December Revisited

CHRISTMAS DECORATING

You'll notice there are only three pictures of the event and that Leah is in only one. She was manning the camera most of the time.

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTYLeah tried so hard to be okay with seeing Santa. She just couldn't bring herself to be more than one foot close to him.

JUNGLE JIM'S PLAYLANDFor her preschool Christmas party, Leah went to Jungle Jim's. Leah talked a big game all morning, saying how excited she was, but her timidness got the best of her once the cashier tried to put a stamp on her hand. This threw her into hysterics. Leah immediately turned on the water works, really it was more of a fire hydrant complete with screams of hysteria. I pulled her aside and asked her why she was scared. I told her it was okay to be afraid sometimes but it's also okay to try new things. I told her that we were going to try each of the rides one time and if she thought it was too much after that we would think about going. Leah agreed to this and off we went. We found her friend, Jane, and got in line for the first ride, an airplane contraption that goes up and down. I felt so bad watching her stand in line so nervously. I decided to employ the Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down system to give her something else to focus on. She agreed and entered the ride. Leah held on so tightly for that first ride, but when she got off we got (drum roll, please) ONE BIG THUMBS UP. The other rides were a lot easier for her to go on and she did every single one of them without me next to her, some of them she even went on completely alone. Leah even tackled the roller coaster, which is a variation of the Music-Go-Round at Lagoon. She loved it, although not enough to go on again. It was really fast. I was so proud of her. Leah's confidence is really coming a long way these days.

THE FIRST BIG SNOW OF THE YEARI don't know how many inches it was total, but all this happened overnight. I believe I took the top picture about 10 in the morning and it continued to snow, literally, all day. Leah has been ecstatic about the snow this year. She's also very helpful in taking snow from the lawn and putting it in the shovel as we're trying to clear the driveway (and when I say we, I mean Matt).

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG - AKA OUR BIG FAMILY NIGHT OUTOh, you cannot imagine the excitement that surrounded the opening of the newest Disney Princess movie, "The Princess and the Frog." Matt and I decided to make this a big night out for Leah. We took TRAX downtown (I'm still disinfecting our hands), ate dinner in the theater at the Gateway, and finished the night with the lights at temple square. Leah is still talking about it.

CHRISTMAS EVEI got the Make-Christmas-Eve-Your-Own bug in my veins this year and we decided to start/continue a few traditions for our big Christmas Eve celebration this year. 2009's Christmas Eve was complete with lots of baking, eating, and togetherness. That day Leah and I made candy-cane cookies and jelly-filled donuts. Some were for Santa and some were for us. I've never been much of a kitchen whiz, but I have to say: the cookies were delightful and with a tiny bit of tweaking the donuts will be absolutely perfect, although they were pretty good anyway.
We celebrated that evening, first with Matt's family at Red Lobster (boy, do I love crab legs and lobster) and then had a smallish gathering with my family. I don't know how it happened but someone convinced Leah that she should be Mary in The Nativity, a feat I'd been trying to accomplish all day. And she did it! I think it's because a lot of pink was involved. She kept saying she was a Pink Mary, not a blue one. Whatever works, right? After singing carols it was time for the big PJ Event and then family pyramids.

Leah had so much fun putting out cookies, donuts, and chocolate milk for Santa. It was a wonderful day and night.

CHRISTMAS DAYChristmas was spectacular. Leah was a doll. She was so excited about everything. I cannot put into words what her joy makes me feel. It was such a perfect day to be with each other and with our families.

SNUGGIE FUNThis happened Christmas Day, but deserves a collage of it's own.
My siblings and I go in on one big gift for our parents. As we were emailing back and forth trying to decide what to get them when one of my sister's jokingly said, "Let's get them Snuggies." Another sibling mentioned, "Hey, I've seen them in animal print we could get dad leopard print!" And thus. The Snuggie gift was born. My parent's were such good sports about it, as you can tell. It's a good thing my mom only reads blogs once every 9 months or so.

Oh, and they also received a beautiful clock. But really, could any gift top those Snuggies?
The gifting of the Snuggies has spurred on the idea of a new gifting idea for the McGee's. Stay tuned for next Christmas to see if it really happens, I'm REALLY hoping it does.