Santa, Ho ho!

Jill is loving this season just as much as we are. We went to get our tree last weekend, and we put it up while she was asleep. When she came down in the morning there was the tree, and she was mesmerized. She loves it, and she gets so excited when we plug the lights in at night (which at this time of year is about 4pm). "Tee!" she yells and touches it gently. It's very sweet.

She has also discovered (through her favorite tv shows) Santa. She knows he says, "Ho, ho, ho!" You can see her version of saying it in the video below, "Ho, ho!". We took her to see Santa yesterday, and she wasn't sure what to think. He was at the gift shop of our local nursery, which was great because it wasn't crowded. He was sitting right inside the door with no one around. Jill smiled really big when she saw him and said, "Ho,ho!" When he answered back, "Ho, ho, ho!" I thought she was going to go crazy from excitement. She didn't want to get too close, so we just walked around the store taking pictures, and coming back every so often. He knew her name, so it helped that he called out, "Hi Jill," every time we got close. The only bummer was that there was a CRAZY (totally white trash, smoker, nasty) woman carting her little dog around. The dog was dressed in a winter sweater and Santa hat, and every we got near Santa she would bring her dog which would start barking and Jill would get nervous. Then her even more white trash (I didn't think it was possible, but he was worse: mullet, Larry the Cable Guy T-shirt over a sweatshirt, ugh) husband came over and they chatted up Santa for a REALLY LONG time. The woman kept talking baby talk to her dog about how he was going to see Santa, "tomowwow." Puke! Wew hung around waiting for them to leave, and then Steve took a turn bringing Jill to Santa. He got right in there, way closer than I did, and sat her on his lap!!! I was not expecting that, and neither was Jill because we said we wouldn't force her, but Steve said he wanted me to have a picture. So I now have the stereotypical picture of my child sitting on Santa's lap, crying. Oh well, she didn't really cry in earnest, and she happily waved bye-bye to Santa, so I think she's fine.

Here are some tree, nursery, and Santa pics and videos.

loving the tree

the Mickey Mouse ornament

the Mickey ornament

talking to Santa

first glimpse

not frowning, talking

playing with Daddy

so cute!

Hi Daddy!

running

approaching

handing off to Santa

Daddy, what's going on?

Save me, Mama!

What's Going On?

Traitors!

playing with her kitchen at home