Flashback Friday!

Tis the season, so I will share Christmas past photos. The kids have been watching me do these and Girly thinks I am her. When I tell her it is me as a little girl she asks, "You were a little mama?". I have been asked this quite a bit by her lately. It is fun to see and hear her thought process as I tell her about each picture, or share a toy from when I was little.



The above picture is me with Santa when I was 1 1/2 years old. We had a good relationship. The picture below is Christmas day of the same year, me in my Christmas Dress that my mom made. Based on the carpet, I am thinking this was at my Grandma McKean's basement. Who knows why I am crying, I'm one. But I love the dress and my gold bracelet that I wore until it wouldn't fit any longer. The bracelet is up in my jewelry box. I wish you could see more of the detail in the dress, it had a lot of detail, from the ribbons woven into the lace, the two tiered dress, the sleeves matching the bottom tier. Christmas is always a fun day and a tiring day for little ones.

You'll shoot your eye out!

So much has gone on in the last few days but I will tell you about tonight. Our great neighbor up the street had the First Annual ____ Street Christmas Party. With a Santa. I couldn't believe they were going to have Santa there. This family's youngest child is 10. How nice of them to invite everyone on the street including young CHILDREN. I almost forgot, after RSVP'ing last week. I found the invite on my counter while I was cleaning it off to roll out pizza dough for dinner. So I ran to the store to get the items to prepare the salad I was to take. We told the kids what we were going to do, and that Santa was going to stop by. E was great with this. "Good, I will tell him I want a Wii." Girly, " I don't like Santa. You can like Santa but I don't. I will stay here." I told her to come, play with the other kids and she doesn't have to even look at him when he comes.

After some time, Santa walks in. Apparently he doesn't have to knock, just always an open invitation (be warned, he might walk in to your house unannounced). Girly about falls backwards and runs over to me. We sit and the very back on the stairs. She then asks her dad to take her out to look for the sleigh and reindeer, not there, must have dropped him off. Then she and her dad sit on the couch near all the children who are attentively sitting at Santa's feet, listening somewhat patiently as he reads a book. Then, Santa invites the first kid up. After listening to the list of wants, he give the child a little tin of candy, a candy stick and makes this awesome hat from balloons. Girly moves on to the floor by E.

A few children later, E is up. "I'm E." "May I have a Wii?" Santa was great, "Wii's are hard to get this year, I will try my hardest." Good enough. Candy, candy stick and a balloon sword.

A few children later, Girly pops up there. My jaw drops. "I'm Girly." She tells him what she wants, I couldn't hear it, but E tells her she wants a Barbie. "A Princess Barbie please." Okay. Candy, candy stick and a red teddy bear balloon.

Such a fun night. Our street rocks. C is no longer afraid of Santa. But tonight, she went to sleep telling us she is a reindeer, putting her hands as antlers on either side of her head.