left the dog at home.

*We have a seasonal outdoor ice skating rink in a downtown park, and yesterday I got brave enough to take The Big Sis ice skating, just the two of us. I hadn’t been skating in at least 15 years (maybe longer) and she hadn’t ever been, so I wasn’t sure how it was go, but it was GREAT! Yes, she fell down a lot, but she got right back up and was actually a natural. At times, she was going so fast and pulling ME around! I only fell once in our 90 minutes on the ice, though that one wasn’t so great because I ended up falling on top of The Big Sis, which got her crying and we had to sit out so she could calm down. But aside from that one incident, it was SUCH a great time together, and she wants to go again soon with The Husband.